Amidst all great desserts like cakes, something different for Angie’s FF anniversary <3. An awesome Indian dessert that is made from yellow lentils and rice cooked in palm sugar syrup and seasoned with some cashews and raisins roasted in coconut oil. This is a dessert that’s loaded with ghee. When I say loaded, I mean 1/2 cup of solid ghee and sometimes, lentils and rice cooked in milk. This would definitely top Sanju’s favourite dessert. I made a vegan version. Removed milk, replaced with water, ghee with coconut oil (definitely not 1/2 cup), it tasted great.
Palm sugar is awesome. Try to grab a pack of it from Indian grocery. Thai palm sugar is bit different to Indian. SriLankan is okay. It is one of the richest sources of iron, low GI, it’s not the best to have on a sugar-free diet, but if you are looking for a better sugar replacement, this is good. 🙂
Now, on to the recipe,
You need:
- Rice-1/2 cup
- Lentils-1/2 cup
- Water-3 cups
- Palm sugar-chopped-1 cup (for mild), 2 cups for super sweetness
- Cardamom pods-3
- Coconut Oil-2 Tbsp+1 tsp
- Cashew -broken into bits-1/4 cup
- Sultanas/Raisins-1/4 cup
- Salt-1/8 tsp
Method:
- In a pressure cooker/stockpot, add rice, lentils, coconut oil, water and boil until mushy. (pressure cooker: 4 steam outbursts-my mum calls them ‘whistles’-it’s cute and 7 mins on low heat).
- Meanwhile, add chopped up palm sugar and add a cup of water in a saucepan, let the palm sugar dissolve in water and turn the heat off. Pass it through a tea strainer to strain the dirt, if any.
- So once the rice and lentils are cooked, mash them really really well add palm sugar water onto it and let it all boil on a low flame. If it is lumpy, you gotta mash really well.
- It will start bubbling and thicken.Cover and let it simmer for 4 mins, add 1 Tbsp coconut oil to glaze the mixture. It has to be porridge consistency. Once it gets there, turn off heat. it will thicken.
- Now, in a small pan, add remaining Tbsp of oil, add cashews, wait until they brown and then add sultanas. Wait for them to puff up. Add them on top of the porridge and serve hot/cold.
Rustic elegant and must have tasted amazingly good!
Thanks Sonal <3
LOL, I couldn’t stop laughing when I read 1/2 cup of ghee 😀 But yes true in most of the hotels, or any functions ghee would be added heavily for this dish. I did reduce ghee to 2 tablespoons for this pongal season though. Maybe sometime I will try to prepare it without milk…looking at your pictures there is no difference I guess, healthy version Charu, loved it <3
Lol. I know right? It is way too much for me. Pongal with milk sounds yum. I just add that extra lentils for creaminess <3
Ever since u told about this pongal, I was waiting for it:-) looks delicious.. No milk no butter but looks heavenly
<3 Thanks Vidz
This lightened up version of pongal sounds fabulous. It’s the perfect dessert to share among the Fiesta Friday group. 🙂 Thanks for bringing it along to share with all of celebrating the big FF Anniversary!
Thanks Nancy <3
wow healthy version of pongal looks delightful Charu….
Thanks Chits <3
I’ve never had pongal before…it looks so good, now I must try it! I love the taste of palm sugar, too.
It is amazing Omar <3 I am making your kibbeh for Easter 🙂
looks superb !!
Thanks Andy <3