Ven Pongal, also known as Khara Pongal or Ghee Pongal, is a popular South Indian savory dish with a soft, porridge-like texture. It is made with rice and yellow moong lentils and flavored with black peppercorns, cumin seeds, asafoetida, curry leaves, and ghee.

Recipe Snapshot

  • Prep time: 5 minutes
  • Cook time: 20 minutes
  • Total time: 25 minutes
  • Yield: 3
  • Category: Breakfast, Side Dish
  • Cuisine: South Indian, Tamil Nadu

Ingredients

  • ½ cup rice (- any medium to short grained or regular rice, 100 grams)
  • ¼ cup moong dal (or 60 grams, hulled and split mung lentils)
  • ½ teaspoon cumin seeds (- lightly crushed)
  • ⅛ teaspoon asafoetida ((hing))
  • 1 inch ginger (- chopped or 1 teaspoon heaped chopped ginger)
  • 3 to 3.25 cups water (or add as required)
  • salt (as required)
  • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon black peppercorns (whole or crushed, you can also add ½ teaspoon black pepper)
  • 1 sprig curry leaves (or 10 to 12 small to medium curry leaves)
  • 10 to 12 cashews (- whole or halved)
  • 2 to 3 tablespoons ghee ((clarified butter))

Method

Roasting moong dal

  1. Pick moong lentils first to get rid of stones if any. Then heat a small pan or a small kadai and add the moong lentils.
  2. On a low heat stirring often roast the moong lentils till they become fragrant.
  3. The moong lentils only need to be roasted till they become fragrant. No need to brown them.
  4. Now take them in another bowl or you can use the same pan for rinsing.

Rinsing rice and lentils

  1. Add rice in the bowl containing the roasted moong dal.
  2. Rinse both rice and roasted moong dal a couple of times with water.

Cooking rice and moong dal

  1. Drain very well and then add them in a pressure cooker.
  2. Now add the following ingredients - cumin seeds, asafetida (hing), chopped ginger. Also add salt as per taste.
  3. Pour 3 to 3.25 cups water. The amount of water to be added depends on the consistency you want and also on the quality of moong dal.
  4. Pressure cook on a medium to high heat for 7 to 8 whistles or 11 to 12 minutes.
  5. Let the pressure settle down on its own and then you remove the lid to check the doneness and consistency. If the pongal has a consistency like that of pulao, then add ½ to 1 cup hot water and mix very well.
  6. Both the rice and the moong dal should be cooked very well. If you want you can even slightly mash the cooked rice and moong lentils. If cooked well, then cover with the lid and keep aside.

Tempering

  1. In another small pan, heat the ghee.
  2. Add the cumin seeds. Let them splutter.
  3. Then add the cashews. Fry until the cashews become light golden.
  4. Once they begin to get light golden, then add black peppercorns and 10 to 12 curry leaves.
  5. Stir very well and fry until the curry leaves become crisp. The black pepper should also be fried well.

Making ven pongal

  1. Now pour this entire tempering on the pongal. Mix very well.
  2. Cover with the lid (with the vent weight/whistle on the lid) and keep ven pongal aside for 5 to 6 minutes. This allows the tempering flavors to infuse with the pongal and the aroma to stay in.
  3. Then remove the lid and serve hot with coconut chutney or sambar.

Kiyaan Singh’s Kitchen Note

Keep this recipe as a working base: cook once as written, then adjust spice, texture, and serving style for your own table.