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    Home » Breakfast Recipes » Traditional Indian Breakfast Recipes » Rava Pongal | Semolina Pongal | Sooji Pongal

    Rava Pongal | Semolina Pongal | Sooji Pongal

    Apr 11, 2021 · Modified: Jul 26, 2021 by Priya_Srinivasan ·

    Jump to Recipe Jump to Video Print Recipe

    Rava pongal, a popular breakfast dish from South-India. A savory dish, made with semolina and moong dal, served with sambar and chutney.

    Jump to Recipe
    Rava Pongal

    Table of contents

    • What is Pongal?
    • Pongal Varieties
    • The Ingredients
    • Step by Step Instructions to make Sooji Pongal
    • More Breakfast Recipes
    • Recipe
    • Do you like the Recipe? PIN IT

    What is Pongal?

    Pongal is a popular south-indian breakfast dish. It can be made both sweet and savory. Khara pongal or venpongal, a savory dish made with rice and lentils, tempered with curry leaves, ginger and loads of black pepper and cumin. Sarkarai pongal, a sweet pongal made with rice and lentils and sweetened with jaggery.

    Pongal, served with sambar and white chutney, is the most popular dish in marriage functions for breakfast. Since pongal is a no onion and no garlic dish, it is preferred as offerings during pooja days.

    Pongal Varieties

    Pongal can be made with variety of grains. Millet pongal is gaining lot of attention, with its health quotient. Barley pongal and couscous pongal are variations of khara pongal with other grains.

    Under sweet pongal we have a rock candy/kalkandu pongal, broken wheat sarkarai pongal, thinai sarkarai pongal.

    Today we are making the same delicious pongal with rava/sooji/semolina and lentils. Unlike other pongal varieties, where the grains and lentils can be pressure cooked together and tempered with spices, here the dal is cooked separately and mixed with rava.

    Semolina pongal

    That might be an extra step, but i can gurantee you a smooth and soft luscious rava pongal, that will be melt in mouth.

    The Ingredients

    • Sooji/Rava/Semolina, the hero ingredient of the dish. I have used roasted rava for this recipe.
    • Moong dal, yet another important ingredient for khara pongal. I have used split yellow dal.
    • Spices, pepper, cumin and ginger are the main spices in khara pongal recipe. I have used a green chili, just to oomph the flavor.
    • Fat, ghee and oil are used liberally in pongal recipes. They add the necessary richness, softness required for the pongal. I have used 5 tablespoon altogether in this recipe, 3 tablespoon ghee and 2 tablespoon oil.

    Step by Step Instructions to make Sooji Pongal

    Please check recipe card below for exact measurements of each ingredient used and also for the detailed instructions

    • Dry roast the moong dal to golden brown. Take care while roasting, keep the flame in medium and roast. Remove the dal and dry roast the sooji in the same pan for a minute.
    • Pressure cook the roasted dal with twice the amount of water until soft. Let the pressure fall on its own.
    Sooji pongal making steps
    • In a kadai, add ghee and oil, temper with cumin, green chili, curry leaves and chopped ginger. Add cashewnuts and freshly pounded black pepper to this.
    • Add the cooked and mashed moong dal and water to this tempering. When it comes to a boil add salt, slowly add the roasted sooji/rava to this and mix well.
    Semolina savory pongal making steps
    • Cover and cook for 5 minutes for the rava to cook and flavors to mingle well. Take of the cover and let it sit for another 2-3 minutes, add some ghee and oil mix well and take it off the heat.
    • Serve the rava pongal with sambar and chutney.
    Sooji pongal

    If you have tried this recipe and like it, give it a star rating or let me know in the comments below. You could also share it with me on Instagram using #icampinmmykitchen and tagging me @priyasrinivasan.
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    More Breakfast Recipes

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    • Samba Rava Idli | Godhumai Rava Idli
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    • Multigrain Flakes Pongal | Khara Pongal with Multigrain

    More here

    Recipe

    Rava Pongal | Semolina Pongal | Sooji Pongal

    Rava pongal, a popular breakfast dish from South-India. A savory dish, made with semolina and moong dal, served with sambar and chutney.
    5 from 4 votes
    Print Pin Rate
    Course: Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner, Main Course
    Cuisine: Asian, Indian, South-Indian
    Keyword: easy breakfast recipe, How to make khara pongal, Khara pongal recipe, Pongal with sooji, Rava recipe, Savory pongal recipe, Semolina recipe, Sooji pongal recipe, Traditional breakfsast recipe
    Prep Time: 5 minutes
    Cook Time: 25 minutes
    Total Time: 30 minutes
    Servings: 4
    Calories:

    Ingredients

    • ⅓ cup moong dal split yellow lentils
    • ⅔ cup Rava/Sooji/Semolina
    • ¾ teaspoon salt
    • 1 tablespoon ghee
    • 1 tablespoon oil
    • 2 cups water to cook the pongal

    Tempering

    • 1 tablespoon oil
    • 2 tablespoon ghee
    • 1 teaspoon cumin seeds/jeera
    • 1 teaspoon black pepper pounded
    • 1 no green chili cut into two
    • ½ inch piece of ginger, chopped fine
    • 6 nos cashewnuts
    • few curry leaves

    Instructions

    • In a pan, dry roast the moong dal. Keep the flame in medium and roast. Take care not to burn the dal. It should turn golden brown. Take it off heat and let it sit for 5 minutes.
    • In the same pan, dry roast the sooji. Keep the flame in medium and roast. Even though i m using roasted rava, i roast the rava/sooji for a few minutes for it to become nicely warm and toasty. Remove the roasted sooji/rava to another plate.
    • Add twice amount of water, that is ⅔ cups of water to the moong dal and pressure cook for 4-5 whistles or until soft. Let the pressure drop on its own.

