Broken Wheat Khara Pongal

Broken Wheat Khara Pongal is a healthier version of traditional ven pongal or khara pongal and this south Indian breakfast dish made with broken wheat & yellow moong lentils in ghee along with few Indian spices.A hearty spicy porridge style dish to start your day on a healthy note and also perfect festive recipe & one pot healthy meal.

Khara Pongal is a spicy & savory pongal that is rich, healthy, delicious and savory. It is specially prepared during the harvest festival of sankranti. Pongal is also prepared in South Indian homes for special occasions like pooja, marriages or in temples as naivedyam. Pair it with sambar and coconut chutney for a complete gastronomical experience.

January is the month when tamilians celebrate Pongal, the harvest festival. This is a four-day affair and it involves lots of good eats, including two namesake dishes made with the newly harvested rice and lentils, one sweet and the other savory. The sweet kind, with jaggery added to it, is called sakkarai or chakkara pongal.

It is food you can eat year-round, for breakfast, for lunch, for dinner, or for a snack. It’s easy to make and easy to digest. And it tastes amazing.

All you need to make it, besides the broken wheat(fada) and lentils, are a handful of ingredients, including cumin seeds, peppercorns, ginger and cashew nuts. The spices offer not just flavor but also warmth to the body during the winter months. One more key ingredient in Pongal is ghee. Oodles of it, because the ghee here is not just the medium for the tempering, it’s also an important flavor agent.

HEALTH BENEFITS OF BROKEN WHEAT:

Broken wheat is rich in fiber than ordinary wheat as it is not polished and does not lose any of its nutrients during the process. Cracked or broken wheat is full of iron, protein, and calcium. It is also an excellent source of magnesium and phosphorous. It is also more nutritious than white rice, refined flour as it has more fiber, vitamins, minerals and the glycemic index is lower.

You might like other pongal recipes,

Kodo Millet Pongal

Sakkarai Pongal

Here is how to make this delicious Broken Wheat Khara Pongal,

Broken Wheat Khara Pongal Recipe:

Ingredients:

1 cup Broken Wheat/Dalia
1/2 cup moong dal (mung lentils — the tiny, yellow ones)
4 cups water
1 tbsp ginger, grated
2 tsp black peppercorns (you can use more or less based on your preference)
2 green chillies
1 tbsp ghee
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/4 cup raw cashews
few curry leaves
Salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Wash and soak the broken wheat and moong dal for 15 mins.
2. In a pressure cooker,add the soaked wheat,dal,ginger,green chillies,peppercorns and salt with 4 cups of water.Cook for 5 whistles and allow to naturally release the pressure.
3. Once the wheat and lentils are cooked, they should have a slightly runny, creamy consistency. Stir with a ladle, mashing the rice and lentils a bit, and add a little more water if needed to get to this consistency. If you add more water, do it over medium heat so the rice warms through.
4. Make the tempering by heating the ghee in a skillet. Add the cumin seeds, curry leaves and stir for a minute.
5. Add the nuts and stir until lightly golden.
6. Add the tempering to the cooked dalia and lentils. Mix well.
7. Serve hot with coconut chutney and sambhar.

Notes:

1. You can also even crush and add the peppercorns to the pongal
2. For making it as vegan version,you can replace ghee with coconut oil

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