• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Edible Garden

  • Popular Categories
    • Dal Recipes
    • Chicken Recipes
    • Egg Recipes
    • Indo-Chinese Recipes
    • Mushroom Recipes
  • Kerala Recipes
  • Chocolate
  • About
  • Navigation Menu: Social Icons

    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Pinterest
    • Twitter
You are here: Home / Breakfast / Pongal Recipe-Ven Pongal-Khara Pongal-Pongal Festival Recipes

Pongal Recipe-Ven Pongal-Khara Pongal-Pongal Festival Recipes

November 24, 2015 26 Comments

Khara Pongal(or ven pongal as it’s commonly called) is not something I grew up eating. It’s not part of Kerala breakfast recipes and on the rare occasions we would eat out for breakfast, I never looked beyond butter roast or paper roast dosa.

ven pongal-khara pongal-pongal recipe

Then things changed and I got married to a Tamilian. TH’s mom makes a mean pongal and it’s a favourite of mine now. She makes it every time we go home and this time I got to have it twice. Pics were taken in amma’s kitchen as she cooked so pardon the bad light quality.

Since Pongal festival is right around the corner, I thought this would be the best time to post this favourite recipe of mine!


Ven Pongal / Khara Pongal / Pongal Recipe
Serves 4
Recipe source: Mom-in-law

Ingredients:
1 cup raw rice
1/2 cup moong dal / paasi paruppu / cherupayar
1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1/2 tsp whole cumin / jeera seeds
A small piece of ginger
Salt to taste

To temper:
1/2 tsp each of cumin (jeera) and black pepper powdered together
A few cashew nuts
A few curry leaves
1/4 tsp of hing / perungaayam / asafoetida
2 tbsp ghee + 2 tbsp oil

How to make Ven Pongal:

1. The rice and dal needs to be cooked together until mushy and soft. Amma soaks the moong dal in advance for 30 mins. This is optional but it ensures that the rice/dal mixture cooks well and evenly.

Ven Pongal (Khara Pongal) | Pongal Festival Recipes

2. Add the soaked dal to washed rice (Add about 2.5 to 3 cups water) and place in a bowl in a pressure cooker. Add a few whole peppercorns and cumin seeds to this along with the ginger, chopped.

Ven Pongal (Khara Pongal) | Pongal Festival Recipes

3. Cook for 3-4 whistles or 15-20 mins until the mixture is soft and mushy.

Ven Pongal (Khara Pongal) | Pongal Festival Recipes

4. Heat the oil in a pan (you can use only ghee too) and add some more cumin seeds, curry leaves, cashew nuts, and the hing. Fry until the cashew nuts turn golden brown.

Ven Pongal (Khara Pongal) | Pongal Festival Recipes

5. Add the cooked rice/dal mixture to this.

Ven Pongal (Khara Pongal) | Pongal Festival Recipes

6. Add salt and stir well to combine all the ingredients. Once mixed well, add the ghee and stir again making sure everything is mixed thoroughly.

Ven Pongal (Khara Pongal) | Pongal Festival Recipes

That’s it! Such simple ingredients and flavours but makes for a delicious dish!

Gothsu Recipe-Kathirikai (Brinjal) Gothsu-Ven Pongal Gothsu Recipe

We had ours with some Arachuvitta Sambar. The best combination for Ven Pongal is Gothsu, usually Kathirikai Gotsu.

The Pongal Festival is something else I am not very familiar with having never celebrated it as I grew up. I am trying to learn more about it so hopefully posting this Pongal recipe is the first step 🙂

Looking for Sakkarai Pongal Recipe? Look no further 🙂

Share This Recipe
  • Facebook0
  • WhatsApp
  • Pinterest0
  • Twitter
  • Google+0
  • Email
  • Print
0

By nags Filed Under: Breakfast, Festival Recipes, Tamil Recipes, Uncategorized

logo
Food Advertising by

Subscribe

for your weekly recipe fix.

Previous Post: « No-Bake Banana Toffee Pie Recipe – Banoffee Pie Recipe
Next Post: Murungakai Tiffin Sambar-Moong Dal Sambar Recipe »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joey

    January 14, 2013 at 3:25 am

    Made this today since it's pongal obviously. Love it. I usually used to add turmeric powder while boiling the rice and dal mixture. I've added the salt to the mixture to get a more even mix. Thank you.

    Reply
  2. Jennifer Kumar, Cross-Cultural Coach

    January 20, 2012 at 5:11 am

    Thanks Nagalaskhmi… That kozhumbu looks delectable. I love the color and the texture too. I had made kozhumbu in the past with either onions or sundrakkai vatthal. Do you have any posts on how to cook using the various vatthals. I am in Kerala and can find them in some shops sometimes.

    Reply
    • Nagalakshmi V

      January 20, 2012 at 5:21 am

      vatral may not be too popular in Kerala because it's a Tamil ingredient. Try a few stores, they may stock it. We get ours from relatives and family in Tamil nadu 🙂

      Reply
  3. Jennifer Kumar, Cross-Cultural Coach

    January 19, 2012 at 6:50 pm

    I made brinjal sambar with pongal for Pongal this year. What is the kind of accompaniment in your photo? Is it onion sambar? To me it has the color of kozhumbu, which always makes me hungry. What is the recipe for the accompaniment here?

    What is gothsu as mentioned by others? How is gothsu different than Sambar or Kozhumbu?

