Rava Pongal is a delicious breakfast dish from South of India. It is comparable to ven pongal but made with rava as an alternative 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 might be made under half-hour and makes a filling start for the day.
Rava Pongal
Coming from the Southern a part of India, we make pongal often for breakfast. At any time when we make pongal, we have now to commit ourself and make the accompaniments that go together with it like coconut chutney and sambar. Because ven pongal by itself is pretty bland so it needs some side dish to go together with it. Somedays I search for a neater option which provides me the satisfaction that I get when eating ven pongal. At those times rava pongal is my go-to breakfast.
Among the other pongal variations which I make are using Millets, Sweet & Oats Pongal.
About Rava Pongal
Rava also referred to as sooji (semolina), It’s one in all the highest picked breakfast ingredient. We make number of dishes using rava. Among the hottest 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 vital 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 two whistle which makes it cook rather a lot faster. You may 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 essential for flavour.
Ginger, Chillies & Curry Leaves – finely chop ginger and green chillies before adding pongal. You may even grate ginger.
Tempering Spices – cumin seeds, whole pepper, chana dal and asafoetida are the most important spices. But you may add cashews as well.
Ghee – use pure desi cows ghee for making pongal.
Rava & Moong Dal Ratio for Pongal

I prefer to make use of ½ cup moong dal for each one cup rava or sooji. I feel this ratio is ideal for the taste and texture. Also it helps to extend the protein level within the dish. If you would like to reduce, you need to use ¼ cup moong dal for 1 cup of sooji.
I take advantage of effective number of sooji which is double roasted. 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’s 1 cup sooji to 4 cups water. This offers me perfect soft texture all the time.

Expert Suggestions
- Dry roast moong dal and rava before cooking for flavour.
- For those who do not have a pressure cooker, you may directly cook moong dal in a pot. You may have to add more water.
- Normally pongal has plenty of ghee, so do not feel shy so as to add more.
- while adding sooji, add it in a gradual flow while mixing consistently, else chances are you’ll get lumps.

The best way to Make Rava Pongal (Stepwise Pictures)
Cooking Moong Dal
1)Dry roast ½ cup moong dal in a pan for 4 to five minutes till it gets light golden and fragrant. Add in 1.5 cup of water to moong dal and pressure cook for two whistle. Let the pressure release by itself, open the cooker to examine whether the dal is cooked. Put 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 two to three minutes till fragrant and light-weight golden in color.

3)Though I used double roasted sooji, I wish to roast it well for flavour.

Cooking Rava Pongal
4)Add within the cooked moong dal into the pot. You may make this pongal directly within the pressure cooker as well.

5)To the moong dal I added 4 cups of water. You would like 4 cups of water for each 1 cup of sooji. Add in salt to taste.

6)Bring this to a full boil. Let it boil for two miniutes.

7)Now reduce the flame and slowly add within the roasted sooji little at a time. Keep mixing as you add the sooji in so you aren’t getting any lumps.

8)Once the sooji is mixed completely. Add in 2 tbsp of ghee and blend well.

9)Cover the pot with a lid and cook on very low heat for six to eight minutes. The sooji will likely be cooked at the moment.

10)Now the rava pongal is cooked completely. It would look little soft in texture that’s what we want. Because because it cools, the pongal will thicken much more.

Tempering Spices in Ghee
11)Now lets make tempering for the pongal. I used the identical saute pan which I used for roasting sooji. Heat ghee within the pan. Add in split chana dal, whole black peppercorn and cumin seeds. Allow them to fry on low medium heat for 1 minute.

12)Add in finely chopped ginger and green chillies. Once it’s fried a little bit, add in asafoetida.

13)Finally add in curry leaves and cook till golden. Turn off the warmth.

Serving Rava Pongal
14)Pour the tempering into the cooked rava pongal.

15)Mix it rather well, you may add extra ghee if you would like 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 five minutes till light golden in color. Take it in a bowl and wash it rather well. Add it to pressure cooker and canopy with 1.5 cup of water. Pressure cook for two 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 must be cooked completely and no water must be left within the cooker. Put 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 put aside.
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In a separate pot, add in cooked moong dal, together with 4 cups of water and salt. Mix this well and convey it to a full boil. Cook for two minutes.
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Now reduce the flame, add within the roasted sooji, little at a time and keep mixing so no lumps are formed. Add in 2 tbsp of ghee and blend. Cover and cook on low heat for six to eight 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 blend. Add in green chillies, ginger, curry leaves and asafoetida. Mix well.
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Pour this tempering over the pongal and blend 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.
- For those who do not have a pressure cooker, you may directly cook moong dal in a pot. You may have to add more water.
- Normally pongal has plenty of ghee, so do not feel shy so as to add more.
- while adding sooji, add it in a gradual flow while mixing consistently, else chances are you’ll 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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