Millet pongal is a wholesome south Indian comfort dish made with millet and yellow moong dal, tempered with ghee and black pepper, cumin seeds.
Perfect for a satisfying breakfast or lunch, great alternate to rice based pongal.
Check out my oats pongal and wheat rava pongal in this website.
Of the millets my parents gave me, samai (Little millet in English, Kutki in Hindi, Sama in telugu, Same in Kannada, Chama in Malayalam) is the last one to try. One day I was craving to have pongal, but wanted to make it healthier.
So tried my hands with samai also known as little millet. It came out really superb. I used to make our regular pongal this way, i.e; temper directly in pressure cooker and cook all together for pongal - my mom's way.
Its been a long time since I made this way. My mom never adds turmeric anyways. But I added. If you want to replace rice in your diet with millets, this is one of the best option to make pongal. You hardly will know its not rice.
Ingredients
Here are the ingredients, needed to make millet pongal.
- Millet - I used little millet, samai. You can use any millet like varagu or kuthiraivali.
- Moong dal - Paasi paruppu.
- Black pepper - You can use crushed or whole.
- Cumin seeds - Gives flavour and aids digestion too.
- Ghee - as needed for taste and flavour.
Step by step pictures
- Firstly, heat a small pressure cooker with ghee, first pop pepper, add jeera the other ingredients together (green chilli slit) and give a stir. After that, add ginger, moong dal and fry for a minute. Wash millet, add it into the cooker. Mix well.
2. Add 2 cups water, salt and mix well. Bring to boil and close the cooker, give 4 whistles in medium flame. Once done, let the pressure release by itself. Open and mash well. If needed, add ¼ - ½ cup hot water.
Serve millet pongal hot with ghee topped if desired, with sambar and coconut chutney.
Substitutions & Variations
- You can use any white variety of millet.
- For white version, cook dal and millet together, then temper it lasly in ghee.
- You can add spinach for keerai pongal or ground green coriander to make it malli pongal.
Top tips
Roast moong dal for a nice flavour of millet pongal.
Recipe card
Millet Pongal Recipe | Samai Pongal
Equipments (Amazon Affiliate links)
Ingredients
- ½ cup Samai Millet
- 2 tablespoon Moong dal
- 1 tablespoon Ginger chopped
- ⅛ teaspoon Turmeric
- Ghee As needed
To temper
- 2 teaspoon Ghee
- 1 teaspoon Pepper Black whole pepper
- ¾ teaspoon Cumin seeds
- 1 Green chilli
- 1 Sprig Curry leaves
- ⅛ teaspoon Asafoetida
Instructions
- Heat a small pressure cooker with ghee.
- Firstly pop pepper, add cumin seeds the other ingredients together (green chilli slit) and give a stir.
- After that, add ginger, moong dal and fry for a minute. Wash samai, add it into the cooker. Mix well.
- Then add 2 cups water, salt and mix well.
- Bring to boil and close the cooker, give 4 whistles in medium flame.
- Once done, let the pressure release by itself. Open and mash well. Samai pongal is ready.
Notes
- For ½ cup samai, 2 cups water is perfect, so do not hesitate to add. If its too dry, mix ⅛ cup hot water and mix.
Sindhujabalaji says
Happily finish tat full bowl....thnx for sharing
Kurinji says
healthy pongal...looks yum...
MANE ADIGE says
hi is it the same as rajgira.if not can i try with rajgira ?..want to try this..really your family is blessed..you keep teaching us more and more healthy yummy recipes.
bagirathidevi senthilkumar says
It's tempting
Thava says
Nice one. Can you please post recipes using cholam
Kanniammal Viswanathan says
Lovely raks tempting tempting tempting ....tomorrow breakfast decided
Leelavathy says
Going to try this tomorrow.
Nagarathinam Vijay says
Tried this today..came out best...all of us loved d flavour...thnx...
bhuvana says
Do we have to soak the little millet overnight?
Raks Kitchen says
Dehusked millet is just like rice. No need to soak
Sethu says
Made samai pongal for breakfast today by following your recipe. It turned out excellent. The proportions and cooking time are perfect. Thanks for another terrific recope
Raks Anand says
Thanks a lot for your feedback 🙂
Mythili says
Hi Raji,
I tried this recipe, it turned out nice and automatic. Everyone loved it.
Raks Anand says
Thank you for your feedback Mythili 🙂
KALA says
Hi Raks, where do buy these millets? look forward for your reply, thanks.
Raks Anand says
I buy in Mustafa or Sri Murugan stores