Ven Pongal recipe | A2B style soft Kara ghee Pongal

Ven Pongal which is also called ghee Pongal, kara Pongal, and milagu Pongal is a staple breakfast in South India and very popular around the globe under healthy Indian breakfast items.

Pongal is made of rice and a yellow small lentil which is called pasi paruppu in Tamil. Also, it is an essential breakfast that affords more benefits than you think for a healthy lifestyle.

Pongal is a common name of a famous festival in Tamilnadu, which is celebrated to price the work of farmers and ven pongal & sweet pongal derived names from this festival.

Inippu pongal and Khara pongal

In both sweet and savory types, we cook the raw rice and moong dal first and do the seasoning later. Hence there are only two steps to relish these carbs loaded energy booster delicacies.

The sweet variety is called sweet Pongal or Vela Pongal or inipu Pongal, which contains rice, moong dal, milk, and jaggery. To do the sweet Pongal seasoning, we saute cashews, raisins, cardamom, coconut in ghee.

And for the khara pongal(savory pongal) seasoning, peppercorns, cumin, curry leaves, asafoetida, cashews are sauteed in ghee. In Karnataka, the Khara Pongal has some crushed pepper with green chilli in it. I use only whole peppercorns and everyone in my home learned to eat Pongal with whole peppers.

To solve the purpose of easy digestion, I use a bit of ginger while cooking the rice & dal. This really helps to resolve any digestive trouble that may present due to the fat and carb-heavy pongal food. This is entirely optional and you can just omit ginger if you don’t prefer to use it.

This khara pongal is very popular and considered healthy, get a place next to idli among South Indians. You may see “Idli and Vada” as well as “Pongal and vada” combinations in the restaurant’s menu which make us drool when we are hungry. I have seen people who visit the famous a2b restaurant only to eat this smooth and silky delicious Ven Pongal along with Vada, chutney, and sambar. The specialty of this Ven Pongal is in its smoothness which can be achieved with careful preparation and you can also make restaurant-style soft Ven Pongal or ghee Pongal in the home within 15 minutes.

Serving suggestions:

The best match for this Ven pongal is the quick Tiffin sambar with coconut chutney. My family also likes to pair it with the famous Chidambaram Kathirikkai gothsu.

The tangy gotsu goes well with bland pongal. Pasiparupu sambar and tomato chutney pair work well with pongal too.

Try this tomato kurma for a different combination.

Let us see the recipe of Ven Pongal with a quick video uploaded in the recipe and please subscribe if you like to receive more recipe videos from my channel:

Ven Pongal recipe | A2B style soft Kara ghee Pongal

Sangskitchen

Ven Pongal which is also called ghee Pongal, kara Pongal, and milagu Pongal is a staple breakfast in South India and very popular around the globe under healthy breakfast items.

5 from 2 votes

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Prep Time 5 minutes mins

Cook Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 20 minutes mins

Course Breakfast, Main Course

Cuisine Indian

Servings 4

Calories 150 kcal

Ingredients

  

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Ingredients:

To steam cook:

• ½ cup raw rice
• ¼ cup moong dal (split yellow lentil)
• 2 ½ cups water
• 1 inch ginger (optional)
• 1 green chilli
• ½ tsp jeera
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 cup hot water

To temper:

• 2 tsp ghee
• ½ tsp peppercorns
• ½ tsp jeera
• 1 tbsp cashews
• Few curry leaves
• ¼ tsp hing/asafoetida

Instructions

 

Preparation:

• To make a soft and tasty Ven Pongal always use 1:2 measurement of rice and yellow moong. Today I used half cup raw rice and a quarter cup moong dal.
• First wash rice and dal separately with enough water.
• Then soak them together in freshwater for at least 20 to 30 minutes.