    Reply
    • Nagalakshmi V

      January 20, 2012 at 2:01 am

      Great questions! The kozhambu you see with my pongal up there is shallot (chinna vengaayam) kozhambu which my MIL makes with a little coconut milk. It's her own recipe which I haven't shared yet, incidentally. Gotsu is the more popular accompaniment with pongal but since I am not a Tamilian, I have never tasted that! It's much simpler than any kozhambu in terms of preparation.

      Reply
  4. Amritha

    January 17, 2012 at 3:15 am

    Hi Nags! Thanks for the timely post! The mister wanted to make pongal, and thanks to your post, he did. (The step by step photos helped a lot as well)..we had ours with chutney, was fab!

    Reply
  5. Sangeeta Reghu

    January 13, 2012 at 8:53 am

    Pongal happens to be my daughter's fav .. I have not tried it myself though .. this is what she eats every weekend at Sarvana Bhavan 😀 .. i think its high-time i try and tell you how it goes ..

    Reply
  6. Anu Nandu

    January 12, 2012 at 5:24 pm

    Happy Pongal to you and the hubby! I can see the pepper kick in your mom's pongal. My favorite combo is coconut chutney and kathirikkai gothsu. That is what is coming up this sunday at our place..of course all that because my mom is here!

    Reply
  7. Reshmi Mahesh

    January 12, 2012 at 4:14 am

    Never had ven pongal before…This looks delicious..

    Reply
  8. RAKS KITCHEN

    January 12, 2012 at 9:32 am

    I feel like having two cups of this pongal and sambar now! Craving for something heavy like this 🙂 perfect recipe for the festive time!

    Reply
  9. Aarthi

    January 11, 2012 at 4:39 pm

    yummy pongal..i love it with sambar and coconut chutney..even some crispy medu vada will be good..

    Aarthi

    Reply
  10. divya

    January 11, 2012 at 2:48 pm

    Yum yum,mouthwatering here, wat a super tempting dish..

    Reply
  11. sangeeta

    January 11, 2012 at 10:52 am

    Oh I love it. I had many types of pongal when I visited Chennai last year and loved all of them…my husband was content with dosas and more dosas 🙂
    Interestingly, in North India no one can imagine having a "khichdi" for breakfast 🙁 while a "kedgeree" is a similar thing which Scottish picked up from India and adapted for breakfast…I can have it daily 🙂

    Reply
    • Nagalakshmi V

      January 12, 2012 at 3:28 am

      Never heard of kedgeree before. Going to check it out now!

      Reply
  12. Priya

    January 11, 2012 at 10:39 am

    Yum yum,super tempting and my kind of food..

    Reply
  13. NarMee

    January 11, 2012 at 9:30 am

    I forgot to add earlier.. My mom (and now me)adds pepper/cumin seeds powder and ginger paste since I had this habit of picking every peppercorn and ginger separately ( along with some pongal) and leaving it outside the plate even before I start eating since I dint like eating them.So by the time i was finished most of it was outside rather than on my plate 😀

    Reply
    • Nagalakshmi V

      January 12, 2012 at 3:26 am

      That's a great tip 🙂 I remove the whole peppercorns from my pongal too 🙂

      Reply
  14. Anzz

    January 11, 2012 at 8:33 am

    The pongal looks delicious. Am sure it tastes even better when the recipe comes from our dear mothers. 🙂

    Reply
  15. NarMee

    January 11, 2012 at 7:37 am

    One of my favorite dishes. I love having this with Brinjal Gothsu. I make this for dinner rather than breakfast at home simply because its one of the easiest dishes to make after a tiring day at work but I ve heard that eating Ven Pongal makes you sleepy(:P)!!

    Reply
  16. zareena

    January 11, 2012 at 7:16 am

    Amazing pongal dish. I used to eat this a lot when I was in Andhra. I miss that. Thanks for sharing.

    Reply
    • Nagalakshmi V

      January 12, 2012 at 3:29 am

      Andhra has very good pongal recipes too! 🙂

      Reply
  17. Nagalakshmi V

    January 11, 2012 at 8:19 am

    I have heard it's the best combination with gothsu 🙂 We had this venn pongal for dinner too, and that explains the dull lighting 😀

    Reply
    • Muthu Kannan

      January 12, 2012 at 3:12 am

      test 😀

      Reply
    • Nagalakshmi V

      January 12, 2012 at 3:17 am

      Thank God for engineer friends 🙂

      Reply
    • Muthu Kannan

      January 12, 2012 at 3:26 am

      I was about to delete this comment… now you've stopped me from doing that 🙂

      Reply
    • Nagalakshmi V

      January 12, 2012 at 3:27 am

      nah.. let it be.

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Hello!

I am Nags, the face behind Edible Garden, a food and recipes website for the busy (and sometimes lazy!) cook since 2007. My recipes are meant to be quick yet healthy and delicious - Nothing fancy, nothing too difficult. Follow Me On Instagram for real-time food and life updates.

ADS

logo
Food Advertising by

Popular Recipes

Instant Oats Idli Recipe with Rava, Step by Step
Kerala plum cake recipe
Butter Chicken Recipe, Indian Butter Chicken Masala Recipe
dosa recipe-how to make dosa
pressure cooker eggless sponge cake recipe (no oven cake)
vegetable pulao recipe
Eggless No-Bake Mango Cheesecake Recipe Step by Step
garlic pull-apart rolls recipe, eggless
paneer butter masala recipe restaurant style

Browse Older Recipes

Translate

Copyright © 2022