Ven Pongal
The signature Tamil Brahmin breakfast and temple prasadam — raw rice and yellow moong dal pressure-cooked together with ghee, freshly cracked pepper, cumin, ginger, curry leaves and roasted cashews. Soft, comforting, and the staple breakfast of every Iyer household.
Ingredients
- Cashew Nuts — 20 g (broken)
- black pepper — 5 g (coarsely-cracked)
- Ginger — 10 g (finely-chopped)
- salt — 6 g
- Curry Leaves — 3 g
- Sona Masuri Rice — 225 g (washed)
- Ghee — 30 g
- Asafoetida — 1 g
- Moong Dal — 75 g (dry-roasted)
- Cumin Seeds — 5 g
Method
- Dry-roast 75 g moong dal on low flame in a heavy pan until it turns light golden and aromatic (~3 minutes). Cool slightly and rinse once.
- Wash 150 g raw sona masuri rice. Combine rice + roasted moong dal in a pressure cooker.
- Add 4.5 cups (1100 ml) water, 5 g salt, and 10 g ghee. Pressure-cook for 5 whistles on medium then 10 minutes on simmer.
- In a tempering pan, heat 20 g ghee. Roast 20 g cashews until golden. Remove cashews; in the same ghee splutter cumin seeds, cracked pepper, asafoetida, ginger and curry leaves.
- Open the cooker after pressure releases. Mash gently with the tempering and roasted cashews. The pongal should be soft, slightly loose — adjust with hot water if dry.
- Serve hot with coconut chutney and sambar (or temple-style gotsu). A teaspoon of extra ghee on top is the Iyer touch.
Common questions
- How many calories in one plate of Ven Pongal?
- 365 kcal per plate.
- How much cooking time?
- 30 min — 8 min prep, 22 min cooking.