Before Diwali I was checking my pantry for grains and lentils which need to be finished before I take a long vacation to India. Barley, which I bought last year from Amazon caught my eye. I posted few recipes with this grain earlier like pesarattu, stew, adai and katte pongali. Recently I had rice chakkara pongali  at my cousins place and thought of substituting rice with a whole grain. So for Diwali naivedyam I made chakkara pongali with Barley. My guests for Diwali said it was little different in texture, but tasty and of course healthy and guilt free. You can substitute barley with any wholegrain like brown rice , quinoa, cracked wheat or oats. I will post more recipes with this wholesome grain barley.

Ingredients:

1. Hulled Barley – 1 cup
2. Moong dhal  – 1 cup
3. Grated Jaggery –  1  cup
4. Sugar – 1 cup
5. Milk – 6 cups
6. Water – 2 cups
7. Ghee  – 2 tbsp
8. Cardamom powder 1 tsp
9. Nuts – to garnish

Method:

• Wash barley and moong dhal and toast both of them in 1 tbsp of ghee for couple of minutes.
• Cook the barley and moong dhal in a pressure cooker  with 4 cups milk and 2 cups water for up to  3 whistles. Keep it aside until the steam from the cooker is gone.
• Meanwhile melt  jaggery  and sugar in water to make a syrup.
• Boil this syrup in a medium flame  until it forms like foam 
• Now sprinkle the cardamom powder and mix well.
• At this stage add the cooked barley-dhal mixture and continue to cook in medium flame till the whole mixture begins to thicken.
• Toast nuts in 1 tbsp of ghee,add them to the pongal and take it out from the flame.

Linking this recipe to

Only – Diwali Treats hosted by nivedhanams and owned by Pari’s blog