Millet Pongal

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Millet Pongal is an authentic South Indian breakfast recipe but with millet grain instead of rice. Pongal is truly a comfort dish that is so easy to make yet healthy and can have it for any meal of the day.

Though Pongal is a traditional breakfast recipe, I make it for lunch and dinner also, usually when we run out of veggies or time. This millet Pongal is a simple recipe that even bachelor’s or men can do it effortlessly.

You can make this millet Pongal with any type of small millets like Foxtail millet, little millet, proso millet, Kodo millet.

And whenever I make this Ven Pongal recipe, I also make Sweet Pongal along with it.

Hot Pongal with a dollop of ghee is my comfort food any day!

Let us begin making millet Ven Pongal recipe:

Cooking millet dal mixture in an Instant pot

• Add washed millet, washed moong dal to the Instant Pot inner pot

• Now add water, crushed ginger(optional) to it, and close the lid.

• Seal the vent of Instant Pot and select manual mode. Cook for 8 minutes on high pressure.
• It will take around 10 to 12 minutes for pressure to build up. Once the Instant pot stops, wait for 10 minutes and do a manual pressure release.
• Add salt and give a good stir to millet lentil mixture. You can add more water as per your choice of consistency.

Cooking millet lentil mixture in a pressure cooker or electric rice cooker

• Add washed millet, washed mung dal to the pressure cooker, or electric rice cooker inner pot.
• Now add water, crushed ginger(optional), and pressure cook for 2 to 3 whistles. Once pressure is released naturally, add salt, mix the cooked millet dal and add water to adjust the consistency.
• If using an electric rice cooker, cook until it is done and add salt. You can add water to adjust the consistency as you desire.

Making tadka for ven Pongal

• Heat a small pan and add oil to it.
• Once the oil is hot, add cumin seeds, cashews, curry leaves, pepper powder, a pinch of hing, and let them fry for a couple of minutes and switch off the flame.
• You can add a handful of peanuts also.

• Add this tadka and salt to the millet lentil mixture and stir it well. You can add water to adjust the consistency.
• Close the lid for a couple of minutes for the flavor to steep into the dish.

Recipe notes:

• I usually soak my millet for more nutrient bioavailability. And If you are soaking millet, you can cook for 6 minutes on high pressure in an Instant Pot. 
• We cannot get the taste of temple Pongal, but the roasting of moong dal makes the difference. If you have time, roast moong dal till it turns little brown and then wash it, cook it as described in the recipe.
• You can make this Millet Pongal with plain white rice or hand pounded rice. 
• The same cooking time works for rice also. But these cooking times will not work for brown rice. As I haven’t tried brown rice, I cannot mention timings for it.
• You can make this Pongal recipe with quinoa or mix of quinoa and millet also. The same timings work for cooking quinoa and lentil mixture.
• Crushed ginger is optional but adds so much flavor to the Pongal. You can remove it once the millet mixture is cooked. You can even add dry ginger powder to the tadka if you are not using fresh ginger.

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