Ven Pongal Recipe | How to make Khara Pongal Stovetop Method using Pressure cooker | How to make South Indian Ven Pongal | Pongal recipes
Pongal is a rice lentil based south indian dish prepared with raw rice, yellow moong, made either sweet or savory! Savory version of Pongal is termed as Ven Pongal / Khara Pongal which includes tempering with black pepper, cumin & ginger! Its often offered as neivedhiyam / prasadam in most Perumal kovil / temples, also prepared during harvest season celebrated as “Pongal Festival” across Southern India #pongal #venpongalrecipe #kharapongal #hotpongalrecipe
Ven Pongal / Khara Pongal, is also a common breakfast dish in most South Indian homes often served with sambar, chutney and medhu vada! North Indian version of this pongal also goes by the name DAL KHICHDI.
Ven Pongal is very healthy as includes healthy moong dal / pasi paruppu, also includes tempering with fresh ghee, fresh ginger, black peppercorns, cumin and curry leaves which are basically good for digestion. Its easy to prepare, easy on stomach and can be served anytime of the day!
Check out the sweet verion of pongal here SAKKARAI PONGAL / SWEET PONGAL
Instant Pot Sweet Pongal – Sakkarai Pongal Recipe
MILLET SAKKARAI PONGAL ~ Samai Sakkarai Pongal ~ Little Millet Sweet Pongal
Pongal Recipes – Pongal Festival Recipe Collections
What rice to use ? Raw rice is mostly preferred for this dish, ponni raw rice / pachai arisi, sona masoori and basmatic works as well. Healthy versions can be made with brown rice, millets, quinoa etc.
What rice dal ratio to use? Preferred rice dal ratio is for 1 cup of rice 1/2 cup of moong dal works perfectly. For a very healthy version you can go up to 3/4 cup of yellow moong dal. I have even tried 1:1 ratio which is well have a more creamy finish to it!
Ven Pongal - How to make South Indian Khara Pongal
Ingredients
To cook rice & dal
- 1 cup Raw rice / Pachai arisi ponni arisi
- 1/2 cup Split yellow Moong Dal / Pasi Paruppu Split green gram de-husked
- 3 small Green Chili
- 5 cups Water
- 2 tsp Salt or to taste
To temper
- 2 tablespoon Oil
- 2 tablespoon Ghee
- 15 halved Cashews
- 1 tablespoon Ginger minced
- 1 teaspoon Black peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 6 each Curry leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon Asafoetida
- 1 teaspoon Ghee optional, add before serving
Instructions
Prep Work
- Lightly dry roast yellow moong dal in a pan for 2 to 3 minutes. Make sure to roast over low flame, without turning them brown.
- Soak rice and dal together pouring enough water for 30 minutes.
- Wash, rinse and strain the rice and dal.
Pressure Cook
- Transfer the strained rice and dal to a pressure cooker pan.
- Add green chilies, salt and water.
- Pressure cook over medium high flame for 3 whistles and switch off!
Temper
- Heat oil and ghee in a pan.
- Fry the cashews until golden.
- Add minced, ginger followed by black peppercorns, cumin seeds and curry leaves. If using compound asafoetida crystals (getti perungayam) add at this stage.
- Fry all these until its releases its aroma.
Mix
- Pour this tempering over the hot rice dal mixture.
- Min well to combine by mashing.
- Add powdered hing / asafoetida at this time and mix well. You may add this while tempering or at this point to make it more flavorful.
- Add some more ghee before serving for flavor.
- Serve hot with sambar, chutney and vada!
Prep Work
-
Lightly dry roast yellow moong dal in a pan for 2 to 3 minutes. Make sure to roast over low flame, without turning them brown. This step is totally optional, its done to make the pongal more flavorful.
-
Soak rice and dal together pouring enough water for 30 minutes. Soaking rice and dal is a must as it brings in the best output texture wise for the dish. The rice & dal will cook evenly to a mushy consistency. Cooking dal and rice without soaking will yield light chewy texture to rice and dal will still hold its shape after cooking.
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Wash, rinse and strain the rice and dal. Set this aside.
Pressure Cook
-
Transfer the strained rice and dal to a pressure cooker pan.
