Khichadi

"When diet is wrong, medicine is of no use, when diet is right, medicine is of no need' - Ancient Ayurvedic Proverb

On days when my Mind is very active and restless, I usually crave what I call my comfort foods. Everyone has their own comfort foods, foods that balance our mood or the energies that govern our system.

Khichadi has always been one of my all time favorites, since I was a child. I grew up being told it's a lazy person's meal & there were a hundred reasons my mother supplied to convince me to eat other things, I was often tagged a picky eater but let that not give you ideas about my eating habits, I love food and would try anything new even today, I taste every thing but every now and then I like to go back to my comfort foods. I rely a lot on junk foods from time to time but nothing besides a proper Indian meal, puts me at peace with myself. Nowadays, no matter how lazy or crazy I feel, a bowl of warm spiced khichadi with plain yogurt will always get me moving or slowing down. It must be my body constitution or my 'Ahar Vihar Achar Vichar' but I never get bored of khichadi.

It's a complete meal thats easy to assemble, easy to digest and still grounding yet light enough to avoid lethargy. There are probably a million ways to prepare the humble khichadi and this is only one way I do it. 

Here's what you need:

3 Tbsp white rice (I used basmati)

1 Tbsp brown rice or red rice

3 Tbsp yellow plus 1 Tbsp green split moong dal (when using only white rice, I use only split green gram)

1/2 cup or more of chopped veggies (a mix of some roots, leaves and shoots)

Carrots, Sweet Potato, Lauki or any other seasonal gourd, French Beans, Spinach.

A piece of ginger finely chopped.

A Tbsp of Ghee

1 tsp mustard seeds and a pinch of hing.

Ama Spice Mix and Sendha Namak 

Lemon or Yogurt

Here's what you do:

Wash the rice and Dals separately until water runs clear. Add 3-5 parts water to one part of the dal rice mixture. Leave it for soaking in the pressure cooker while you wash peel and chop the veggies. A 15-20 min of soaking should be good enough though longer is better if the grains and pulses don't look expanded enough (the brown rice needs more soaking so that the bran layer can absorb water).

Add half a piece of the ginger to the dal rice and switch on the pressure cooker on high without the whistle till the pressure indicator is raised and then reduce flame, place whistle and let cook for one whistle and switch off the flame. Open after the pressure is naturally released. Add the veggies except spinach and let it boil over opened, add more water if required. 

And once the contents are almost cooked, add the spinach and sendha namak and mix thoroughly. After 6 to 8 minutes when the spinach is wilted, get Tadka ready in a separate kadai - Heat Ghee and add mustard seeds, add hing and chopped julians of the remaining ginger while very hot and sizzling. Let the mustard crackle for a few seconds. Switch off the flame and add Amma spice mix to it. Mix it and add this tadka to the boiling khichadi.  Mix thoroughly and serve hot with a spoonful of room temperature yogurt.

And here's why I do what I do:

According to Ayurveda, cooking helps in improving the digestibility of foods. And digestion in the Human Body begins in the mouth when we start chewing and thus breaking down our food through a process called catabolism which requires a lot of energy. Likewise, overcooking makes foods more ready for digestion and metabolism in the stomach and intestines reducing the time food spends in the mouth as well as in other organs that carry out digestion. Every step in the food preparation process has its importance, soaking for example, activates the enzymes in the grains and pulses that breakdown complex molecules to simpler ones. These enzymes will be destroyed once the food comes in contact with heat so soaking is necessary. Now grains need more cooking time than the vegetables, that is why the veggies are added later.

Basmati Rice and Moong Dal are both considered Tridoshic and Satvik but these terms are quite subjective. Being tridoshic, the khichadi is often prescribed as a very good dish for children and elderly and also people who suffer from a weak agni (but it is still balancing for all doshas). This is mainly because Ayurveda believes that different energies or doshas are strongest at different life stages for most individuals. Children for example live in a Kapha dominant phase of life while the elderly live in a Vata dominant phase of life. Both these doshas when aggravated, make the digestive system sluggish to a certain extent as compared to pitta dosha aggravation which leads to diarrhea like symptoms. Now this is no rule to plan your diet by, though it may be used as a guideline where appropriate.

Going back to the recipe, it is a very flexible one and can be adjusted per individual requirements by varying the proportion of ingredients. For example dal may be reduced to make it even more easily digestible for balancing Vata Dosha, additionally, increasing the proportion of root veggies will make it more grounding. Spinach may also be replaced by another bitter green or vegetable.

From a chemical point of view, this dish is complete with Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins (rice and dal togeather provide complete protein to the body). Refined grains, like white rice and yellow dal, when cooked, are easy to digest, light on the stomach. Here they are mixed with 1 part brown rice and green moong dal in order to create balance. The mixture is cooked to an almost soupy consistency here but with less water and a shorter cooking time, it can be made more chewy. The addition of vegetables further slows down the digestion besides enhancing the absorption of nutrients by adding to the 'prana' or vital energy that is lacking in processed grains milled and stored for extended periods of time.

The Tadka is usually added just before serving. And ghee is always the prefered fat due to its cooling yet lubricating effect and in order not to aggravate Pitta too much, ginger and mustard with a pinch of hing are the only spices used along with very little ama spice mix.