Recipe to make Ven Pongal:

• In a pressure cooker, take the soaked and drained rice plus dal.
• Add 2.5 to 3 cups of water. Today I have taken half cup rice and quarter cup of lentil hence I used 2.5 cups of water. This means if you are using one measure of rice plus dal use three measures of water.
• Add a piece of peeled ginger, one green chilli and half a teaspoon of jeera seeds.
• Close the cooker with a lid, put on the weight, let the Pongal boil for five full whistles.
• When the pressure drops, open the lid and mash with a ladle immediately when it is still hot.
• Use a cup of hot boiling water if needed while mashing to make a soft and smooth textured Pongal. This is a tip followed in restaurants and I got this idea from my mum. Adding boiling hot water helps to retain the smoothness. Do not add too much of hot water then Pongal may turn like porridge. If you have already added more water while cooking and got liquidy boiled Pongal then skip adding extra hot water.

How to do the seasoning:

• Heat ghee in a Tadka pan and add peppercorns, jeera seeds, curry leaves, cashew nuts, and hing.
• Fry them all to a nice brown color without burning.
• When this seasoning turns aromatic in ghee, pour these contents into the mashed Pongal along with ghee.
• Mix everything together. if you like spicy Khara Pongal then you can Sprinkle few pinches of pepper powder at this stage.
• Serve ven pongal piping hot with tiffin sambar/pongal sambar and chutney.

Video

Notes

Tips/notes: 1. Ven Pongal tends to become dry and hard in texture over the time. So try to make it soft and smooth while steaming with enough water. 2. Do not forget to mash the Pongal while it is still hot. 3. You can use pepper powder in place of peppercorns. This way you may get slightly darker and spicier Pongal. 4. Ven Pongal tastes great when consumed hot. 5. Addition of ghee gives extra silkiness to the Pongal hence do not avoid adding ghee.

Nutrition

Calories: 150kcal

Keyword a2b pongal, ghee pongal, kara pongal, khara pongal, milagu pongal, Pongal, ven pongal

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Stepwise picture explanations:

Preparation:

• To make a soft and tasty Ven Pongal, I always recommend a 2:1 measurement of rice and yellow moong dal. Today I used half a cup(1/2C) of raw rice and a quarter cup(1/4) of moong dal. Some use 1:1 measurement also. If you wish to increase the measurement of moong dal, you can do so.
• First, wash rice and dal separately with enough water. Then soak them together in freshwater for at least 20 to 30 minutes.

Recipe to make Ven Pongal:

• In a pressure cooker, take the soaked and drained rice plus dal.
• Add 2.5 to 3 cups of water. Today I have taken half a cup of rice and a quarter cup of yellow split lentil(moong/pasiparupu/siruparupu) hence I used 2.5 cups of water. This means if you are using one measure of rice plus dal use three measures of water.
• Add a piece of peeled ginger(you can use grated), one green chilli, salt and half a teaspoon of jeera seeds.

• Close the cooker with a lid, put on the weight, let the Pongal boil for five full whistles.

• When the pressure drops, open the lid and mash with a ladle immediately when it is still hot.

• Use a cup of hot boiling water if needed while mashing to make a soft and smooth textured Pongal. This is a tip followed in restaurants and I got this idea from my mum. Adding boiling hot water helps to retain the smoothness. Do not add too much hot water then Pongal may turn like porridge. If you have already added more water while cooking and got liquidy boiled Pongal then skip adding extra hot water.

How to do the seasoning:

• Heat ghee in a Tadka pan and add peppercorns, jeera seeds, curry leaves, cashew nuts, and asafoetida. Fry them all to a nice brown color without burning.

• When this seasoning turns aromatic in ghee, pour these contents into the mashed Pongal along with ghee.

• Mix everything together. if you like spicy Khara Pongal then you can Sprinkle few pinches of pepper powder at this stage.
• Serve ven pongal piping hot with tiffin sambar and chutney.

Tips/notes:

1. Ven Pongal tends to become dry and hard in texture over time. So try to make it soft and smooth while steaming with enough water.
2. Do not forget to mash the Pongal while it is still hot.
3. You can use pepper powder in place of peppercorns. This way you may get slightly darker and spicier Pongal.
4. Ven Pongal tastes great when consumed hot.
5. The addition of ghee gives extra silkiness to the Pongal hence do not avoid adding ghee.