Savoury Ven Pongal - Rice cooked with Moong Dal/ Split Green gram lentils

Bowl of well cooked rice and lentils. Hot savoury ven pongal tempered in ghee with cumin and pepper and garnished with cashew.

Savoury Ven Pongal - Rice cooked with Moong Dal/ Split Green gram lentils

Ven Pongal, a delicious, traditional South Indian festival food offering popular for breakfast too. Made of rice and moong dhal (split, skinless green gram lentils), cooked till very soft and tempered with cumin and pepper and curry leaves in ghee, garnished with fried cashew nuts. Served hot with chutney and sambar.

Prep Time5

Cook Time25

Total Time30

Course: Breakfast, festival, naivedyam, Tiffinbox

Cuisine: south indian, tamil

Keyword: pongal, savoury pongal, ven pongal, venn pongal

Servings: cups

Calories: 200kcal

Author: Sujata Shukla

Equipment

Pressure Cooker
Frying pan
Small Mortar and pestle or spice grinder

Ingredients

For Rice and Dal

⅔ cup Raw rice About 150 gms
⅓ cup Green Gram Lentils About 70 gms; (Paasi paruppu/ moong dal/ split skinless green gram lentils)
3 ½ cups Water
1 smidgen Turmeric ½ a pinch or 1/32 of a teaspoon
½ teaspoon Salt or as per your taste

For Tempering

1 ½ tablespoons Ghee
10 Cashew nuts split into halves
10 Raisins
½ teaspoon Cumin seeds Ground (Jeera, jeeragam)
½ teaspoon Black Peppercorns Ground (Kali mirch, milagu)
½ teaspoon Black Peppercorns Whole/ sabut
1 Green chili Sliced (Optional)
½" piece Ginger Minced (about 1 teaspoon or 3 grams) (Optional)
1 sprig Curry leaves

For Garnish

1 ½ tablespoon Ghee

Instructions

To Cook Rice and Dal/ lentils

Roast the moong dal (split, skinless green gram) in a hot dry pan so that it darkens and you get the aroma of the dal (about a minute, on low flame). It can easily catch at the bottom of the pan and burn, so keep stirring gently. Transfer the dal to a bowl and rinse well.
Rinse the rice several times (4-5, or depending on the rice quality) till the water looks clear.
Add the washed rice, dal, water, salt and turmeric as per the ingredients list above. Half a pinch of turmeric should do as the ven pongal should have just a hint of yellow and not more.
Pressure cook for 1 whistle on high flame. Reduce the heat to low and cook for 4-6 whistles. This varies from one cooker to another, some may required more time to cook thoroughly. You want the pongal just soft and cooked well but not mushy and filled with water.
Turn off the heat and let the cooker release pressure on its own.

Preparation

You may decide to add or leave raisins, ginger, green chili. Preparations would be based on the same.
Halve the cashew nuts.
Peel and mince the piece of ginger and slice the green chili, if using.
Shred the curry leaves.
Coarsely grind the peppercorns and cumin seeds (listed in ingredients as to be 'Ground'). Keep the other peppercorns item in the ingredients list whole.

For the Tempering

Once the cooker is ready to be opened, open the pressure cooker and stir the rice dal mixture just once, gently mashing it with the ladle so that it combines well without getting mushy. Transfer it to a serving dish.
Heat the ghee (listed in ingredients list under Tempering) in a small frying pan on a low flame.
Fry the cashew nut halves till golden ( they always say this in recipes, but unless I'm careful to keep the heat low, mine usually turn a pinkish beige and then quickly get to a dark brown tinge 😒).
Drain and remove the cashew from the pan and set aside.
Continuing with a low flame, fry the raisins in the remaining ghee for about 10 secs and drain and remove from the pan when they puff up.
To the ghee remaining in the pan, add the whole peppercorns and the ground pepper-cumin, and sauté for 10 secs.
Add the sliced chili (if using) and let them scald all over.
Add ginger (if using), sauté for 30 seconds.
Add curry leaves.
Pour the tempering along with any ghee in the pan, on the ven pongal.

For Garnish

Heat the remaining ghee (given in Ingredients list under Garnish). Pour it on the ven Pongal. Add the fried cashew and raisins.
Ven Pongal is best served hot, with chutney and sambar. See note below for recommended alternatives.

Notes

Ven Pongal is best served hot, with chutney and sambar.

An alternative and delicious accompaniment is the Ezhu kari kootu (made of 7 vegetables) usually prepared with Tiruvathirai Kali. Click the link or check for the recipe above in this post, under Other Festival Items.

Nutrition