Indian brunch

I am heading over to this month's mingle at Meeta's with an Indian brunch. The brunch consisted of

ரவை உப்மா (Rava upma)
வெங்காய (Onion) சாம்பார் (sambar)

Sweet pongal

And not to forget coffee (unfortunately this was instant coffee!)

For the rava upma,
Roast about a cup of rava/sooji for a few minutes, keep it aside once its done.
In a pan add about a tablespoon of oil, once that heats- add mustard seeds and let them splatter. Once they splatter add cumin seeds, a tbsp of chana dal, whole dried red chillies, a pinch of asaefoetida. Let them hang out in the oil for a few seconds.
Add the chopped onions and saute them. Then add any veggies you like (I added peas, potatoes, carrots and lima beans). Saute them all and cook them with very little- salt and pepper them as you like. Once the veggies about half way done, add the roasted rava and a cup of water. Let them cook together (salt and pepper again to taste), this should take about 5-7 minutes. Towards the end add a bit more oil (I used EVOO) and sort of flatten the upma in the pan so that it can brown on one side.
Serve hot with chutney/sambar/gotsu/yogurt/pickle (really your choices are unlimited)- I did onion-potato sambar.

For the sweet pongal,
Cook sushi rice according to package instructions.
Once the rice is cooked, add the kozhukattai poornam to it and stir well.
Serve hot or cold and top with some sweetened coconut milk and sesame seeds (toasted).