Rava Pongal | Semolina Pongal | Easy Breakfast Recipe
Rava Pongal is a soft, delicious savoury pudding made with Semolina (Rava) and cooked Moong dal (lentil). Served as a breakfast or light dinner with chutney / sambhar.
Equipment
- Pressure Cooker Sub with Open Pot, See Notes
- Thick Bottomed Pan
- Ladle
- Grater
Ingredients
- 1 cup Semolina Rava / Bombay Rava / Sooji
- 1/4 cup Split Green gram Moong Dal / Pasi Paruppu
- 3.5 cups Hot water use as needed, See Notes
- 4 TBSP Ghee
- 1.5 tsp Salt or to taste
- 1 tsp Cumin seeds jeera
- 1/2 tsp Whole black pepper Milagu
- 1 tsp Grated ginger
- 1/4 tsp Asafoetida Hing, skip for GF
- 1/4 tsp Turmeric
- 1 TBSP Cashew bits
- 1 sprig Curry leaves
Instructions
- Dry roast cumin, pepper. Powder this coarsely.
- In a pan, heat 1 tsp ghee. Roast the moong dal till nice aroma wafts out. Transfer to a plate. Soak the moong dal in 1/2 cup of water for 20 mins. Pressure cook for 2 whistles with little water till soft and mushy, keep aside.
- I would like to boil the soaked dal in an open pan for 15-20 till done, but not mushy (see pic collage here)
- In a thick bottomed pan, add 2 TBSP more of rava / sooji and roast like you would roast for Upma on medium flame till aromatic. Add the crushed cumin and pepper powder from step 1 and roast for 1 more min. Cool
- Bring 3.5 cups of water to a rolling boil, add a pinch of turmeric and add the cooked dal with the cooked dal.
- When the mixture comes to a rolling boil, add the salt and turmeric, and the roasted sooji mixture in batches and slowly whisk to get a upma kind of consistency. Add 1 tsp more of ghee, mix and cook covered for 5-7 mins.
- In a non stick pan, add the remaining ghee, fry cashew, asafoetida, grated ginger and curry leaves. Add this tempering to the pongal, check for salt and spices. Add any remaining ghee and mix well.
- Serve hot with coriander - coconut Chutney / Tiffin Sambhar or even Gothsu like we did
Notes
Tips and tricks to get soft and gooey pongal
- Do not scrimp on ghee, else you would get a dry consistency of this pongal which isn't appeasing. and yes , like most pongal varieties, this needs to be had piping hot as is or with Tiffin Sambhar / Coconut Chutney /coriander - coconut Chutney / Thakkali Chutney/ Gothsu (Spicy tamarind gravy : our preferred side dish)
- Roast the Rava (Semolina) well to ensure it fluffs up beautifully when the pongal is made
- If making this pongal in the cooker, then the water / cooking time would vary. Adjust accordingly.
- Keep a kettle full of boiling water to adjust the gooey consistency. Do not add cold / room temperature as it forms lumps in the pongal. The quantum of hot water required to make this pongal totally depends on the quality and quantity of semolina and dal required. As a rule of thumb, you need about 3.5 cups of hot water (excluding the water needed to boil the dal) for every cup of medium grit semolina.
- FIne Semolina (Chiroti rava) is usually not used in this recipe. If using, adjust water proportion accordingly.
- If you don't have / use Semolina, you can sub with Godhuma Rava (cracked wheat) and make the Godhuma Rava similarly. Click here for the recipe
- Give the pongal a good resting time - about 5 mins after its done. It will set well and you can scoop it out well, else it may be gooey but lumpy
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