Steel Cut Oats Pongal

Click here for Marathi version of recipe.

Pongal for me was a festival equivalent to Sankrant until I came to US. After coming here I came to know about the pongal that you can eat. I had it at various friend's places and fell in love with this simple food. I like pongal much more than simple moogdaal khichadi. The flavors just blend perfectly together. Ever since I learned to make it, I have made it with various ingredients - white rice+yellow moong daal, brown rice+green split moong, quinoa+rice+moong daal. And I like all the versions equally. I just like the warm feeling of porridge like pongal when I eat.

Recently I fell in love with steel cut oats. But it was not by choice. One of my colleague gave me a full pack of these oats as her kids did not like the taste and she did not have time to look for various other alternatives to consume those. Around the same time, I asked my husband to get pack of rolled oats for me. He accidentally got me a full pack of steel cut oats. I kept on thinking of returning the one we bought but always forgot the pack at home! Then I thought may be some 'authorities' somewhere are trying to tell me to eat those steel cut oats!! So I listened and decided to give it a try. And I am liking it so far. I cook my oats in pressure cooker just as we cook rice. I am not a big fan of eating sweet stuff for breakfast so I make flax seed chutney and mix it with cooked oats.

Few weeks ago I wanted to make pongal but was out of brown rice so decided to make it with oats instead and it turned out great. I love the oats pongal as much as I like my other versions of pongal. So here is my version of oats pongal -

Oats Pongal

1/2 cup Steel Cut Oats
1/2 cup Split Green Moong
Salt per taste
3-4 Green Chilies
10-15 Cashews
1 tsp Urad Daal
1 tsp Cumin seeds
1 tsp Chopped Ginger
3-4 Crushed Black Peppers (Or 1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper)
Water as needed

Preparation -
Mix split moong and oats, wash thoroughly until the husk is removed from the oats.
Add 2 to 2.5 cups of water, one tsp salt and cook in the pressure cooker for 20 minutes on medium heat.
Let the pressure cooker cool down.
Heat oil in a thick bottom kadhai. Add cumin seeds, chopped green chilies and curry leaves. Fry for few minutes.
Now add urad daal and cashews, fry until golden brown.
Now add black pepper and ginger, fry just for a minute.
Mash cooked oats and daal mixture and add to the tempering. Mix well.
Add water if needed. Consistency should be very mushy.
Add salt per taste, mix well and cover. Lower the heat and let it cook for 3-4 minutes.
Enjoy warm oats pongal with pickle, chutney or just as is.

Tips - 

  1. You can use quick cooking oats but adjust cooking time accordingly. 
  2. Equal portions or rice, oats and moong daal tastes great too. 


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Comments

  1. What an interesting idea, Mints. I always have steel-cut oats in the house, and since Desi loves pongal (so do I) this sounds like a must-try.

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  2. hi..your blog is awesome but there is no recipe index to find out recipes quickly. could u please provide it.. thx

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  3. Hi...I love steel-cut oats, I have it everyday in the morning, gives me great boost to start my day.
    I came across through Dr.Oz. By the way can anyone tell what do you call it in Hindi/Marathi ? I am recommend this to my Mother in Mumbai...thank you.

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  4. really good piece of information, I had come to know about your site from my friend shubodh, kolkatta,i have read atleast nine posts of yours by now, and let me tell you, your site gives the best and the most interesting information. This is just the kind of information that i had been looking for, i'm already your rss reader now and i would regularly watch out for the new posts, once again hats off to you! Thanks a lot once again, Regards,
    chakkara pongal recipe

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  5. I was so excited to make this as steel cut oats are so good for you! I'm not sure what I did wrong... but what a disappointment! First curry leaves are not in the ingredient list so I didn't pick them up while i was shopping today for this recipe and I didnt have them on hand. I used three fresh green chilies not four and it came out WAY too spicy. And not very flavorful. I wanted to have this made ahead for my work week breakfast. I don't know what I did wrong :(

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    Replies
    1. Hi Anonymous, I am sorry you did not like the oats pongal. Sorry I missed the curry leaves in the list of ingredients. It is hard to tell exactly what went wrong. Spiciness of green chilies vary a lot. The flavor comes mainly from black peppers, nuts, chopped ginger and green chilies together.

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  6. Turned out very nice! Thank you for a very tasty healthy recipe!

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