This Barley Ven Pongal recipe is a healthy alternative to the traditional pongal that raises blood sugar.
In many South Indian homes, Ven Pongal is a standard breakfast item. But often one eats pongal and feels ready to take a nap. Reason being white rice and moong dal are high in carbs.
Wait, you knew about rice already. But, wasn’t moong dal supposed to be high in protein?
Well, you see – Composition of mung Beans = 74% carb + 23% protein + 3% fat.
So, while the dal protein (23%) is > white rice (7% protein); the combination of all the rice, which is 92% carbs + lentils which is 74% carbs gives you a dish steeped in carbohydrates.
One way to counteract the high carb content is to bump up the fiber levels.
Upgrade my pongal
- Use barley instead of white rice – Each cup of cooked barley has 6g of fiber compared to 0.6g of fiber in white rice. That is 10 times the fiber!!
- Cut up a squishy, white, vegetable (like zucchini or bottle gourd) in and mash it in. Shhh..no one will know, additionally, we would have lowered the carb density of the dish without any complaints :).
- Use unpolished split moong dal instead of polished – more fiber
- Replace cashews with sunflower seeds – for more protein, more fiber, more vit E.
Barley Ven Pongal Recipe
- 1 cup barley (soaked overnight)
- 1/2 cup unhusked green gram dal
- 1 zucchini chopped
- 4 cups water
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp peppercorns
- 1 inch ginger grated
- 6-7 curry leaves
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp roasted sunflower seeds
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Soak barley overnight to allow cooking time to be on par with green gram dal.
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Roast green gram dhal for 2 minutes. This is standard protocol for pongal, it improves the aroma of the dish.
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Add soaked barley, 4 cups water and zucchini cubes to dhal and stir. You can reduce the water for thicker consistency. Pressure cook and set aside.
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Heat butter in a small pan and add cumin seeds, pepper, ginger and curry leaves. Cook well. Now, add this to the cooked rice mixture.
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Add salt, sunflower seeds, stir well.
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Serve with tangy sambar, kuzhambu or spicy chutney.
Step by step Pics
1. Soak barley overnight to reduce cooking time.
2. Dry roast green gram dhal in cooker.
3. Add soaked barley, zucchini cuber, water and pressure cook the mixture.
4. Get the panch -kalyani ready. (This was the keyword my dad used, to remind me that 5-spice ingredients go into a pongal)
5. Melt butter in a pan
6. Add spice ingredients
7. Mix well with salt, seeds and serve
Conclusion
Barley is such a powerful grain. Eat it and you won’t feel hungry for a few hours. Did you know about 85% of barley produced in the world goes to animal feed. Major portion of remaining grain goes for beer production.
But there was a time when Roman gladiators were fed barley, so much so that they were called hordearii (literally means barley men). Have you tried barley? Do share your thoughts down below in the comments section.
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After viewing your pongal recipe, I wanted to try the combination of unhusked green gram and barley for my favorite dish, pesarettu. I tried it and it came out very well. I enjoyed the healthy version of my favorite dish. Thank you for inspiring me
I am thrilled to hear that!! Using this combination for pesarattu is a great idea. Thanks for posting.
You are correct. There is a reference to barley being offered in our homams. If I remember, it is called vajradanyam. I was regularly taking roasted, powdered barley (which smells like our good old Horlicks)Iike ganji in the morning when I had some acidity problem. It worked miracles. We lost track of these natural foods thanks to marketing gimmicks by multinationals
Roasted powdered barley is a part of Tibetan cuisine. They have it with their tea. I had yet to find reference of barley in traditional Indian culture. this is great information, Bhanu. Thanks for sharing!!
Wondering if you used hulled barley or pearl barley
I used hulled in this recipe. You can use pearl barley too, although according to “On Food and Cooking” by Harold McGee, he says fine pearled barley has lost the bran, germ and aleurone and subaleurone layers, a loss of about 33% of the grain’s initial weight. ‘Pot barley’ has only lost 7-15% of the grain, but retains the germ and more nutrient and flavors.
Having said that something is always better than nothing:
Pot barley >Pearl Barley > Rice.
I really appreciate the thought and the way you are explaining recipes…I just loved it! Keep posting!
I am very much interested trying new healthy recipes,
Thank you!
Thank you for your lovely comments and feedback, Bharathi!! 💕
Hi Swetha, Thank you for this recipe! If I am using Instant pot, how long should I pressure cook in normal mode?
Hi Sas,
If you have soaked the barley overnight, I would recommend the normal rice setting.
Thanks
Swetha
Thank you for the quick response!