Couscous Pongal | Couscous Savory Pongal

Couscous Pongal | Couscous Savory Pongal

Savory Pongal made with couscous and moong dal. A quick and delish alternative to savory pongal made with rice or millets.

Course Breakfast, Brunch, Main Course

Cuisine South-Indian

Keyword Easy Ven Pongal, Khara pongal recipe, Pongal with couscous, Quick and easy savory pongal, Savory pongal recipe, Ven pongal recipe, Venpongal recipe

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 25

Total Time 35

Servings

Calories 325kcal

Equipment

Pressure cooker

Ingredients

¾ cup Couscous
½ cup Moong dal/Pasi paruppu
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
1 teaspoon black peppercorns crushed
1 teaspoon salt or to taste
20 grams butter or ghee approximately 3-4 tbsp
4 tablespoon roasted almonds or cashews i used silvered almonds

Tempering

3 tablespoon oil/ghee according to preference, I used groundnut oil
½ teaspoon mustard seeds/kadugu
¼ teaspoon hing/asafoetida
1 teaspoon cumin seeds/jeera
1-2 teaspoon chopped ginger
1 no green chili, chopped
few curry leaves

Instructions

Measure and keep all ingredients ready on the counter. Wash moong dal 2-3 times with plain water.
Take moong dal in a vessel that fits inside your pressure cooker. Add twice or thrice the amount of hot water and turmeric powder. Pressure cook for 3-4 whistles or until soft. Let the pressure fall on its own.
While moong dal is cooking, take couscous in a large bowl. Add 2 cups of hot water to this, mix well. Keep it covered until dal is ready.
Couscous will absorb the added water and will become soft. It can be used as such used in any other recipe too.
Once the pressure releases. Remove the dal from the cooker, mash it roughly with a ladle.

Let us Do the Tadka

Heat oil/ghee in a heavy bottom pan. Once hot, splutter mustard seeds. Add hing, curry leaves, chopped green chili and ginger.
To this sizzling tadka, finally add cumin and add the mashed dal to this. Add ½ cup water to the dal vessel and add it to the pan.
Now dump the cooked couscous into this dal tadka mixture. Mix well. Add salt and let it boil.
Let this cook for a good 8-10 minutes, turning nice creamy and saucy. To this add freshly pounded pepper, mix well.
Finally add roasted almonds or cashews to this and the butter, mix well and take it off the stove
Do not cook it until dry. Pongal tends to become dry as it rests. So make sure you remove the pongal when it is saucy, not watery, not dry, just saucy.
Remove it from heat and serve it warm with chutney and sambar.

Notes

The tadka for Pongal can be done entirely with ghee also. I chose to do with groundnut oil and finally added butter. If Vegan, you can skip adding butter.
We prefer to enjoy Pongal warm. So I would not recommend this for kids lunch box.
It is good choice for adults, if packed in a hot pack.
Pongal tends to become dry as it rest. When I say dry, I don't mean bone dry, i meant it sort of clumps and becomes like a mash. So remove it while it is still saucy, so it doesn't become clumpy as it rests.
If you have made it ahead, just add 2-3 tablespoon water or milk mixed with water , mix and heat it. Serve it warm and enjoy.

Nutrition