Bajra upma
Preparation Time
10 minutes
Cooking Time
25 minutes
Difficulty Level
easy
Meal Type
Breakfast
Serves 3
Key Ingredients
- Bajra (pearl millet) flour
About This Recipe
Upma usually starts with rava, but this one starts with a cup of bajra flour. The method is the way millet-flour porridges are cooked: roast the flour dry, build the tempering, boil the water and stir the flour in, then let it steam under a lid. Because bajra has no gluten, the upma stays soft and crumbly instead of turning stretchy or gluey the way wheat flour would.
Roasting the flour first is what makes this upma. It drives off the raw, earthy taste and brings up the nutty aroma, so the finished dish tastes of the roasted grain rather than of raw flour; many quick versions skip the roast and it shows in the flavour. Seven minutes on a medium-low flame, until the flour deepens a shade and smells nutty, is all it takes.
The water ratio does the rest. Two and a quarter cups of water for one cup of flour gives a soft, spoonable upma that eats well with chutney; use two cups for a drier, crumblier one. Carrot and peas are the vegetables here, but beans or capsicum work the same way, and a spoon of roasted groundnuts stirred in at the end adds crunch.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Upma
- Bajra (pearl millet) flour — 1 cup
- Water — 2 1/2 cups
- Salt — 1 tsp
Tempering
- Groundnut oil — 2 tbsp
- Mustard Seeds — 1 tsp
- Cumin Seeds — 1/2 tsp
- Urad dal (split, skinless) — 1 tsp
- Chana Dal — 1 tsp
- Curry Leaves — 8 leaves
- Green chilli, slit — 1 piece
- Ginger, finely chopped — 1 tsp
Vegetables
- Onion, finely chopped — 1 medium
- Carrot and peas, finely diced — 1/2 cup
To finish
- Lemon juice — 1 tbsp
- Fresh coriander leaves, chopped — 2 tbsp
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Serving Suggestions
Serve bajra upma hot with coconut chutney or a spoon of thick curd, and add a little more lemon at the table if you like it sharp. It packs well for a lunchbox and eats well warm or at room temperature. Cooked upma keeps in the fridge for up to two days; loosen it with a splash of hot water to reheat. More breakfasts from the same flour are in the bajra recipes roundup.
Tips for Cooking Bajra upma
Keep the flame low while the flour roasts and stop when it smells nutty and has deepened a shade; darker means scorched and bitter. Use hot water from a kettle so the pot comes to a boil faster. If the upma has firmed by serving time, stir in a spoon or two of the reserved water rather than letting it sit dry. The salt goes in with the water, so the flour steams in salted water and seasons through.
Chef’s Note
Use a heavy kadai for the roast; a thin pan scorches the flour in patches while the middle stays raw. A serving comes to about 250 kcal and 5.6 g of fibre, most of the fibre from the bajra and most of the fat from the tempering oil. A bowl of curd or buttermilk alongside rounds it into a full breakfast.
Per serving (approx.): 250 kcal, protein 5.6 g, carbs 27 g, fat 13 g, fibre 5.6 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Apr 24, 2026
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