Rava Pongal is a staple South Indian dish originated from the state of Tamil Nadu.

A special dish that is cooked during the auspicious occasion of Pongal and also consumed for breakfast with dollop of ghee served with sambhar or coconut chutney.

Being from the Northern part of India, I didn't know much about pongal dishes apart from the festival Pongal which coincides with Makar Sankranti in North. The sweet version of Pongal (Sakkarai Pongal) is made with rice, milk and jaggery. The savoury version made with lentils and rice (Vel Pongal) and other variations with rava or whole cracked wheat.

What is Pongal

Rava Pongal, is such an easy to make dish and is commonly had for breakfast. It is a no-onion no-garlic dish that is very light on stomach. A spoonful of ghee on hot Pongal makes it so divine.

It is a protein packed dish that is ideal for light meals also. Ghee adds on to the flavour of it, but for a vegan version use any plant based oil or butter.

This tastes best when hot and fresh and thickens once it starts to cool. You can always add some water to adjust the consistency and some ghee to it when having the leftovers.

This is the first time I am trying a Pongal recipe. I made it two days back to try it and then made it again for Sunday light dinner as we has quite late lunch of our staple Rajma(Masala) Chawal.

We like many South Indian dishes which are regular in my house like Upma, Idlis(Rava and Ragi), Dosa. I recently tried this Moong Dal Kheer(Paitham Paruppu Payasam or Paramannam) that was loved by my family.

Celebration time at Foodie Monday Bloghop

Foodie Monday bloghop my facebook food group completes its 200th week. I joined the group in Nov'18, where my first post for the group was Kale and Spinach Saag With Paneer Koftas . After that I have hardly missed any week except one.. Do visit the group page to see some of the wonderful work done by other fellow bloggers.

For #200notout, where we were partnered with a fellow blogger whose name comes after our name in alphabetical order(Round Robin theme). I am paired with multi-talented Veena who has a years of blogging experience and has a wonderful vegetarian blog!!!

Veenas Vegenation, her blog is a treasure of recipes from traditional South Indian vegetarian dishes and meals to the recipes from all over the world. Rice is a staple in many South Indian kitchens but recently she has given up rice in her meals and cooks with with healthy grains like millets, quinoa and many more. If you are looking for recipes on that lines do head to her blog. Chutneys, salads, dips, breads and cake you will find everything on her blog with a healthy take on the recipe.

I decided to make Rava Pongal from here blog, as it is a dish that I wanted to try for quite some time, and it is an authentic South Indian dish made on auspicious occasions, also it is celebration time in group.

To make Rava Pongal, we need coarse Rava or Sooji or Semolina. Moong Dal, you can take Split Moong Lentils (yellow) or Green Gram dal. I used Split Green Moong Lentils here.

Other ingredients are.. ghee, fresh curry leaves, black pepper powder, cumin seeds and fresh ginger(fresh ginger is not visible in pics as I forgot to keep it while taking pics).

How to cook Rava Pongal..

Pongal means to overflow. Traditionally it is cooked in open pans where the pot full of the milk overflows and people consider it as an auspicious sign, signifying the harvest.

I cooked Dal in pressure cooker, rest cooking I did in another pan.

Let's see how I made this simple and comforting Rava Pongal...

Recipe adapted from here..Veenas Vegenation

We relished hot pongal as it is without any chutney or sambar, just with spoonful of ghee and licked our bowls clean. It was such a comforting and filling meal. Kids too loved it.

If you haven't tried Rava Pongal yet, do try it. Trust me you will love this simple and yet so rich in flavours from curry leaves, cumin, black pepper and ginger.

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