daliya upma ...a great way to a healthy breakfast cereal....

 Daliya is cracked wheat and is an excellent Indian breakfast cereal . Cooked with milk and sugar to taste it was a daily bowl of breakfast when we were growing up . I remember my mom would place a large pot of boiling milk on gas stove and throw in some ghee roasted daliya in it , this would cook for about an hour and the result was a yummy kheer like daliya . I still make that sweet version of daliya but personally i like a savory breakfast . Arvind has also grown up eating that sweet daliya and he still loves it over any savory version so i have devised a simpler way so that he can have his sweet daliya and i can have my savory daliya for the same breakfast .

Daliya takes time to cook as it is a completely raw wheat product . I roast the daliya with a tsp or two ( for 500 gm daliya ) and keep it in an airtight container for a month or so. about 3 tbsp of daliya is enough to serve two , so i soak the said quantity in water for an hour or so . Water should just cover the surface of daliya .
The soaked daliya is then microwaved for 2 minutes, covered. It gets cooked like couscous , may be a bit sticky but that can be taken care of while cooking further.

Now half of this cooked daliya is further cooked with milk and sugar in a larger bowl inside the microwave , sometimes topped with some fresh cream and later with chopped bananas too. This is a breakfast for the sweet tooth.

The other half is cooked in a kadai like upma . A medium chopped onion , a medium sized chopped tomatoes , one chopped green chilly and lots of chopped curry patta . Full of antioxidants and fiber to start the day with .....

Heat 1 tsp of ghee and throw in everything except daliya , sprinkle salt over it and stir fry till everything is mushed up a bit , add the cooked daliya and mix well till it looks like upma . Finish with pepper powder and it's ready within minutes......all of the ingredients can be mixed together and microwaved for another couple of minutes and the result is almost the same ( except the aroma of roasted onions and tomatoes )............

This kind of daliya upma or a tahiri as it resembles a rice tahiri in appearance is liked by the husband for dinner as he says it doesn't look like breakfast to him . So if it is for dinner we love to have it together with a bowl of fresh curds ...

Other savory daliya recipes on my blog...

daliya uttapam

dalya and lentils handvo

baby corn with daliya

daliya/couscous with brussels sprouts

daliya tahiri

daliya methi pulao

pan fried snack balls with daliya and lentils

Hope you start including daliya in your meals with a smile on your face .... i know many of us have daliya like a medicine and i want to make it a happier meal for all .