Healthy Brown Rice Pongal Recipe
Give a healthy spin to the traditional Pongal recipe by using brown rice instead of white rice.
Ingredients
- ¾ cup Brown Rice
- ½ cup Moong Daal
- 3 and ¼ cups Water
- 1 teaspoon Black Pepper Powder
- 2 teaspoons Cumin
- 1 tablespoon Grated Ginger
- as per taste Salt
- 1 tablespoon Ghee
- 5 to 6 Curry Leaves
- As Needed Cashews Broken Into Small Pieces (Optional)
Instructions
- Wash the rice and daal together a couple of times. Add the rice, daal, water, pepper powder, cumin and grated ginger in a pressure cooker directly and let it stand for at least 30 minutes. Soaking brown rice in water before cooking is suggested for added health benefits. You need not do this if using white rice.
- Cook it in low-medium heat and leave it for 6 whistles. Switch of the stove and remove the cooker from the stove.
- Meanwhile in a small frying pan heat the ghee, add the curry leaves and fry the cashew pieces (if using) until golden brown.
- Once you are able to open the cooker add required amount of salt and pour the heated ghee and mix well.
- Eat it hot with chutney, sambar or the traditional accompaniment Eggplant Gojju or Gothsu.
Notes
- Pongal is made with white rice (preferably ponni raw rice or even sona masuri). To adopt a healthy lifestyle I have used brown rice instead.
- Traditionally rice and daal are cooked first. Then ghee is heated, to fry cumin, pepper, ginger and cashews, which is added to the cooked rice. You could do it either way.
- Also whole peppercorns are used for pongal. In our house we don't like biting full peppers, so I use black pepper powder.
