Barley Puli Pongal

I'm all for tangy dishes... and if they are also spicy then it's a win-win combination. Puli pongal is a dish that is normally made with rice rava (coarsely ground rice), similar to what is used for arisi upma but I had some pearl barley on hand and wanted to use that instead. I prefer a slightly chewy texture so I thought that this would be a great substitute for the rice and really liked the end result. It had a slight creaminess to it and not very chewy but had a bit of bite instead of being mushy.

BARLEY PULI PONGAL



Ingredients:
Pearl Barley - Half cup, soaked for about an hour
Tamarind (gooseberry sized) - soaked and juice extracted
Onions (red / shallots) - 1/4 to 1/3 cup chopped
Dried Red Chillies - 2, broken into bits (or to taste)
Curry leaves - few
Nallennai (Gingelly oil) - 2 tsp
Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
Urad dhal - 1/2 tsp
Channa dhal - 1 tbsp
Asafoetida - a pinch
Salt - to taste


Method:
1) Heat oil in a pressure cooker, and season with mustard seeds, urad dhal, channa dhal, asafoetida, red chillies and curry leaves. Then add the chopped onions and saute till browned.

2) Next, add the soaked & drained barley, 2.5 cups of water, tamarind extract (which should amount to about half cup) & salt. Cover and pressure cook for 3 whistles (1 on Med-High and 2 on medium)... till done. Serve warm.

Comments

  1. Wish U A Happy Friendship Day Laavanya :))

    Pongal Looks awesome...Its new for me..

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  2. Hi Lavanya,

    Happy Friendship Day
    wonderful pic and recipe.As i like pongal very much.This may be another different type pongal i can try.

    By the way i am G.pavani.Recently i have started a food blog with Blog Name:FOODLOVERS
    Blog URL:www.fooddamaka.blogspot.com
    have a look at it

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  3. Me too! love tangy-spicy dishes.:D
    This sounds really good.
    Beautiful pic too! I have never tried barley anything before, except lemon barley water.:)

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  4. I love tangy dishes too and i have never had barley before. this is something new to me. looks nice!

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  5. That's a nice way to use the barley, looks so good!

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  6. Barkey pongal sounds innovative idea:) love puli so the pongal sure taste great!
    Happy Friendship Day Lavaanya!

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  7. Happy friendship day..pongals looks creative and hope it would have tasted great

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  8. oooh..yummy! i love barley..it is chewy..but has a bite yet is creamy at the same time..really delicious..

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  9. Different recipe..And Happy friendship day!

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  10. I also love tangy, chatpata food like this, and the barley makes it so healthful.
    Happy Friendship Day, pal:)

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  11. Wow! Absolutely new to me...Barley - Other tham Barley water never cooked anything with it! Looks great Laav.

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  12. this looks sooo creamy and delicious. we make barley thayirchadam. now it's time to try this.

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  13. I have never cooked anything with barley! I guess with puli even barley would taste great! :) Looks good!

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  14. Puli pongal or noi arisi pongal as we call it is one of my favorites. Using barley is very innovative. May be I will try half and half of barley and rice.

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  15. Looks good....I can imagine how tangy it must taste just by looking at that pic.

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  16. I have never heard of this.. really nice pic, and a great recipe.. healthy too:-)

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  17. wow .. thatz a nice recipe laavanya .. loved the idea of adding barley ..

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  18. same pinch!!! :D I love tangy n spicy stuff too..... :) yourinnovative pongal looks really good.

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  19. Pongal look delicious, very nice recipe Laavanya !!!

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  20. Not sure I've ever heard of puli pongal - love the look of those fat barley grains!

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  21. This sounds so different. Looks so good. Healthy recipe. YUM! Never tried this before.

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  22. Using Barley instead of rice is really a great idea, as barley is very nutritious than the white rice.

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  23. This is going to be a dumb question- where do you buy barley?

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  24. nice recipe..never tried anything with barley..high time now!!!

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  25. Wonderful recipe Laavanya! Healthy and simple.. what more can I ask for :)

    I have something for you in my blog.. please do checkout :)

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  26. This dish looks great! Lovely way to use barley.

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  27. barley pongal..wow yaar! good recipe, thanks for sharing.

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  28. Thank you Sireesha, you are so sweet.

    Pavani, this is very different from the usual pongal though it shares the same name.

    Thank you TBC... i've heard a lot abt lemon barley water but haven't tasted it. Barley has several health benefits but calories are quite high too so half cup is actually 2 servings.

    Vibaas, I found this to be a nice method to spice up barley.
    Thanks.

    Thank you Meeso.

    Cham, my mom never made puli pongal but a friend of mine raves abt it so that's how i first tasted it and then thought barley may work too.

    Thank you Suma.. oh yes - very satisfying.

    Rajitha - you are right on.. i normally just add it to soups but this was yummy.

    Thank you divya and DelhiBelle! :)

    Seema, i have horrible memories of barley water that i had to drink during the last month of my pregnancy... but this is yummy.

    Bee, i can see now how well barley works in thayirsaadham.

    Very true sig, the puli and the dried chillies really kick this up a few notches.

    Jayasree, sure.. hope you like it.

    Jayashree - thanks :)

    Thank you Shreya, VP, ramya & madhavi.

    Sra, i didn't either until a friend here told me all about it - apparently it's her favorite.

    Thank you sukanya & kumudha.

    Pooh, my stock of barley is rather old but incidentally i happened to notice them when I was at 'Giant' last time.

    Thank you Sowmya.

    Sujatha - thank you :) will check it out soon.

    Thank you homecooked and lg for your sweet words.

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  29. Totally new!Innovative and really appreciate it...

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