What is pongal and where is it from?
Pongal is a one-pot meal made of rice, lentils and some spices. The dish is made on the harvest festival day - also called Pongal. Typically, pongal (the dish) is made of freshly harvest ingredients, and are cooked in a pot, allowed to boil over! The word pongal actually means 'to boil over'.
This boiling over signifies a blessing of abundance for the coming year :) The dish is made across South India, but is of great significance for Tamils and Telugus in the region!
What are the ingredients in this Pongal one-pot comfort meal mix?
The ingredients in this mix are - organic sona masoori rice, organic foxtail millet, organic yellow moong dal/lentil, sea salt, cumin, organic black pepper, mustard seeds, hing/asafoetida, whole red chili, organic turmeric. It's vegan, gluten free by design.
When I cook the pongal mix, I see whole black peppers and red chili, should I be eating this?
No! these ingredients are included because the oils in these ingredients are essential for the perfect flavor. We recommend you sift them out and exclude them when you eat pongal. We keep them whole (and not ground up), so that they don't impart too much heat/spice to the dish. That said, please feel free to do as you please, we understand that some of you love HEAT! :)
How do YOU eat pongal?
I personally love pairing it with Spicy Coconut PODI. The pairing is quite incredible! We make this dish at home without fail on every Pongal day, with freshly-harvested (and hence fragile) rice. We make it on other days too, but the Pongal made on Pongal is a special childhood memory!
What is Bisi Bele Bath and where is it from?
Bisi bele bath is a one-pot meal with its origins in the state of Karnataka, India. It is said to have originated in the Mysore Palace and it took 100 years for the dish to come out from the place and another 200 years to spread across the state of Karnataka (according to Wikipedia!).
What are the ingredients in this Bisi Bele Bath one-pot comfort meal mix?
Organic sona masoori rice, organic barnyard millet, organic toor dal/pigeon peas lentil, organic yellow moong dal/lentil, organic turmeric, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, sea salt, Hearty Sambar PODI - It's vegan, gluten-free by design.
How do YOU eat Bisi Bele Bath?
I've grown up eating this dish since I was a kid! It was a lazy sunday meal at home. My parents loved chucking a whole bunch of vegetables into this mix, but also pair with serve it with some potato chips on the side. I love this combination :)
How many servings are in each pouch?
This is highly person-dependent, but it'll be 2-4 servings per pouch!