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Add green chilies, salt and water. Adding green chilies are optional too, but will help to add more heat to the pongal. Avoid using green chili if making as neivedhyam or prasadam. (offering to God)
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Pressure cook over medium high flame for 3 whistles and switch off!
Temper
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Heat oil and ghee in a pan. For a better texture always use half ghee , half oil when tempering pongal, it will bring a smooth silky finish to the dish.
-
Fry the cashews until golden. Fry cashews first as adding with other ingredients may not fry them evenly.
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Add minced, ginger followed by black peppercorns, cumin seeds and curry leaves. If using compound asafoetida crystals (getti perungayam) add at this stage.
-
Fry all these until its releases its aroma in the ghee and oil.
Mix
-
Pour this tempering over the hot rice dal mixture.
-
Min well to combine by mashing. Add powdered asafoetida at this stage for more flavor.
-
Add some more ghee before serving for flavor.
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Serve hot with sambar, chutney and vadai or even with BRINJAL GOTHSU
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27 Comments
when you say green gram .. is it the green dal which is green gram? or moong dal(yellow color) ?
Its split green gram that is de-husked (yellow gram), anyways I’ve corrected the recipe. Thanks.
Thanks! I wasnt sure which one to use 🙂
Can I use sona masoori rice?
Yes, you can use sona masoori rice. Thannks.
Is Asafoetida a crucial ingredient?
ofcourse, it is !! Never miss it.
I tried the Pongal. It came out very well. Thanks for the receipe.
Hi Mullai…
I tried this Pongal today and the taste was flawless 🙂
Thanks for such a nice traditional receipe…
Voting 10 on 10..
Cheers,
Sathya.
Hi mullai, today i prepared sakarai pongal n ven pongal, followed ur recipes. sakarai pongal turnd excellent…….ven pongal tastewise gud,but the rice wasnt cooked like pongal. i got the normal rice texture. i used equal proportion of milk n water and left up to 4 whistles. i dnt knw where it went wrong.
Did you add milk to ven pongal?
yes mullai, i added milk and water in equal proportion
Ramya,
Quite surprising, we never add milk to ven pongal. Sometimes include in chakra pongal. Most of the time pressure cooked rice becomes very firm after a while, so better to have immediately after making it.
Mullai, My sister used to prepare ven pongal using milk.it gives rich taste…..u might b right…..lemme give a try without milk n let u know……..Thanq for the prompt reply……
My Mom and most of my relatives use milk which as Ramya said makes it richer. People can choose between rich and light. I like the light one.
Really superb,
i tried this yesterday it came out well. thanks alot Mullai
Hi mullai,
i finally found time today 2 try the pongal.it came out well and was tasting really great.Thanks for the receipe.it didnt take much of my time either.Add receipes that takes such less time so that i can cook different dishes in the time available for me at home(bcos i am working).
keep up the gr8 work.
Anusha
Hi I was in search of this receipe for a long time now.Thanku i will surely try this and tell you how it turned out.it will surely be a hit.i noted down some other receipes too.the site is very informative for working women like me to try out new receipes without much difficulty.
Thanku and keep up the good work.
Anusha
Anusha, thank you and good luck with all your preparations.
Hi Mullai, I made some venpongal yesterday. It came out very well. thanks for this recipe.. BTW, I took a look at your other postings. I am going to try all these one by one:) keep up the great work! Thanks, -karthi
Hi Mullai,
could you please let me know what is green gram in tamil?
Hi Madan,
Its called pachai paruppu or payatham paruppu.
This is a very good recipe…. my husband & I loved the ven pongal.
Thank You.
Divya.
hmmm made some venpongal… It turned out well… Thanks a lot as I was searching for this recipe. But only got time to do it. I made some without green gram even. With 1/2 cup of dhal. It also turned out well…
Cheers
Manoo
Good Mullai, Added flavour for venpongal, we can use 1:1 , like 1 cup of rice and 1 cup of Dal, in order to add more flavour just saute rice n dal for few mintues ( until u smell the flavour). Sure u'll get tasty tasty Pongal.
Meenakshi, thanks for sharing this tip. Sure will try next time.
ha super this was the recepi i looking for. thanks