    Let us make the pongal

    • In a kadai, add ghee and oil given under tempering, do not skimp on the oil and ghee quantities, this ensures a soft and fluffy pongal.
    • When the oil is heated, add cumin seeds, chopped chili, ginger and curry leaves. To this add cashew nuts and saute.
    • When the nuts are about to turn golden brown, add freshly pounded pepper powder and the pressure cooked dal to this and mix well. Add 1.5 cups of water to this. Add salt and mix well.
    • When the dal mix comes to a boil , reduce the flame, add the roasted rava to this slowly and mix. I used a whisk finally to whisk it all together without any lumps.
    • Add the remaining ½ cup water, cover and cook in a medium flame, for 5 minutes. The rava will absorb all the liquid and will cook soft.
    • Remove the cover, add the ghee and oil given under ingredients, mix well. Serve it warm with chutney and sambar.

    Video

    Notes

    • Do not reduce the amount of ghee and oil used in the recipe to get a soft and fluffy pongal, that remains the same even after cooling down. 
    • The ratio of rava to water is 1:3, 1 cup of rava needs 3 cups of water to cook soft. So use water accordingly. If your moong dal is a bit watery, take that water too into count. 
     

    Disclaimer

    I m not a Doctor or a Nutritionist The Nutrition information provided above comes from the plugin and is only an estimate.

    Tried this recipe?Mention @Icampinmykitchen or #icampinmykitchen
    For Recipe VideosSubscribe & Follow @Icampinmykitchen on Youtube

    Serve this delicious rava pongal with chutney and sambar of your choice. Any leftover pongal can be refrigerated for a day or two. Reheat the pongal in the microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute to enjoy a soft and fluffy rava pongal.

    Do you like the Recipe? PIN IT

    Rava khara pongal pin

    More Traditional Indian Breakfast Recipes

    • Couscous Pongal | Couscous Savory Pongal
    • Watermelon Rind Dosa | Dosai Recipe
    • Pepper Poha | Milagu Aval – Vegan Breakfast
    • Sweet Poha |இனிப்பு அவல் | Vegan Recipe

    Reader Interactions

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    1. Raks

      January 11, 2011 at 1:12 pm

      Both pongal and rava are my favorite,this is double dhamakha for me 🙂

      Reply
    2. Priya Sreeram

      January 11, 2011 at 2:20 pm

      good one !

      Reply
    3. Kurinji

      January 11, 2011 at 2:53 pm

      Yummy and delicious pongal…

      Thanks for participate with my event….

      Pongal Feast Event

      Kurinji kathambam

      Reply
    4. Satya

      January 11, 2011 at 4:06 pm

      looks so tasty and soft

      Satya

      Super Yummy Recipes

      Reply
    5. Srivalli

      January 11, 2011 at 5:50 pm

      Looks good Priya..

      Reply
    6. kitchen queen

      January 11, 2011 at 6:24 pm

      lovely and delicious rava pongal for a change from the usual rice pongal.

      Reply
    7. Padma

      January 11, 2011 at 8:26 pm

      One of my fav tiffin… perfect with chutney sambar… looks yummm

      Reply
    8. Priya Suresh

      January 11, 2011 at 8:40 pm

      Inviting and delicious pongal..

      Reply
    9. Umm Mymoonah

      January 11, 2011 at 9:17 pm

      My all time favourite pongal with a twist looks very delicious.

      Reply
    10. Krishnaveni

      January 12, 2011 at 12:04 am

      wow, so many pongal recipes looks yumm, you have created the festive mood……)))))

      Reply
    11. Anonymous

      January 12, 2011 at 2:53 am

      Im looking for new ways to use sooji, and this looks perfect! Never had pongal with sooji before.

      Reply
      • Rajani

        April 15, 2021 at 6:33 am

        5 stars
        I am always surprised at the different ways we can reinvent the same recipes!! Pongal with rava is new for me, in fact most of the recipes I am catching up today is new for me

        Reply
    12. Unknown

      January 12, 2011 at 3:10 am

      Delicious Pongal,luks perfect…

      Reply
    13. Aruna Manikandan

      January 12, 2011 at 5:41 am

      looks delicious ….

      Reply
    14. chef and her kitchen

      January 12, 2011 at 5:50 am

      Yummy pongal…looks perfect for breakfast

      Reply
    15. Kurinji

      January 12, 2011 at 7:13 am

      Nice pongal….
      Thanks for participate with my event….

      Pongal Feast Event

      Kurinji kathambam

      kurinji kudil

      Reply
    16. Monika

      January 13, 2011 at 11:14 am

      very nice

      Reply
    17. Harini Rupanagudi

      April 19, 2021 at 7:35 am

      5 stars
      Pongal is a favorite of mine and I love to experiment with different combinations of cereals and dals and this one is one of the easiest, right? Love the pictures.

      Reply
    18. Radha

      April 21, 2021 at 6:19 am

      5 stars
      This is comforting tiffin and we loved it. Thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    19. NARMADHA

      April 25, 2021 at 10:07 pm

      5 stars
      Absolutely in love with your Rava Pongal. I tried it yesterday for breakfast and it was absolutely melting in the mouth with perfect taste and texture. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

      Reply
    20. sushma pinjala

      May 11, 2021 at 6:07 am

      Rava pongal sounds interesting and looks yummy too. Must try sometime.

      Reply
    21. Suma Gandlur

      May 16, 2021 at 2:55 am

      I feel like grabbing that pongal plate of yours. This is healthier than the standard pongal version and a favorite at our home.

      Reply

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