Healthy Oats pongal for weight loss
Oats Pongal
1. In a pan add 1/2 cup yellow moong dal and roast it on a medium-low flame until it turns golden brown and aromatic and the raw smell goes away. Make sure not to burn the dal so keep sauteeing continously. Once it turns golden brown, turn off the flame and wash the dal well in cold water. Add some water to the dal and let it cook until it is well cooked and mushy.
2. While the dal is cooking, in a pan add 1 cup of oats. Turn on the gas and on a medium-low flame, saute the oats until it turns light golden in color and the raw smell goes away. This might take about 5 minutes. Once done, remove the oats from the pan onto a plate.
3.After removing the toasted oats from the pan, add 3 3/4 cups of water to a pot and add salt to it and let it come to a boil.
4. Once the water starts boiling, add the toasted oats and on a medium-low flame cook the oats until it turns mushy.
5. Once the oats is cooked well, add the cooked dal along with any stock if left in the pressure cooker. Mix the dal well with the oats and combine and mash everything together.
6. In another pan, add 4tbsp ghee. When it gets hot, add cashews and fry till they turn golden brown. Remove the cashews from the ghee and in the same ghee add 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 1/4 tsp hing, 1 tsp black peppercorns, 1 inch ginger and a handful of curry leaves. Fry them all together on a medium flame. Turn off the flame and add this tempering along with the cashews to the pongal.
9. Serve pongal hot with chutney and sambhar.
Notes
1. Pongal tastes best when served hot. So try to eat it when its hot.
2. Do not cook the dal with a lot of water. The water just needs to be an inch above the dal.
3. Do not cook until the pongal becomes too thick. The pongal starts to thicken after it cools down, so if you cook till it turns very thick, your pongal would become hard, dry and tasteless a while after its cooked. Turn off the gas when you get a semi-thick consistency(the consistency you see in the pic).