Rava Pongal is a delicious breakfast dish from South of India. It is similar to ven pongal but made with rava instead of rice. This rava pongal is made with sooji or semolina and moong dal tempered with black pepper, cumin, and spices in ghee. Since rava cooks faster, this breakfast can be made under 30 minutes and makes a filling start for the day.
Rava Pongal
Coming from the Southern part of India, we make pongal often for breakfast. Whenever we make pongal, we have to commit ourself and make the accompaniments that go with it like coconut chutney and sambar. Because ven pongal by itself is pretty bland so it needs some side dish to go with it. Somedays I look for an easier option which gives me the satisfaction that I get when eating ven pongal. At those times rava pongal is my go-to breakfast.
Some of the other pongal variations which I make are using Millets, Sweet & Oats Pongal.
About Rava Pongal
Rava also known as sooji (semolina), It is one of the top picked breakfast ingredient. We make variety of dishes using rava. Some of the most popular breakfast recipes include rava dosa, rava idli, upma and rava kichadi.
Let’s not stick sooji | rava to breakfast alone. It makes one of the most popular dessert kesari from South India & sheera from North India.
Rava pongal is made with sooji, split yellow moong dal. Moong dal is cooked in prior and sooji is added to it later and cooked. This pongal gets a flavourful tempering using ghee, black pepper, cumin seeds, chana dal, ginger, green chilli, asafoetida and curry leaves.
I dry roast and pressure cook moong dal for 2 whistle which makes it cook a lot faster. You can serve rava pongal with coconut chutney, sambar, tomato gotsu or brinjal gotsu.
Watch Rava Pongal Video
Rava Pongal Ingredients
Rava | Sooji – Roast the sooji before adding in pongal for flavour.
Yellow Moong Dal – split pasi paruppu is dry roasted and pressure cooked. Roasting the dal is important for flavour.
Ginger, Chillies & Curry Leaves – finely chop ginger and green chillies before adding pongal. You can even grate ginger.
Tempering Spices – cumin seeds, whole pepper, chana dal and asafoetida are the main spices. But you can add cashews as well.
Ghee – use pure desi cows ghee for making pongal.
Rava & Moong Dal Ratio for Pongal
I prefer to use ½ cup moong dal for every one cup rava or sooji. I think this ratio is perfect for the taste and texture. Also it helps to increase the protein level in the dish. If you want to reduce, you can use ¼ cup moong dal for 1 cup of sooji.
I use fine variety of sooji which is double roasted. Even though I used doubled roasted sooji, I roasted it in ghee for fresh aroma and flavour.
I follow my same water ratio which I used for my rava kichadi. It is 1 cup sooji to 4 cups water. This gives me perfect soft texture always.
Expert Tips
- Dry roast moong dal and rava before cooking for flavour.
- If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can directly cook moong dal in a pot. You might need to add more water.
- Usually pongal has lots of ghee, so don’t feel shy to add more.
- while adding sooji, add it in a steady flow while mixing constantly, else you may get lumps.
How to Make Rava Pongal (Stepwise Pictures)
Cooking Moong Dal
1)Dry roast ½ cup moong dal in a pan for 4 to 5 minutes till it gets light golden and fragrant. Add in 1.5 cup of water to moong dal and pressure cook for 2 whistle. Let the pressure release by itself, open the cooker to check whether the dal is cooked. Set aside till use.
Roasting Sooji
2)Heat 1 tsp of ghee in a pan. I used my saute pan. Add sooji (rava) into the ghee and dry roast for 2 to 3 minutes till aromatic and light golden in colour.
3)Even though I used double roasted sooji, I like to roast it well for flavour.
Cooking Rava Pongal
4)Add in the cooked moong dal into the pot. You can make this pongal directly in the pressure cooker as well.
5)To the moong dal I added 4 cups of water. You need 4 cups of water for every 1 cup of sooji. Add in salt to taste.
6)Bring this to a full boil. Let it boil for 2 miniutes.
7)Now reduce the flame and slowly add in the roasted sooji little at a time. Keep mixing as you add the sooji in so you don’t get any lumps.
8)Once the sooji is mixed completely. Add in 2 tbsp of ghee and mix well.
9)Cover the pot with a lid and cook on very low heat for 6 to 8 minutes. The sooji will be cooked at this time.
10)Now the rava pongal is cooked completely. It will look little soft in texture that is what we need. Because as it cools, the pongal will thicken even more.
Tempering Spices in Ghee
11)Now lets make tempering for the pongal. I used the same saute pan which I used for roasting sooji. Heat ghee in the pan. Add in split chana dal, whole black peppercorn and cumin seeds. Let them fry on low medium heat for 1 minute.
12)Add in finely chopped ginger and green chillies. Once it is fried a little, add in asafoetida.
13)Finally add in curry leaves and cook till golden. Turn off the heat.
Serving Rava Pongal
14)Pour the tempering into the cooked rava pongal.
15)Mix it really well, you can add extra ghee if you want to.
16)Serve rava pongal with coconut chutney or sambar.
More Pongal Recipes
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Rava Pongal | Rava Pongal Recipe
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Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 518kcal
Equipment
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Pressure cooker
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Cooking pot
Instructions
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Start by cooking moong dal. Dry roast split yellow moong dal in a pan for 3 to 5 minutes till light golden in colour. Take it in a bowl and wash it really well. Add it to pressure cooker and cover with 1.5 cup of water. Pressure cook for 2 whistle. Switch off the flame and let the pressure release by itself. Open the cooker and check whether the dal is cooked. Now the dal should be cooked completely and no water should be left in the cooker. Set aside till use.
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In a separate pan add a tbsp of ghee and roast sooji in ghee for couple of minutes till fragrant. Remove and set aside.
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In a separate pot, add in cooked moong dal, along with 4 cups of water and salt. Mix this well and bring it to a full boil. Cook for 2 minutes.
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Now reduce the flame, add in the roasted sooji, little at a time and keep mixing so no lumps are formed. Add in 2 tbsp of ghee and mix. Cover and cook on low heat for 6 to 8 minutes.
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Now in a separate pan, make tempering. Heat ghee, add in chana dal, pepper and cumin seeds. Allow it to sizzle, add in cashews and mix. Add in green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and asafoetida. Mix well.
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Pour this tempering over the pongal and mix well. Add more ghee if required. Serve hot rava pongal with coconut chutney or sambar.
Notes
- Dry roast moong dal and rava before cooking for flavour.
- If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can directly cook moong dal in a pot. You might need to add more water.
- Usually pongal has lots of ghee, so don’t feel shy to add more.
- while adding sooji, add it in a steady flow while mixing constantly, else you may get lumps.
Nutrition
Serving: 1servings | Calories: 518kcal | Carbohydrates: 34g | Protein: 9g | Fat: 39g | Saturated Fat: 24g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Monounsaturated Fat: 12g | Cholesterol: 96mg | Sodium: 39mg | Potassium: 255mg | Fiber: 7g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 28IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 35mg | Iron: 3mg
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