Ven Pongal
Pongal is a delicious South Indian porridge dish made with rice and yellow moong lentils. It can be sweet or savory. This is a savory version of pongal recipe known as Ven Pongal – laced with the wonderful flavors of cumin, hing, ginger and salt.
Ven Pongal can be thought of as a type of Khichidi that we make in North India – but without the vegetable or the masalas. This is very delicately flavoured with it’s seasoning and is quite light on the stomach too.
Ven Pongal
Course: MainCuisine: South IndianDifficulty: Easy4
servings10
minutes20
minutes30
minutesIt is made during the popular Pongal Festival or other Hindu festivals in South India and is offered to the deities as naivedyam.
Ingredients
Moong Dal – 1/4 cup
Rice – 1/2 cup
Cumin Seeds – 1/2 tsp
Hing – 1/4 tsp
Ginger – 1-inch piece, finely chopped
Water – 3 cups
Salt – as per taste
- For tempering
Ghee – 1-2 tbsp
Cumin Seeds – 1 tsp
Peppercorns – 1 tsp
Curry Leaves – a few
Cashews – a few
Directions
- Dry roast the moong dal in a pan on low flame till its aromatic.
- It should not change to brown color.
- Turn off the heat.
- Wash the dal and rice together in some water and drain it fully.
- In a pressure cooker, add the washed rice and dal, cumin seeds, hing, ginger and salt and mix well.
- Add the water and pressure cook for about 8 whistles.
- The rice and dal should be full cooked and soft and mushy and consistency should be a little liquidy – neither dry nor too liquid.
- You can add a little hot water if the pongal seems very dry.
- For the tempering, crush together the cumin and peppercorns lightly.
- In a pan, heat ghee and add the crushed cumin and peppercorns.
- To this, add the curry leaves and cashews and fry till the cashews are a nice golden brown color.
- Add this to the cooked pongal and mix well.
- Cover and keep for 5-10 min for the flavours from the tempering to seep through the pongal.
- Serve hot.
