I wanted to make something using barley dalia since I had quite a bit left with me from the organic barley dalia packet that I had used to make barley spinach risotto. I looked up recipes for inspiration and found one barley upma recipe. But I didn’t make it for quite a few days after reading the recipe and couldn’t remember how it was made. I decided to try combining my oats upma and barley spinach risotto recipes. Luckily that worked. I am thankful to the author of the barley dalia upma recipe though, for giving me an idea of what to cook. :-)
Luckily this upma turned out well. Devansh liked it; so it was mission accomplished. ;-) I would have loved to add a green chili in the tadka (tempering). But I couldn’t because then Devansh would find it spicy. If you are making this upma for older kids or grownups, you can add a green chili in the tadka to make it a tad bit spicy. I won’t elaborate on the nutritional benefits of barley as I’ve already done that in the Barley Spinach Risotto post. Hope you and your li’l one like this barley dalia upma.
Also See:
More Recipes for Upma by MumMumtime
Dalia for Babies Toddlers and Kids
Barley Dalia Upma Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 tbsp barley dalia you can coarsely grind barley grains in a mixer if you can’t find this dalia
- 1/2 medium-sized onion chopped
- 2-3 tbsp mashed vegetables
- 2-3 curry leaves
- 1/4th tsp cumin seeds jeera
- 1 pinch of haldi turmeric powder
- 1 pinch of hing asafoetida
- 1-2 tbsp homemade ghee
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Wash barley dalia, and then soak it in some water so that it cooks a bit faster.
- Heat a pressure cooker on medium-high flame, and then lower the flame and add ghee. (I have a small pressure cooker so it’s convenient to cook baby/toddler food in small quantities. You can cook the upma in a pan with a lid if you don’t have a small cooker; you’ll just need to cook it for a longer time.)
- Add cumin seeds, and when they splutter add hing, grated ginger, curry leaves, and haldi.
- Add chopped onion, and sauté till the onion turns translucent. This shouldn’t take more than 3-4 minutes if you’re using half an onion.
- Drain water from barley dalia and add it to the cooker.
- Sauté the dalia for a minute, and then add salt and red chili powder.
- Add about one and a half cup of water, and then mix the contents of the cooker properly.
- Close the pressure cooker with its lid, and on medium-high flame build up pressure.
- When the cooker reaches pressure (should take about a minute), lower the flame and allow the upma to cook for 10-12 minutes on low flame.
- Turn off heat and allow the steam to settle till you are able to lift the whistle of the cooker without any resistance, and then take off the lid. (If you want to take off the lid immediately, you will need to cook the upma for a longer time.)
- Check the consistency of the upma; add more water if needed. (We ate the upma with the consistency that you see in the picture.
- I added more water in the upma for Devansh to make it more mushy.)
- Add mashed vegetables and mix them well with the upma. (I added vegetables at this stage because I used cooked vegetables. If you are going to use raw vegetables, you should add them after step no. 4.
- You can garnish the upma with sliced tomato and coriander. (Devansh ate the tomato slices and I ate the coriander.)
