Khichdi is a wholesome, one-pot recipe made from rice, lentils, spices, and vegetables. To me, it is comfort food at its best. Especially when I’m back from a trip, or when I’ve had a long, tiring day and need a nourishing meal, I turn to Khichdi.
Rice & Lentils
While rice and lentils are the main ingredients, it is the tempering and vegetables that bring in the real flavor to this dish. Typically, white basmati rice is used in khichdi. I use it occasionally myself. It is very flavorful and easy to cook, though it lacks the nutrition that brown rice provides. I have tried khichdi with quinoa too. It was surprisingly good – I will share this recipe soon. The brown rice version works great when the grains are soaked for about an hour, giving the perfect texture.
Soaking Brown Rice and Lentils
Khichdi Variations
North Indian Khichdi recipes have spices like ginger, garlic, sometimes even cloves and so on. During a recent trip to India, I was served this deliciously mushy and spicy vegetable khichdi with some fries and yogurt on the side. A friend of mine used to make a delicious ‘Jain’ version of this dish with mung lentils and rice. He would add chili peppers, black pepper, cinnamon, turmeric, and asafetida for spices. Jain recipes exclude any root vegetables like potato, ginger, onions and so on.
Spicy, North Indian Vegetable Khichdi
South Indian Brown Rice Khichdi
This is a slight variation of my mom’s recipe, that is typically cooked with white rice and mung lentils. I love the white rice version too, but over the past few years I have been cooking the brown rice version. I add peppercorns to the tempering that includes mustard and cumin seeds, urad dal, green and red chili peppers. Potatoes and onions add their own unique flavor and texture.
The hull and bran in brown rice provide “natural wholeness” to the grain and are rich in proteins, thiamine, calcium, magnesium, fiber, and potassium. Mung dal provides additional fiber and protein, making this a healthy snack or entrée.
Check out our delicious, wholesome, one-pot meals and sides:
- Brown Rice Vegetable Pulao
- Savory Brown Rice Pongal
- Vegetable Multigrain Khichdi
- Egg Tomato Spicy Rice
- Jeera Quinoa
- Mexican Rice
- Brown Jeera Rice
- Bisi Bele Baath
- Quinoa Vegetable Pulao
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South Indian Brown Rice Khichdi
Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup Brown Rice - Soak for 1 hour
- 1/4 Cup Yellow Mung - Soak for 1 hour
- 1/8 Cup Onion - Fine Cut
- 1/8 Cup Potato - Fine Cut, Unpeeled
- 1/4 Teaspoon Sea Salt - Low Sodium
- 1 Teaspoon Ghee - Organic
Tempering
- 6 Leaves Curry Leaves - Large, Split in Half
- 1 Chili Green Chili Pepper - Slit in Half
- 1/2 Chili Dry Red Chili - Small
- 1/2 Teaspoon Cumin Seeds
- 1/2 Teaspoon Mustard Seeds
- 5 Seeds Black Pepper - Whole peppercorns
- 1 Teaspoon Ghee - Organic
Instructions
- Set IP to 'sauté' mode, add ghee. When the 'hot' sign comes up, add tempering ingredients (curry leaves, dry red chili, urad dal, green chili pepper, pepper corns, mustard and cumin seeds). Allow mustard seeds to crackle. Now add potato, onion and sauté for 2 to 3 minutes.
- Add soaked brown rice, mung, salt and mix well.
- Add water, mix well and set lid on. Pressure cook for 35 minutes on high pressure.
- Allow for natural release and remove lid. Add one teaspoon ghee and mix well.
- Serve hot with Tomato Chutney.
