Khara Pongal Recipe / Ven Pongal Recipe -Temple style Rice Pongal recipe

Khara Pongal Recipe | How to do Khara Pongal |  | Ven Pongal Recipe | Ven Pongal recipe video | Rice Pongal Video Recipe | Temple style Pongal recipe

Khara Pongal / Ven Pongal is a very tasty and easy South Indian dish made with rice and moong dal and tempered with few spices . Served hot with a tsp of Ghee drizzled on top , with some papad on side / chutney / gothsu / Tamarind Gojju .. trust me this pongal tastes so so good !! Its offered as prasadam in many temples too and very commonly made during Pongal festival.

Some of the other pongal varieties that you can check are dalia sweet pongal , sweet pongal , dalia pongal , millets pongal, Poha pongal

khara pongal video

About the dish :

Pongal  is no knew for any South Indian. One can make it for breakfast / lunch / dinner . A great one pot meal that is filling and super comforting.

Normally pongal is made from rice but one can make it replacing rice with substitutes like millets , broken wheat , poha , oats etc . There is both sweet and savory version of pongal , we had earlier shared sweet version , today let’s see savory one .

Tempered in ghee with some freshly crushed pepper , cumin seeds , hing and ginger … this temple style khara pongal is creamy ,easy to make and tasty to taste.

Good quality ghee , well cooked gooey rice and dal , makes this pongal super tasty

Khara Pongal With Step By Step Photos

To begin with take 1/2 cup moong dal in a bowl and add to a pressure cooker.

Dry roast them for 2-3 mins , let it get aromatic and few brown spots appear here and there. After 1/2 an hour , to a cooker , add 1/2 cup moong dal. Dry roast them nicely on low flame till aromatic .

Once moong dal changes a color bit , add rice and fry for another 2-3 mins.

Wash the rice and dal nicely in water 2-3 times. Later add around 4 cups of water .. ie in the proportion of 1: 4 . Add 1/2 tsp turmeric and 1/2 tsp Ghee , mix well. Close the cooker and pressure cook for 3 whistles

Once pressure releases , open the lid , rice and dal would have cooked really well . Add salt to taste .

Mix well .If you combine dal and rice nicely when the mixture is still hot , pongal gets nice creamy and mushy texture.

Add water and adjust pongal consistency as per your choice , let it boil on low flame.

By the time it boils , let’s prepare a tempering .

To a pan add 2 tbsp Oil and 1-2 tbsp Ghee . Let they get hot . Once ghee is hot , add tsp of Mustard and 1 tsp of Cumin seeds . Once mustard splutters , add finely chopped dry coconut , 1 tsp semi crushed Pepper and few Cashews .Dry coconut and cashews are optional . You can skip but adding them enhances taste .saute the tempering till cashews become golden .Later add 1/4 tsp Asafoetida , 1 tsp grated Ginger. 3-4 finely chopped Green Chillies , Few Curry leaves 1 red chilli broken . Saute 1-2 mins . Let green chillies -ginger get nicely roasted . This will make the tempering more flavorful .In the end add 1/2 tsp Turmeric and mix well . Now our tempering is ready .

Pour the tempering over the cooked pongal , combine well and boil it just once .Let the pongal take in tempering flavors nicely.

Creamy , gooey and tasty Ven Pongal is ready to serve . Drizzle ghee over hot hot pongal and serve as such or serve it along with coconut chutney / sambar / tamarind gojju as side dish .

Points to note

• Dal : Rice ratio that I follow is 1: 2 ie for 1 cup rice , 1/2 cup dal . I like my pongal this way . However this proportion varies from house to house . Some like equal quantity rice and dal . Try and see which way you like .
• While tempering , add a mix of ghee and oil . This helps in keeping your pongal soft and free flowing even when cold . Won’t become a mass .
• Do nit skip adding pepper , hing , ginger to the pongal . These 3 tempered in ghee takes the pongal to a new level.
• Short grain rice , sona masoori works best for this than basmati rice .
• Consistency of Pongal is your personal choice . Adjust accordingly