Pongal 2023: 3 easy and traditional recipes to cook Pongal at home

Pongal is just around the corner, which is also popularly known as the harvest festival. In Tamil Nadu, this festival is celebrated as the beginning of the New Year. 

The festival of Makar Sankranti, Lohri, and Vasant Panchami is celebrated in this month of January. Makar Sankranti is known by different names in different states. In Gujarat, Makar Sankranti is called Uttarayan, while in southern states it is celebrated as Pongal. Pongal is an important festival in the southern states. It is for four days, in which Lord Surya Dev is worshipped. Now the topic of festivals is coming, so it is natural that the topic of food will come up. During this, many types of delicious dishes are prepared at home.

Here are some delicious recipes that you can make at your home for the festival of Pongal.
 
1. Sakkarai Pongal

Ingredients required

• Moong Dal - 1 cup
• Raw white rice - 1 cup
• Jaggery - 4 cups
• cashews, raisins
• Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp
• water as needed
• Ghee

Recipe to make

Put the washed moong dal and rice in a pan and pour 2 to 3 cups of water on it. Cook the lentils in the cooker till 10 whistles and then let it cool down.
 
Take a pan and grate jaggery in it and add 1/4 cup of water and melt it on low flame.
 
Take a small frying pan, add one tablespoon of ghee and let it melt. Fry cashews and raisins till they turn golden brown.
 
Open the lid of the pressure cooker and mash the rice and dal mixture with a ladle until it becomes soft.
 
Now your pressure cooker has to be kept on low flame and pour the jaggery mixture into the mash and mix till everything is mixed. When it starts boiling, put two tablespoons of ghee and cardamom powder in it. After this mix it well.
 
Keep stirring this mixture so that it does not stick to the bottom. Finally, before the mixture cools down a bit, add cashews and raisins to it. After that serve it.
 
 
2. Ven or Khara Pongal

Ingredients required

• Raw white rice - 1/2 cup
• Moong Dal - 1/2 cup
• Water
• Ghee - 3 tbsp
• Ground black pepper
• Cumin
• Curry leaves
• Cashew
• Asafoetida powder - 1|4 tsp
• Salt
• Chilly

 
Recipe

Wash the rice and soak it for half an hour and wash the dal.
 
Heat the pressure cooker and put washed and filtered lentils and rice in it. Fry it on medium heat till the rice becomes slightly transparent. Add 2 tbsp ghee to the mixture of rice and lentils and mix. Keep it aside for some time.
 
Add a teaspoon cumin and chopped green chilies to the dal mixture and stir. Stir the mixture by adding four cups of water. After this you can add salt. Cook in a pressure cooker on medium heat till 10 whistles.
 
Open the lid and run the mash.
 
Take a frying pan and heat a tablespoon of ghee in it. Add broken cashews and fry till they turn golden.
 
Add one teaspoon cumin, fresh black pepper, a pinch of asafoetida and curry leaves and fry well. Pour the mixture into the mash and mix well. Serve it with sambar.
 
3. Rava Pongal

Ingredients required

• Rava/Sooju - 1 cup
• Moong Dal - 1/2 cup
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
• Ground black pepper - 1 tbsp
• Chopped ginger - 1 tbsp
• Green chili chopped - 3
• Curry leaves - 8-10
• Garlic - 3 cloves chopped
• Cumin - 1 tsp
• Asafoetida powder - 1/2 tsp
• Salt
• Water - 4 cups
• Milk - 1/2 cup
• Ghee - 2 tbsp
• Sunflower oil - 2 teaspoons

 
Recipe
 
Dry roast the rava and keep it aside. Then dry roast the lentils and take out the roasted lentils in a bowl and soak them in a cup of water.
 
Before adding moong dal, boil water in a pressure cooker and put it in boiling water.
 
Mix turmeric powder and salt. Let it boil for 5 minutes.
 
Pour the roasted rava into the liquid mixture and keep stirring so that lumps do not form in the rava.
 
Cover the pressure cooker and leave it for two whistles.
 
When the steam comes out, stir well.
 
Put on the heat again and add milk, let it boil on low heat.
 
Heat oil in a separate pan. Add cumin, crushed black pepper, cashew, ginger, green chili, curry leaves, asafoetida powder and mix all these ingredients well.
 
Pour this mixture on the Pongal mixture and cook on low heat for 2 minutes. Add ghee to it. Now serve it.