This healthy, instant recipe is that of an Oats Uttapam, which is an easy and nutritious way of making uttapams with oats, sooji or rava (cream of wheat), gram flour (besan) and some vegetables. The recipe is also vegan friendly.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 20 minutes
  • Cook time: 20 minutes
  • Total time: 40 minutes
  • Yield: 2
  • Category: Breakfast, Snacks
  • Cuisine: South Indian

Ingredients

  • ½ cup quick cooking oats (or rolled oats)
  • ¼ cup rava (- fine textured (sooji or cream of wheat))
  • ¼ cup gram flour ((besan))
  • ⅔ to ¾ cup water (or add as required)
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • ⅛ teaspoon baking soda
  • salt (as required)
  • 1 onion (- small to medium, thinly sliced)
  • 1 tomato (- small to medium, thinly sliced)
  • 1 bell pepper (- small, thinly sliced - green or red or yellow color bell pepper (capsicum))
  • 1 green chilli (- chopped or ½ teaspoon, chopped)
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons coriander leaves (- chopped, (cilantro))
  • oil (as required)

Method

Making oats batter

  1. Take the quick cooking oats in a mixer or grinder. You can even take rolled oats instead of quick cooking oats
  2. Grind the oats to a fine flour and take flour in a mixing bowl. If you prefer, you can sift the flour.
  3. Now add the rava/sooji/cream of wheat and besan/gram flour. Also add salt as per taste.
  4. Pour ⅔ cup water. Mix very well and make a fine, smooth mixture without any lumps.
  5. Cover the bowl and let the oats, rava and besan flour soak in water for 20 minutes.
  6. Meanwhile rinse and then slice the onion, bell pepper and tomato thinly. Also chop 1 green chili and some coriander leaves.
  7. On the same chopping board or tray, mix the veggies, chopped green chillies and coriander leaves. Set aside.
  8. After 20 minutes, the batter will thicken as the oats, besan and sooji will absorb water.
  9. I added ¼ cup water more as the batter had become slightly thick. Note that earlier, I added first ⅔ cup water and later added ¼ cup.
  10. Addition of water will depend on quality of oats, besan and sooji. You can add more water if the batter becomes thick. Do add water as required to make a medium consistency batter. If the batter is of medium consistency even after soaking, then do not add any water.
  11. Now add lemon juice. Mix very well.
  12. Then add baking soda. Mix again very well.

Making oats uttapam

  1. On a medium flame, heat a cast iron pan or a non stick pan. If using a cast iron pan, then drizzle ½ teaspoon of oil and spread it with the spoon.
  2. Lower the heat. Take a ladle full of the batter and pour the batter on the tawa. Gently spread the batter to get a round circle.
  3. Now spread the mixed veggies all over the batter. With a spatula press the veggies lightly, so that they stick to the batter.
  4. Sprinkle a few drops of oil on the center and on the sides of the uttapam.
  5. Cook till the base is done. While cooking these uttapams, you can regulate the flame to low or medium.
  6. Then flip it and cook the side with the veggies.
  7. Cook this side till the veggies are lightly caramelized or golden.
  8. Remove and serve oats uttapam hot or warm with coconut chutney or ketchup.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.