Ven Pongal is my favourite form of ‘risotto’ish rice dish that is flavoured with ginger, pepper, cumin and has a tadka with generous ghee and cashews. It is full of wonderful carbs and is a complete comfort meal. It is usually made with raw rice or any short-grained rice, moong dal however in recent years, there are several versions using millets and alternate grains. In this recipe, I have used whole green moong sprouts with rice to make this a highly nutritious and delicious meal!
Sprouted mung beans, also known as pacha payaru in tamil and sabut moong in hindi are a good source of plant protein. They are also full of essential fiber and are versatile to use in salads, stirfries, sabzis or even had as such as a snack. Making these at home is easy, although this recipe works well with storebought sprouts too.
Making Green Moong Sprouts at home
Rinse a cup of green moong beans several times and transfer to a clean bowl. Add clean water to it and ensure all the beans are fully covered. There has to be sufficient water in the vessel used to soak beans.
Cover the bowl and let it soak overnight or for 8 hours. After that time, drain and rinse the beans again.
Now, add the drained beans to a colander and cover with a cloth. Keep it in a warm place for 8-10 hours. Ensure there is some moisture with the sprouts, but it should not be wet or dripping with water.
If you have an Instant pot, add the soaked and drained beans to a pot and keep it inside the Instant Pot. Set it on YOGHURT mode for 8 hours.
It will take about 1-2 days depending on where you live for sprouts to appear. Once completely sprouted, add to an airtight container and store in the fridge for up to three days.
Now, you are ready to use them in this Green Moong Sprouts Ven Pongal recipe!
Ven Pongal with Green Moong Sprouts
Ingredients
To pressure cook
- ¾ cup rice short grained rice works best. usually, raw rice is used. i have used jeeraga samba.
- 2 tbsp moong dal
- 1 cup green moong sprouts
- 1 tbsp grated ginger
- ½ tsp hing
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp ground pepper
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- 3 cups water
For Tadka
- 2 tbsp ghee+oil
- 2-3 tbsp cashews
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp cumin
- few curry leaves
- about half a cup of hot water to adjust consistency of pongal
Instructions
- To a pressure cooker or vessel ( if using an inner vessel to pressure cook), add all the ingredients listed under 'To pressure cook'
- To make in a Pressure Cooker – Cook for 4-5 whistles and let pressure fully settle.
- To make in an Instant Pot – Pressure cook mode for 8 minutes. Let pressure release naturally.`
- To a pan, add ghee+oil and make a tadka with cashews, pepper, cumin, curry leaves.
- Add the tadka to the cooked pongal and mix well. Add a little water if necessary for consistency.
- Serve pongal with a chutney, sambar or gotsu.
Notes
- I prefer using a mix of ghee and oil for pongal ( 75% ghee, 25% oil) so that the pongal remains in the right consistency after a few hours.
- Adding moong dal helps with a beautiful aroma. Sprouts can sometimes smell a little off and this helps to mask it.
Ven Pongal is one of my favourite childhood memories! It was our sunday brunch with brinjal gotsu. Growing up, we had several meals around this on lazy morning chatting about all things in life. It is still a ritual for us here, now many decades later. I made this some apprehension, but my very discerning and observant husband loved it! He infact mentioned there is no difference at all in taste.
If you love simple home meals like this, you will also enjoy these recipes.
Please leave a comment below if you made this recipe, have any questions or thoughts! Your comment will help me learn more about your preferences and will help other readers.
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4 Comments
Swathi Dayanand
December 18, 2021 at 9:25 pmHands down the best version of Ven Pongal I’ve tasted till date! The super simple recipe makes for a sumptuous dish that’s extremely tasty and healthy at the same time. A must try!
myflavourfactory
January 10, 2022 at 2:23 pmSo glad you tried ,thanks swathi.
Hungryhouseindia review
November 16, 2022 at 4:49 pmHello Arch,
Thank you so much your ven pongal recipe is the best. Your recipe is always better I can make it. Your recipe like our family member. This ven pongal recipe is available in online resentment hungryhouse.in
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