JFI-WBB: Green Leafy Vegetables - Methi Upma

Hearty congratulations to Indira on the 1st anniversary of Jihva for Ingredients blog event and making it such a big success. This month's theme is "Going Green with Green Leafy Vegetables" (keeping Earth Day in mind) and Indira & Nandita (@ Saffron trail) have come together to make it JFI & WBB joint event.

To cover all the bases for this event, I incorporated greens for a breakfast recipe and also made it on a weekend. Here's my entry "Methi Semya Upma". This recipe is extremely simple and quick to make.

Ingredients:
Semya (Vermicelli noodles) - 1/2 cup
Methi (fresh or frozen) - 1/2 cup
Onion - 1 large, chopped fine
Green chilies - 4, chopped fine
Lemon juice - 1tbsp
Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
Chana dal - 1 tsp
Red Chili - 1 (optional)
Curry leaves - 6
Salt - to taste

Method:

• Bring 3 cups of water to boil, add semya and salt. Stir well and cook for 2 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water. Keep aside.
• Heat 1tsp of oil in a pan, add mustard seeds and chana dal. Saute till the seeds splutter.
  
• Add onions, curry leaves and chilies. Saute till onions turn transparent, but not brown.
• Add the chopped methi leaves (thawed if using frozen) and salt, cover and cook for about 5 minutes.
• Add the cooked semya, stir well and continue cooking for couple more minutes. Remove from heat, add lemon juice, mix well and serve hot.
  

Note: If the vermicelli turns into a blob, just add some cold water to refresh it. Cooking vermicelli separately (my mom's trick) makes the noodles nice and separate and not sticky.