🧄 Poondu Podi (Garlic Podi) 🌶️ Hot Rice's Best Friend 🍚

Lovers of South Asian food are well-acquainted with chutneys and pickles, but podis are an often forgotten way to give a meal some pizazz.

Please Pass The Podi!!

Chutneys and pickles definitely steal the limelight away from podis, but these flavorful powders jazz up everything from idlis and dosa to steamed rice and parathas. I could go a step further and say that South Indian food doesn't get the international attention it deserves, but that is a subject matter for a different post.

Anyhow, this poondu podi is the bee's knees, and contains a massive amount of garlic, roasted lentils, and dried chilies. Vampires will run in fear when they smell the steam coming off your rice after you've dropped a spoonful of this edible gunpowder on it. I like to mix it with a bit of coconut and olive oil before adding it to rice.

🧄 Poondu Podi Ingredients 🌶️

INGREDIENTS

1 tsp cooking oil
½ cup garlic cloves (peeled)
8x dried chilies
⅓ cup toor dal
¼ cup masoor dal
¼ tsp hing (asafoetida)
sea salt (to taste)

🔥 Poondu Podi Preparation Method 🔪

STEP 1

Heat a work and dry-roast the toor dal on a low flame until fragrant and browned. Set aside to cool.

STEP 2

Now add the masoor dal and dried chilies and dry-roast until the lentils are browned and the chilies darkened. If the chilies start to blacken before the lentils are browned, remove them first and continue roasting the lentils until browned. Set aside to cool.

STEP 3

Roughly chop the garlic, and bring a teaspoon of cooking oil to heat on a low flame, add the garlic and saute until golden-brown and most of the moisture has left the garlic. Set aside to cool.

STEP 4

Combine all roasted and fried ingredients in a bowl, and add the hing and desired amount (about ½ tsp) of sea salt.

STEP 5

Put all the ingredients in a grinder and grind until a coarse powder is produced. Taste it and add any salt if needed, then transfer to an airtight jar.

🔥 Enjoy Your Podi

Tadka Dal and brown rice were on the lunch menu, and I decided this meal was perfectly suited for poondu podi. I put a few spoonfuls in a bit of olive oil and stirred to incorporate everything.

I think it was a hit with the family, especially Monkey-B who, although claimed it was spicy, somehow found herself unable to stop eating it. They have already asked if they can use this podi in tomorrow morning's breakfast rice porridge, so I would say it's a hit.