Tuesday, April 17, 2018

Kuthiraivali Pongal | Barnyard Pongal | Millet Recipe

Kuthiraivali Pongal, a delicious one pot recipe made from the barnyard millet, dal and then tempered with flavorful Indian spices and ghee.

Though, the famous version of pongal is made with rice, we can also use millets like barnyard millet ,little millet & kodo millet in the pongal recipe for a slightly healthier option and still it tastes awesome !

Here in today's recipe, I have used kuthiraivali arisi(Barnyard millet) and it tastes so good. It's one of the easiest recipes that you can try with millets, no need to worry about perfectly cooked grains and all, dump it all together in a pressure cooker, once it's ready, do the tempering. That's all. Delicious pongal would be ready in minutes !!!

Like I said before, you can use other millets like kodo or little millets also in the same way. Here in the recipe I have used 2 cups of water for 1/2 cup of millet & 1/4 of dal to make mushy pongal and it tastes absolutely delicious when you serve it hot.

But when it's cooled, it sticks together and becomes lumpy, to be honest it doesn't taste as good as hot. So if you want to serve them later or pack for a lunchbox, I would recommend to reduce the water to 1&1/2 cups, it will yield soft yet not too mushy pongal and it tastes good even when it's cold.

Again it's just my preference, it's really up to you how you like the pongal and make the changes accordingly.Now let's check out on how to make this delicious pongal !

Kuthiraivali Pongal

Preparation Time : 1 hr | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Breakfast | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Kuthiraivali millet - 1/2 cup
Moong dal - 1/4 cup
Water - 2 cups
Salt - to taste
To Temper
Cumin Seed - 1 tsp
Pepper Corns - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 tbsp(minced)
Curry leaves - few
Cashew - 6 to 8
Ghee - 1 &1/2 to 2 tbsp
Asafoetida powder - 1/4 tsp

Procedure

Take millets and dal in a pressure cooker, wash it twice and then add the water & salt into the cooker.

Cover the cooker with lid and put the lid on, cook it for 3 whistle. Now for tempering, heat 1 tbsp of ghee in a pan.

Take all the tempering ingredients and add into the ghee, saute till nice aroma comes. Add the tempering into pongal.

Now add the remaining ghee and give a good mix and it's ready to serve.

Tasty & healthy Kuthiraivali Pongal is ready to serve. Serve it with sambar and/or chutney.

Related: Collections of Chutney & Sambar recipes

Related : How to make Broken Wheat Upma
Notes:

Don't reduce the amount of ghee, it gives great taste & flavor to the pongal.
Wash the millet until the water runs clear otherwise the pongal would be more pale in color.
If prefer, drizzle some ghee while serving
If you don't want mushy pongal, reduce 1/2 cup of water.
Ginger gives great flavor to the pongal, so don't reduce the amount of ginger also.

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Kuthiraivali Upma | Millet Upma | Breakfast Recipe

Kuthiraivallu Upma, an quick and easy to make breakfast with the millets. This is one of my recent favorite breakfast recipe to make on my lazy days. It's quite similar to the arisi(rice) upma in taste and texture. Once i had knew the knack of cooking the millet perfectly, i have been trying out various recipe with millets in the place of rice and this upma is one among of my successful experiment of using millets in the place of rice. It turned out so delicious and fluffy.

The tempering used in this upma really goes well with the millets. I have tried the same upma recipe with kodo,little & branyard millet. All turned out well, so you can use any millets for this upma as per your liking. I personally like coconut flavor in all my upma dishes,so i have used coconut oil and grated coconut here in this recipe too. Without further delay, let's check out the recipe, but if you want to know what i have prepared for past 2 days under Whole Grains, here they are
Day 1 - Kambu Koozh
Day 2 - Millet/Samai Puliyodharai

Kuthiraivali Upma

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Millet | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

Barnyard Millet - 1/2 cup

Pearl Onion - 4

Green Chili - 2 nos
Ginger - 1 tsp(chopped)

Curry leaves - few
Grated Coconut - 2 tbsp

Coconut Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard 1 tsp

Channa Dal - 1 tsp

Water - 1 cup

Salt - to taste

Procedure

Soak the millet in the water for 20 mins, peel the onions and chop them into small piece,slit the green chili. Heat the kadai with oil, add the mustard and let it crackle.

Add onion,chili,ginger,curry leaves,channa dal one by one and saute till the onions becomes translucent. Then add the water and salt.

Let the water comes to boil , drain the water from the millet and add into the boiling water. keep the flame in medium and cover the pan, let it cook until all the water absorbs. Finally add the grated coconut and mix it well.