Aval Upma (Poha Upma)

     It was a lazy evening & I wished to have something easily prepared. I spotted poha(Aval) and decided it would be the best power-packed and easily doable tiffin. An easy to make recipe with whatever vegetables available at hand. Tastes good and filling even without vegetables too. With poha as the base, many different quick tangy tiffin varieties can be tried out - lemon poha, tamarind poha, sweet poha with coconut & sugar and so long as one's creativity travels.

Prep Time: 15 mins || Cook Time: 20 mins || Serves: 3-4 ||  Category: Tiffin/Breakfast  

Ingredients:
1. Aval (Poha) - 200gms
2. Oil - 2tbsp
3. Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
4. Bengal Gram - 2 tsp
5. Green chillies - 1 tsp finely chopped
6. Ginger - 1 tsp finely chopped
7. Onion - 1 
8. Carrot - 50 gms 
9. Beans - 50 gms 
10. Salt - as required
11. Asafoetida - 1 tsp
12. Lemon - 1

Method:
1.  Wash and chop all the vegetables finely. Wash poha (aval) in water twice and drain completely. Soak with little water for about 10 mins. In a pan, heat oil & add mustard seeds. once they splutter, followed with bengal gram and then chilly, ginger. Add the chopped onion and saute for 2 mins or until transparent in colour. 

2. When the onions are transparent (way before they turn out golden brown), add chopped carrot and beans and give a quick stir. Cook closed for about 5 mins.

3. Add hing & salt and mix well. Cook for 2 mins with occasional stirring.

4. When the vegetables have cooked well, switch off the flame and add the soaked poha. (By now, poha would have absorbed all the water, we had added for soaking.) Mix well with the vegetables, adding the juice of a lemon. Adjust salt as required.

Suggestions:

• Use only thick variety of poha, as the thin variety would loose its form when soaked and stirred.
• For a quick fix version of a light evening tiffin, to the soaked and drained poha, add grated coconut and sugar as desired and mix well. A yummy uncooked tiffin is ready in a jiffy.
• As I did not get green chillies in the market, I used serrano chillies instead of normal green chillies.
• Can fry and add groundnuts for a crunchy bite.

Can garnish with grated coconut and coriander leaves.