I absolutely love simple, quick and healthy meals. I cook a lot at home and have family members with a whole gamut of varied dietary needs, personal taste and frankly fussy eating. Any recipe that is dump everything in and what comes out is amazing, works for me. This is one of those recipes. It is quick and so delicious it’s not even funny. Cracked wheat, sorghum, oat groats, brown rice, bulgar wheat, farro, freekeh- almost all and any heathy grains will work. This healthy substitute is high protein deliciousness at work with all the good things- lots of turmeric, black pepper, coconut, ghee.
COOK TIME: 5 mins
PREP TIME: 10 mins
YIELDS: 2-3
Ingredients
- Cracked Wheat Pongal
- Cracked Wheat ½ cup
- Mung Dal ½ cup
- Ghee 2 tbsp
- Salt
- Turmeric 1 tbsp
- Ginger 1 tbsp
- Cashews 2 tbsp, broken
- Bay leaf 1, broken into pieces
- Cumin seeds 1 tbsp
- While peppercorns 1 tbsp
- Red chili 1, broken into pieces
- Fresh coconut grated 2 tbsp (see note)
- Water 3 cups
Method
- Take a pressure cooker. Dry roast the mung dal till aromatic and slightly golden. Keep aside.
- In the same pressure cooker heat 1 tbsp ghee. Add in some broken cashews, cumin seeds, bay leaf, peppercorns, coconut, ginger, sautéd dal and cracked wheat. Add water. Season with salt and turmeric. Close the lid of the pressure cooker and cook for 1 whistle. Let the pressure release by itself.
- In a small pan, heat the rest of the ghee and add the red chili broken into bits. Let its sizzle. Pour on top of the Pongal. Enjoy.
Notes:
- If you don’t have a pressure cooker use a heavy bottomed pan. It will work just fine. You will only need extra time to cook it. I find cooking in the pressure cooker significantly reduces the time it takes to cook most grains and since you are not throwing away the water from the grains, it is very healthy too.
2. If you do not like spicy food, omit the peppercorns and the red chili tadka at the end.
3. You can actually get freshly grated coconut from the frozen aisle in the Indian grocery. Store in the freezer all year long and break up about 2 inches of it and pop it into the khichdi.
4. To make it super healthy I’ve kept the proportions 1:1. You can play with the proportions if you want and add little or more of the two main Ingredients.
sarchakra 