Khichdi - best comfort food

Khichdi is one of the first baby foods in India. One of the main reason is, it is easy to digest and contains protein and carbohydrates for the babies. Being a new mom of a one year old, I've to cook this dish almost daily. To make it interesting for him and for me too as I too eat it daily i try various variants of khichdi.

For people who don't know much about khichdi, it's an Indian dish, made mainly with any one kind of lentil and rice. It's also called as a comfort food served to people during indigestive problems.

Khichdi is cooked slightly differently in different regions of India. In Bengal people add vegetables to it, in Maharastra people add prawns to it, people of kutch who al,ost eat khichdi daily have many variations, in Bihar people add spices to it. Khichdi is served mainly with ghee (clarified butter), curd, pickle and papad. Different states in India serve khichdi with other side dishes too like in Kolkata with eggplant, in Gujarat with kadhi. Besides being a comfort food khicalso is also a dish prepared I during some major pooja/festivals like Durga pooja of Bengal, Pongal of Tamil Nadu, Makar Sankranti of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Khichdi was also a popular Mughal food too. During the Mughal era, various Mughal leaders of India were extremely fond of khichdi and their is book also mentioning various variations of that time.

The basic recipe of Khichdi contains Moong Dal (split green gram), rice, salt and pinch of turmeric and water. It is cooked over flame till it reaches a semi paste consistency.

Simple yet best

Serve with either curd, pickle, clarified butter (ghee) or all ;)

Spicy ands sexy

• Prep time - 5/10 min
• cook time - 20 min
• yield - 2

• 1 cup Split green gram, Moong dal
• 1 cup Rice
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 tomato chopped
• 1 tbsp Coriander powder
• 1 tsp curry powder/garam masala
• a pinch of asefoetida
• 1 tbsp clarified butter/ghee/any cooking oil
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp turmeric
• chopped vegetables like cauliflower, carrots, peas, spinach, potato etc
• 3 cups Water
• Salt
• 1 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 tsp chopped green chilli/or as per your taste

1. Wash both rice and split green gram thoroughly
2. In a pan add 1 tbsp clarified butter/ghee/any cooking oil
3. Now add cumin seeds and asafoetida
4. as they splutter, add garlic, ginger and chopped green chilli
5. When garlic turns brown add onion and saute till they are semi transparent
6. Now add coriander powder, curry powder, turmeric and cook while stirring for 2 min
7. now add all the vegetables except tomato
8. add salt according to your taste
9. after a minute add water, split green gram, rice and tomato
10. Turn on the heat/flame and cook till vegetables, rice and split green gram are cooked (soft) and the dish has a semi solid consistency

Serve with either curd, pickle, clarified butter (ghee) or all ;)

Few alternatives you can do are

• Use broken wheat instead of rice
• Use par boiled chicken/meat
• add soya nuggets
• use variety of lentiles
• use ground pearl millet instead of rice, but half the quantity