Paneer Poha
Flattened rice or rice flakes is known as poha in hindi and aval in tamil. Poha upma or aval upma is one of the easiest and healthy breakfast variety that can be made in a jiffy. I make this upma often at home, at least once in ten days. I have made many varieties of poha upma, when I used to make for my children’s lunch box as they were not very fond of the traditional recipe. Since I was making for their lunch box, I made it more wholesome by adding sufficient protein like chickpeas, peanuts, roasted gram etc and lots of vegetables (please check my website for the recipes).
Yesterday, for breakfast, I made paneer poha upma. I made some small changes in my usual recipe and I was very happy with the outcome. Paneer Poha upma is a perfect lunch box option as well as a quick evening snack. Including paneer in any recipe is one of the best options to increase the protein content of the meal as paneer is a source of complete protein for vegetarians. This Paneer Poha, like all my recipes is very easy to make and requires only the basic ingredients available in our kitchen.
| Preparation time | 20 mins |
| Cooking time | 15 mins |
| Cuisine | South Indian |
| Servings | 4 |
| Author | Anuradha Balasubramanian |
| Keywords | Poha, paneer, aval upma, |
Ingredients
| Ingredients | Quantity |
| Poha (rice flakes) | 2 cups |
| Paneer | 100gms |
| Onion | 3 medium- sized |
| Carrot grated | 1 cup |
| Green chillies | 2 |
| Ginger | 1 inch |
| Curry leaves | 2 sprigs |
| Coriander leaves | 1/4th cup |
| Lemon | 1 |
| Coconut (grated) | ½ cup |
| Turmeric powder | ½ tsp |
| Pepper powder | ½ tsp |
| Mustard | 1 tsp |
| Split urad dal | 1 tsp |
| Chana dal | 2 tsps |
| Coconut oil | 2 tbsp |
| Salt | 1& ½ tsp (or to taste) |
Method
- Wash poha 2-3 times. Add ½ cup of water, ½ tsp salt and soak the poha for 10 mins. Fluff the soaked poha gently and keep it aside.
- Peel, wash and chop onion and ginger.
- Wash and chop green chillies, curry leaves and coriander leaves
- Wash, peel and grate carrot. Grate paneer.
- Grind coconut, green chillies and ginger coarsely. Do not add water. keep it aside.
- Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard.
- When it starts spluttering, add urad dal, chana dal, curry leaves.
- Once the dal turns golden, add chopped onions and saute till it turns pink.
- Add grated carrot, mix well and continue to saute. Add turmeric powder, pepper and salt, mix well and saute again. Cover the pan with a lid and cook till carrots becomes tender.
- Now, add the grated paneer and mix gently.
- Add the poha and mix well. Close the pan and let it cook on a low flame for few mins till all the flavours come together.
- Add chopped coriander leaves and lemon juice and mix well.
- Serve the paneer poha with some curd and pickle.
Nutritive Value per serving
| Energy/ calories | 306 kcal |
| Carbohydrates | 41 gms |
| Protein | 9 gms |
| Fat | 10 gms |
| Fibre | 5.4 gms |
| Calcium | 130 mgs |
Notes
Notes
- To make it vegan, instead of paneer, tofu can be used.
- You can choose to add more vegetables like beans, peas, capsicum, corn or any other vegetables of your choice to make it more colourfu and fibre rich recipe.
- Millet flakes or red rice flakes can also be used instead of rice flakes(poha).