Rava Pongal Recipe is an easy and simple south Indian breakfast dish. I really love to eat pongal for breakfast but my favourite pongal is venpongal where rice is a main ingredient. But in rava pongal recipe, rava (sooji / semolina) is a main ingredient.. Yesterday I want to try something different for breakfast, so I made rava pongal recipe and it came out super delicious. The main secret behind rawa pongal recipe lies on mixing and amount of ghee used. You can even add vegetables to this rava pongal to make it more healthier. This sooji pongal is power packed food because of carbs from rice and protein from moong dal, this makes you feel full, fresh and energetic throughout the day. This is also a perfect bachelors breakfast recipe. Best accompaniment for rava pongal is sambar, chutney or gosthu. So try this easy and authentic rava pongal for breakfast and enjoy….

                                          How to make Rava pongal / Sooji Pongal

                   Preparation Time : 15 mins         Cooking Time : 20 Mins       Serves : 4

Ingredients

• 1 Cup of Rava
• 1/4 Cup of Moong Dal
• 1/4 Tsp of Turmeric Powder
• 1 Tsp of Black Pepper
• 1 Tsp of Cumin
• 1/2 Inch Ginger
• 5 Curry Leaves
• 1/4 Tsp of Asafoetida (hing)
• 6 Cashews
• 2 Raisins
• 5 Tsp of Ghee
• 2 Tsp of Oil
• 2 and 1/2 cup of water
• Salt as needed
• Coriander Leaves to garnish

Method

• Pressure cook the dal for 3 whistles by adding 1 cup of water, salt, turmeric powder and oil and keep it aside.
• Heat 1 tsp of ghee, fry cashews and raisins until it turns golden brown. Keep it aside.
• Heat 2 tsp of ghee in a same pan, roast the rava until it changes color and aroma comes. Transfer this to a plate.
• Heat oil and ghee in a heavy bottomed pan, when it is hot, add pepper, cumin, asafoetida, curry leaves, ginger, fry it until nice aroma comes, add water and salt, when it comes to rolling boil, add rava, in a medium low flame, mix gently without any lumps. When rava consitency turns thick and cooked, in this stage, add cooked moong dal, mix well with rava. Let it be in stove for few mins.
• Finally add ghee roasted cashews, rasins and mix well.
• Garnish it with coriander leaves.
• Hot, yummy, ghee flavored rava pongal is ready to serve for breakfast with sambar or chutney.

Tips

• If you find your pongal is dry, add little more oil or ghee.
• You can even use cracked wheat in place of rava to make cracked wheat pongal.
• You can even roast the moong dal before you pressure cook.

    I learnt to make soft phulka on stovetop from my sister in law..she makes soft and best phulka. Everyone in my family are a great fan to her phulka. Initially I struggled to make phulka, after few trials, now I am confidently make phulkas in my own. Coming to the Phulka Recipe, it is an Indian flat bread made from wheat flour, oil, water and salt. Phulka is an hindi word which means to puff. The roti get puffed up when you expose it to direct flame. The main secret behind soft phulka lies on the mixing of the dough and rolling. Here, I added a tsp of flax-seed powder to make phulka more healthier and tasty. If you are in US, you cannot make phulka in electrical coil, in that case, use mesh directly to the coil and make soft phulka. Good accompaniment to soft phulka recipe are dal, aloo gobi, aloo mutter and aloo palak. So try to make soft and puffing phulka on stove top (gas top) and enjoy it for lunch or dinner.

 Preparation Time : 30 Mins   Cooking Time :30 mins   Serves : 15 Phulkas

Ingredients for Phulka Recipe

• 1.5 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour
• 2 Tsp of Oil and more for coating the dough
• 3/4 Cup of Warm Water
• 1 Tsp of Flax Seed Powder
• Salt as needed
• Ghee as required (To smear on top)
• Wheat flour for dusting.

Method

• In a mixing bowl, add whole wheat flour (I used ashirvaad atta), salt, flaxseed powder, oil and add water little by little, knead well and form a smooth dough. Add few drops of oil to coat the dough, leave it for 15-20 mins. This relaxes gluten and make the dough soft and easier to roll out.
• Keep the flour for dusting and knead the dough again and make balls out of the dough.
• Preheat the tawa in low flame and keep the ghee bowl ready.
• Using rolling-pin, make them into round rotis, dusting in the flour when needed.
• In the meantime, turn the stove to medium high flame, lay the roti on it. After few seconds, roti changes colour and bubbles appeared, flip it to other side. Cook it for seconds and place the roti on direct flame using tongs. Roti puffed up like balloon. Remove roti using tongs and place it on a plate and immediately apply ghee on one side. Transfer it to casserole (Hot pack)
• Repeat the same process for rest of the dough.
• Serve hot with your choice of curry, dal or gravy. Hope this video helps beginners who want to try soft phulka.

Tips

• Warm water helps to make dough soft.
• Always use minimal flour to dust. Otherwise it makes the roti hard.
• Always roll the rotis thin and evenly
• When you transfer the rotis to direct flame, make sure the flame is high and the side does not turn golden brown should face down under direct flame.
• Some people do add milk or curd while kneading the dough, to make soft phulka.

Betel leaves or paan is the most important item in socio-religious life of Hindus. There won’t be any auspicious occasion without betal leaves in India. Also betel leaves is a symbol of freshness and prosperity. According to ayurvedic science, it is used to cure diseases that are caused by air, bile and phlegm. Also it is a best medicine for cold and cough. I and my mom used to chew this betal leaves (Vetrilai) and areca nuts(pakku) when we get affected by cold. Coming to the recipe, betel leaves rice / vetrilai sadham is a one pot meal with lots of health benefits. This betel leaves (vaethalai) rice is very easy to make in a less time, the rice has a distinct flavour and unique taste because of  betel leaf, garlic,cumin and pepper.  This vetrilai sadham is good for all ages from kids to adults. Also it is perfect to pack this rice for lunch box. So do try this herbal (medicinal) rice recipe at home and let me know how it turned out.

Health Benefits of Betel Leaves

• Good for digestion.
• Natural palate cleanser and a mouth freshener.
• Strengthen teeth and gums.
• It has got diuretic properties.

Preparation Time : 10 Mins  Cooking Time : 15 mins    Serves : 1

Ingredients For Betal Leaves Rice

To Grind

• 4 Betal Leaves
• 1/2 Tsp of Cumin
• 1/2 Tsp of Black Pepper

Other Ingredients

• 1 Cup of Cooked Rice
• 10 Small Onion
• 5 Garlic Cloves
• 1/4 Tsp of Turmeric Powder
• Salt to Taste

To Temper

• 1 Tsp of Gingelly Oil
• 1 Tsp of Ghee
• 1 Tsp of Mustard seeds
• 1 Tsp of Urad Dal
• 7 Curry Leaves
• Pinch of Hing (Asafoetida)

Method for betal leaves rice

• Wash the betal leaves. Grind betal leaves, pepper and cumin. Keep it aside.
• Heat a pan with oil and ghee, temper it with the ingredients listed under ” To Temper ” after it sizzles, add onions, garlic cloves and turmeric powder, fry it until it turns golden brown colour. Add ground paste and little water, saute this for 3 mins. Turn off the flame. Add cooked rice and salt, toss well.
• Serve hot with appalam or potato chips.

Tips

• You can also use red chillies while grinding or during tempering for more spicy taste.
• Don’t chose mature betal leaves, use tender ones.