Multigrain Flakes Pongal | Khara Pongal with Multigrain

Course Breakfast, Brunch, Dinner, Main Course

Cuisine South-Indian

Keyword Easy digesting Pongal recipe, Healthy Pongal, How to make khara pongal, Khara pongal recipe, Multigrain pongal, Saovry Pongal recipe, Venpongal recipe, Whole grain pongal recipe

Prep Time 5

Cook Time 30

Total Time 35

Calories 1613kcal

Equipment

Pressure cooker

Ingredients

¾ cup multigrain flakes a mix of oats, wheat, rye and barley
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 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.

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 hot tadka, add multigrain flakes. Sauté for 3-5 minutes in a medium flame, until becomes nicely roasted and changes color to a bit golden brown.
To this warm and toasty multigrain flakes, now add soft cooked moong dal and mix. To the moong dal vessel add 1½ cups of water and add it to the pan.
Add salt to this and let it cook for a good 8-10 minutes until the multigrain flakes cook and become soft.
Once the multigrain flakes turns soft, now add freshly pounded pepper to this and throw the butter cubes. Adding butter is purely optional, if vegan you can skip this.
Finally add roasted almonds or cashews, 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