Last updated on January 13th, 2018
Sweet pongal recipe or sakkari pongal recipe with step by step photos. Sweet pongal or sakkarai pongal is the delicious pongal recipe made with rice, moong lentils and jaggery. Here is the easiest recipe of sweet pongal just like offered at temples.
sakkarai pongal is popular prasadh (prasadham) in temples of Tamilnadu. It is mostly offered in Vishnu temples and Hanuman temples. Those who have had temple style sugar pongal knows how divine it is. This sugar pongal recipe is close to the ones we get in temples. Other popular prasadh recipes that are in the blog are ven pongal, chickpeas sundal etc.
Sweet pongal is traditional made for sankarnti known as pongal festival in Tamil mainly. Sakkarai pongal is also made for dusshera as an offering to Goddess Durga and Lakshmi. During navrati we make sweets like sweet pongal, payasam, kheer,halwa in the mornings for Goddess. Evenings we always make sundal varieties.
To make sweet pongal I always use cardamom and edible camphor for flavoring. Other optional spices you can add in sweet pongal are nutmeg and cloves. Here I have made sweet pongal in pressure cooker. This way it gets ready very soon and easy too.
Traditionally milk is not used in sweet pongal recipe. In temple style sweet pongal milk is not an ingredient. It is just rice, mung lentils, jaggery. Use nice dark jaggery for a dark colored pongal. The taste and color of sweet pongal varies according to the quality of jaggery used. kovil sakkari pongal is always dark, thick and a bit chewy on cooling. Be generous with ghee to make kovil sakkarai pongal.
This sweet pongal recipe is the staple one that we follow at home. It is a fool proof recipe that beginners can try easily. The recipe of sweet pongal recipe can be doubled. The quantity of jaggery can be changes as per taste.
Serve sweet pongal piping hot to get the real taste. You can add more melted ghee while serving. To reheat any leftover pongal add some ghee and simmer for few minutes.
If you are looking for more south Indian sweet recipes do check rava kesari, ashoka halwa, paruppu poli, rava ladoo recipes.
How to make sweet pongal or kovil sakkarai pongal recipe
1.Dry roast moong dal till nice aroma wafts out.
2. Take the roasted moong dal and washed rice in a pressure cooker. Add 4 cups water and pressure cook for 6 whistles. Once pressure settles mash the rice and moong dal very well.
3. while the rice and moong lentils are cooking let us prepare the jaggery syrup for sweet pongal.
4. Take the measured jaggery pieces in a thick pan. Add 1/2 cup water and heat up so that the jaggery melts first.
5. Filter the melted jaggery to remove impurities. Now bring the jaggery syrup back to boil. The syrup should boil well.
6. Now add the mashed rice and lentils to the jaggery syrup and mix very well. Add edible camphor and cardamom powder. Mix very well.
7. In a small pan heat ghee well. Add cashews and raisins. Once the cashews turn golden and raisins plump up add the nuts to pongal along with ghee. Mix well. Serve sweet pongal hot.
Sweet pongal recipe card below:
Sweet pongal recipe-traditional temple style sakkarai pongal or sweet pongal made for festivals in Tamil nadu.
- 1/2 cup rice
- 1/4 cup moon dal
- 3/4 cup powdered jaggery
- 1/4 cup ghee
- 10 cashews broken
- 3 tablespoons raisins
- edible camphor very tiny pinch
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom powder
Dry roast moong dal till nice aroma wafts out.
Take the roasted moong dal and washed rice in a pressure cooker. Add 4 cups water and pressure cook for 6 whistles. Once pressure settles mash the rice and moong dal very well.
while the rice and moong lentils are cooking let us prepare the jaggery syrup for sweet pongal.
Take the measured jaggery pieces in a thick pan. Add 1/2 cup water and heat up so that the jaggery melts first.
Filter the melted jaggery to remove impurities. Now bring the jaggery syrup back to boil. The syrup should boil well.
Now add the mashed rice and lentils to the jaggery syrup and mix very well. Add edible camphor and cardamom powder. Mix very well.
In a small pan heat ghee well. Add cashews and raisins. Once the cashews turn golden and raisins plump up add the nuts to pongal along with ghee. Mix well. Serve sweet pongal hot.
Sweet pongal looks perfect. Thank you for this timely post Harini.