To make ghee pongal, cook one cup of rice with half a cup of split moong dal in about four cups of water in a pressure cooker until soft, mash it lightly, then pour over a tempering of black pepper, cumin, ginger, curry leaves and cashews fried in ghee. One to two tablespoons of ghee for a pot made from one cup of rice is a sensible starting point.
At a glance
- CSIR-CFTRI describes pongal as a common breakfast food in Tamil Nadu: rice and green gram dal cooked with spices, pepper dominant, topped with ghee.
- At USDA FoodData Central's 900 kcal per 100 g for ghee and ICMR-NIN's 15 g tablespoon, each tablespoon of ghee adds 135 kcal to the pot.
- ICMR-NIN advises limiting ghee or butter to 1 to 2 teaspoons a day, which is 5 to 10 g on its 5 g teaspoon.
- A 2025 laboratory study in Food Chemistry: X detected 57 volatile compounds in the ghee samples it analysed.
- The UK Food Standards Agency says leftover rice should be chilled within about an hour, kept in the fridge no more than a day and reheated only once.
What is ven pongal, and what goes into it?
Ven pongal is rice and split moong dal cooked together until soft, then seasoned with spices fried in ghee. CSIR's Central Food Technological Research Institute describes pongal as a common breakfast food in Tamil Nadu, with pepper as the dominant spice and ghee on top.
That description, written for an instant pongal mix the institute developed, adds coconut shreds or copra bits on top and cashew nuts and curry leaves seasoned in ghee. Our tempering uses black pepper, cumin seeds, fresh ginger, curry leaves and split cashews.
What ratio of rice to moong dal should you use?
Our starting point is two parts rice to one part split yellow moong dal by volume: one cup of rice to half a cup of dal. More dal gives a creamier, heavier pongal; less dal makes it closer to soft rice. Adjust next time to suit your household.
Use a short or medium-grain raw rice that turns soft. Long-grain aged basmati suits ghee rice, where each grain stays separate, not pongal.
Should you dry-roast the moong dal first?
It is optional, and we do it for a toasted, nutty flavour in the finished pongal. Dry-roast the split moong dal in a heavy pan over low to medium heat, stirring all the time, until it smells toasted and turns a shade darker. Stop before it browns, and take it off the heat at once.
Roast in a dry pan: the ghee is saved for the tempering. Go by smell and colour, not the clock.
How much water does pongal need in a pot or a pressure cooker?
For one cup of rice and half a cup of moong dal, start with four cups of water in a pressure cooker and five cups in an open pot. That is 4 ÷ 1.5, or about 2.7 cups of water per cup of grain in the cooker, and 5 ÷ 1.5, or about 3.3, in the pot.
That is far more than the 1.5 cups per cup we start with for ghee rice, because in pongal both the rice and the dal should break down and turn soft. A pot needs more because an open simmer loses more as steam. These are our starting points, not tested standards: if it is too thick, stir in hot water and use more next time; if too loose, simmer it uncovered for a few minutes.
How do you make ghee pongal step by step?
Roast the dal, wash it with the rice, cook both in plenty of water until soft, mash lightly, then pour a ghee tempering of pepper, cumin, ginger, curry leaves and cashews over the top and stir it through. Quantities are our starting points for one cup of rice.
- Roast the dal. Dry-roast half a cup of split moong dal over low to medium heat until it smells toasted. Let it cool for a minute.
- Wash. Wash the dal with one cup of rice until the water runs nearly clear, and drain.
- Cook. Put the rice and dal in a pressure cooker with four cups of water and salt to taste. Cook for three to four whistles on medium heat and let the pressure release naturally. In a pot, use five cups and simmer covered until soft.
- Mash. Open the cooker, stir and mash lightly with the back of a ladle. Loosen with hot water if stiff.
- Heat the ghee. Warm one to two tablespoons of ghee in a small pan over medium heat.
- Fry the cashews. Add a small handful of split cashews and fry until golden.
- Temper. Add a teaspoon of black pepper, whole or crushed, and a teaspoon of cumin seeds. When the cumin sizzles, add a tablespoon of chopped ginger, then a sprig of curry leaves.
- Finish. Pour the tempering over the hot pongal and stir it through. Serve straight away.
Why does the ghee tempering go in at the end?
Because much of ghee's aroma comes from volatile compounds, which by definition leave readily as vapour. Frying the spices in ghee and pouring it over the cooked pongal at the last moment gets that aroma onto the plate instead of into the kitchen during a long cook.
A 2025 laboratory study in Food Chemistry: X, comparing ghee made by different methods from two cow breeds, detected 57 volatile compounds in its samples. It analysed ghee, not pongal, and did not test cooking times: adding the ghee late is a cook's practice, not a finding of the study.
