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Uppittu

A savory semolina porridge cooked with oil, mustard seeds, ginger, garlic, onions, tomatoes, green chilies, and lemon juice.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Uppittu

Ingredients

Directions

Toast the rava

  1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok or suitable pan.

  2. Add the rava and stir with a spoon until it starts browning, coating the grains with oil to prevent sticking.

  3. Set the rava aside and let it cool.

Make the base

  1. Heat the remaining oil in the same or another pan.

  2. Add the mustard seeds and wait until they crackle, then add the onions and fry until golden brown.

  3. Add the ginger and garlic and stir for a few seconds.

  4. Add the tomatoes, green chilies, and the remaining vegetables, then pour in the water and add enough salt to taste; turn the heat to medium and simmer until the vegetables are cooked but still crisp.

Cook and serve

  1. Turn the heat to low and start adding the rava to the water, stirring continuously to avoid lumps.

  2. Cover the vessel and let it cook for a few minutes, stirring every 20 seconds or so.

  3. Turn the heat off, add the lemon juice, and mix well.

  4. Serve with chutney, sugar, pickles, or other sides.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

212Calories
3 gProtein
14 gFat
22 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 11 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Mustard1 tsp (5g) yellow3
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Seednot in our table0
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Mustard + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Upma rava
Semolina forms the body of the porridge; toasting it in oil helps keep the grains separate.
Onion
Frying until golden adds sweetness and savoury depth to the base.
Water
Hydrates the semolina so it swells into a soft, porridge-like texture.
Tomato
Adds moisture and mild acidity that brightens the base.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity at the end, sharpening the overall flavour.

The step that matters

Adding the rava to the water. Pouring dry semolina into simmering water while stirring constantly disperses the grains evenly. Dumping it in or stirring too little lets it clump into lumps that stay hard inside.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mustard, ginger, garlic, onion, tomato, pepper):

  1. Limefits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Mangofits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against mustard, ginger, garlic, onion, tomato, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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