Ven pongal is a popular South Indian dish made with rice and lentils. It is typically seasoned with black pepper, cumin seeds, and garnished with cashews and curry leaves. It is often served as a breakfast or a lunch dish and is commonly enjoyed with Brinjal Gothsu, coconut chutney and sambar. The dish has a rich and creamy texture, and the combination of flavors makes it a delicious and satisfying meal.
Brinjal Gothsu
Difficulty: EasyLearn how to make delicious Brinjal Gothsu that pairs perfectly with Rice Upma, Ven Pongal, Idli, or Dosai. Discover variations and tricks to get the perfect consistency.
Coconut chutney
Difficulty: EasyA simple coconut chutney made with just coconut. You can also season it with curry leaves, mustard and red chilies.
Idli Sambar
Difficulty: Easy
Ven Pongal
3
servings5
minutes20
minutesLearn how to make delicious Ven Pongal, a traditional South Indian dish made with raw rice and dhal. Perfectly paired with Brinjal Gothsu or Coconut Chutney/sambar.
Ingredients
Raw rice – 1 cup
Green gram dhal – 1/2 cup
Fresh ginger – a small piece
Asafoetida powder – 2 pinches
Jeera (Cumin) – 1 teaspoon
Black Pepper – 1 teaspoon
Cashew nuts – few
Ghee – 1 tablespoon
Oil – 1 teaspoon
Curry leaves – few
Green Chilli – 1 (optional)
Salt – 1 teaspoon or as per taste
Directions
- Wash the rice and dal and add 4 and half cups water. Add grated ginger, asafoetida powder, oil, few curry leaves and salt.
- Pressure cook for 4 to 5 whistles. Once steam has subsided, open the lid of cooker and mash it well using back of a big spoon.
- In a pan, add the ghee. When it is hot add chopped ginger, asafoetida, pepper and jeera crushed slightly, cashew nuts, curry leaves, green chilli slit into two and fry for a while. Add this to the cooked rice and mix well.
Recipe Video
Notes
- Use half of ginger and asafoetida while cooking the rice and dal. Remaining ginger and asafoetida can be used in seasoning.
- You can add more ghee if you like it. However, for one cup rice 1 tablespoon solid ghee is just perfect.
- Water ratio for Pongal – 1:3 ( rice + dal : water) – For 1 cup rice + 1/2 cup dal, 4 and 1/2 cup water required. I used 5 cups to get more soft Pongal.
It came really nice. Thanks for the recipe
Thank you for visiting my site and taking time to post your comment.
Dear Ms Kamala,
Good day! i am new to this blog. I wish to try your idli recipe but I do not know what is parboiled rice. Can you please explain or do you have other alternative other than the parboiled rice.
Parboiled rice is called in Tamil as “Puzhungal Arisi”. This rice is also sold as “Idli Rice” in stores. I am not sure where you live. If you are in US, you will get this rice in Indian Stores.
looks cool…the picture looks so inviting..in US idli rice will be available in indian stores or i have great resource where you can find all the indian ingredients. http://www.myethnicworld.com as i am a regular client of this site.
thanks for ur recipies you are doin really gr8 job… thanks a lot
Really your recepies are comming good…
Usually the quantities mentioned in recepies will not come properly but urs is comming perfect…
Thank you Subha.
I tried many recipies of yours kamala its really comming nice and i have a doubt is "oats good for sugar patients ?" because u have provided many recipies in oats i want to try all those and here my inlaws are sugar patients so…i want to know that…
and also i want to know sabudana is good for health or bad? many are telling we should not use it often wats your openion ?
Hi Subha,
Sabudana, also known as Sago and Javvarisi in Tamil contain 78% of starch only. It also contain calcium and it is low in sodium. One gram gives about 4.2 calories. It is NOT bad for health, but since it is full of starch and more calories, we can use it occassionaly.
Really Nice recipe Thanks……………………..
hello kamala, i am huge fan of south indian cuisine specially Tamil and Kerala bcause they r less spicy retain the unique taste of food. thru yr blog i am sure
of authentic recipes. thanks a lot.
Hi Anagha,
Thank you for visiting my blog and hope my recipes are somewhat useful to you.
you are doing a wonderful job !!!!!!!!!!!! God Bles you !!!!!!!
Hi Kamalaji,
May I address you as Aunty.I am sure you must be around my Mum`s age. I discovered your site quite by accident and haven’t regretted it . Now not a day passes without visiting your site . I may not make any recipe on a daily basis but a visit is must. Thank you for the posts. I am trying out the one of your kootu recipes.
Hi Preethy Nair. Welcome to my site. You can very well call me aunty. I too have the same habit, whether we try others recipes or not, I read anything about cooking. It is quite interesting.
Hi,
My pongal turns very hard and rocky afte some time. But otherwise it is good and tasty if we have it directly from the cooker. Tell me how to keep it soft and mashy for longer hours.
Hi Vaishnavi,
If you add water in the ratio 1:3 (for 1 cup rice 3 cups water) pongal will be soft for long hours. Measure both rice and dhal and accordingly add water. Moreover, adding enough ghee to the Pongal is another criteria for keeping the pongal soft.
Hi mam,
I cooked ven pongal before by putting all the integrants togather which will be not so good but now tried as per your method came out very tatsy break fast now tk u and i hd a doubt whether we can use patcharisi or our cooking rice
Hi Mano Chitra,
Thank you for your kind feed back. For Pongal Patacharisi is used. Also for cooking we use patachari only. If you use parboiled rice, then you can also use it, but the taste will slightly differ.
I just love your blog.Thank you for sharing wonderful recipes. It is so useful for the younger generation.
Hai mam,
I am new to your blog.I tried some of your receipes which comes very tasty. Thank you so much. Why don’t you add some north indian receipes i.e, panner.
Thank you Muthu Lakshmi for visiting our site and trying the recipes. I will soon post panner recipes.
hi kamala,
vry intersting job done…luv ur recipes..vry vry useful ..
Hi Kamala mam, today I followed your measurement ratio and pongal came out well. Thank you again.