The general rule is that ghee goes in early when it is the cooking medium and late when you want its flavour. Our guide to when to add ghee in a tadka and in everyday cooking sets out that rule dish by dish. Pongal uses it once, at the end.
How much ghee should go into pongal?
One to two tablespoons for a pot made from one cup of rice and half a cup of dal. At ICMR-NIN's 15 g tablespoon and USDA FoodData Central's 900 kcal per 100 g for ghee, each tablespoon adds 135 kcal to the pot. Shared four ways, that is about 34 kcal a plate.
The table uses ICMR-NIN's household measures (15 g tablespoon, 5 g teaspoon) and USDA's ghee entry: 900 kcal and 60 g of saturated fat per 100 g, or 9 kcal and 0.6 g per gram. We count one cup of rice and half a cup of dal as four servings; if your household eats it as three, the per-plate figures rise by a third.
| Ghee per cup of raw rice | Grams (× 15 g) | Calories in the pot (grams × 9) | Per serving, if the pot serves 4 | Ghee per serving in ICMR-NIN teaspoons (grams ÷ 5) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tablespoon | 15 g | 15 × 9 = 135 kcal | 3.75 g ghee; 33.75, about 34 kcal; 2.25 g saturated fat | 3.75 ÷ 5 = 0.75 teaspoon |
| 2 tablespoons | 30 g | 30 × 9 = 270 kcal | 7.5 g ghee; 67.5, about 68 kcal; 4.5 g saturated fat | 7.5 ÷ 5 = 1.5 teaspoons |
| 4 tablespoons | 60 g | 60 × 9 = 540 kcal | 15 g ghee; 135 kcal; 9 g saturated fat | 15 ÷ 5 = 3 teaspoons |
ICMR-NIN says: "Limit ghee or butter to just 1 to 2 teaspoons/day or avoid, if possible." That is 5 to 10 g. One or two tablespoons in the pot puts 3.75 g or 7.5 g on each of four plates, inside that range; four tablespoons puts 15 g, over it from this one dish. ICMR-NIN also calls saturated fat use high above 10 g a day of visible saturated fat on a 2,000 kcal diet; the four-tablespoon pot gives 9 g a plate.
Our guide to ghee spoon measures in grams explains why tablespoon weights differ between references. If a doctor or dietitian has set your fat intake, follow their figure rather than ours.
How should you cool, store and reheat leftover pongal?
Treat it as cooked rice, because it mostly is. The UK Food Standards Agency says leftover rice should be chilled as quickly as possible, ideally within one hour, kept in the fridge for no more than a day, and reheated only once, until steaming hot all the way through.
The FSA explains that uncooked rice can contain spores of Bacillus cereus, a bacterium that can cause food poisoning, and that the spores can survive cooking. It is not the reheating that causes the problem, it says, but the way the rice was stored beforehand.
- Do not cool it in the cooker. The FSA says not to leave rice in the rice cooker, steamer or pan to cool down.
- Divide it. Smaller portions chill faster, the FSA says. ICMR-NIN advises storing cooked food in the fridge in containers with lids, preferably in small portions, with the fridge below 5°C.
- Reheat once. Add a splash of hot water, since pongal sets firm as it cools, and heat until steaming hot throughout. Never reheat it a second time.
ICMR-NIN also says keeping cooked food warm for several hours promotes bacterial growth, so do not keep pongal warm on the stove all morning. If you are choosing a ghee for the tempering, our A2 bilona ghee is made by Himdhara from curd churned on a wooden bilona.
The short version
Ven pongal is rice and split moong dal, two parts to one, cooked soft in plenty of water and finished with pepper, cumin, ginger, curry leaves and cashews fried in ghee. Start with four cups of water in a pressure cooker or five in a pot. Each 15 g tablespoon of ghee adds 135 kcal to the pot, and one or two tablespoons shared between four stays within ICMR-NIN's 1 to 2 teaspoons a day. Chill leftovers within about an hour, keep them no more than a day, and reheat them once until steaming hot.
Sources
Further reading behind the figures above. Himdhara's own numbers — yields, batch results — come from our production records and the batch reports on the lab reports page.
- CSIR-Central Food Technological Research Institute. Instant Traditional Food - Pongal. India Science, Technology & Innovation portal.
- Kataria D, Singh G (2025). Effect of processing methods on fatty acid composition and flavour profile of clarified butter (ghee) obtained from Deoni and Holstein Friesian cow breeds. Food Chemistry: X.
- ICMR-National Institute of Nutrition (2024). Dietary Guidelines for Indians. ICMR-NIN, Hyderabad.
- U.S. Department of Agriculture (2019). Butter, Clarified butter (ghee). FoodData Central (SR Legacy).
- Food Standards Agency (2026). Home food fact checker. GOV.UK.