Vegetable Kichadi: Comfort Food

Kichadi. A lazy day idea. A meal which is complete in itself. I never thought I would ever post a kichadi recipe on my blog because this is easiest thing one can cook. Probably a recipe, that all mothers teach their kids when they leave home-either for job or further studies. My mother told me once-learn how to make kichadi properly, one day you will need it. Ah so true. Kichadi is my lazy day meal idea. Kichadi is my comfort food. A bowl of kichadi with dollops of ghee can do wonders.

So what is kichadi. Kichadi is a mix on lentils (yellow moong daal) and rice cooked together. The consistency is like mashed potatoes or mashed peas. There is basic kichadi which is just rice and lenthils cooked with salt and turmeric –this type is mainly served to someone who is recovering from some illness. The other type is vegetable kichadi where in you can add veggies like peas, spinach, potatoes, bell peppers and almost anything. This type makes it a complete meal and very fulfilling.

If you are keen on trying the recipe then I would strongly recommend to buy a pressure cooker. Pressure cooker not only gives you that perfect kichadi texture/consistency but it also saves a lot of time. Now how to serve kichadi. I have for you two traditional and yet evergreen ideas.

1)       Serve with plain salted yogurt, salad and papad.

2)       Serve with Kadhi, pickle and papad.

Now lets see the recipe. Vegetable Kichadi or Massala Kichadi

Ingridents:

2 cups rice (I used basmati)

3 cups yellow moong dal

1/4 cup green peas

1 potato chopped

1 bell pepper chopped

1 carrot, chopped

2 green chilies

1 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)

a pinch of asafoetida (hing)

1 tbsp ghee

Salt to taste

Method:

Soak rice and moong daal for 2-3 hours in water.

In a pressure cooker, add ghee. When ghee is hot add asafoetida. Add all vegetables.

Mix turmeric in it. Add 2 and 1/2 cups water as well.

Drain water from soaked rice and moong daal. Add the rice and moong daal in the cooker. Add salt. Cover and cook on medium flame for 4 whistles.

Open the cooker when steam is released.

Serve hot.

Notes:
Feel free to add more veggies like beans, tomato, spinach.
Serve it with dallop of ghee for that perfect kichadi taste.
If you dont have prssure cooker, cook it an large vessel/wok. Keep stiring in between.

Simple Kadhi (Yogurt Soup): Kadhi Chawal: Kadhi For Khichadi

Comfort food- what’s yours? If you have ever noticed comfort food are generally the ones that are easy to cook but are loaded with calories. See Americans love their Mac and cheese- easy but calories laded. Simple tadka daal and white rice is the comfort food for most of the Indians, simple to cook but remember the starch and the ghee. But hey, when we are talking about comfort let’s not count calories- good food= good life.

One of my favourite comfort food is kadhi (yogurt soup). Kadi or kadhi is made using gram flour (besan) and yogurt (dahi/curd). Kadhi takes on different flavours as it travels from state to state throughout the India. In Gujarat the kadhi is sweet and white in colour (no use of turmeric); you need to add pakodas (fried dumplings of chickpea flour) in the Punjabi kadhi; marwadi kadhi is thick super spicy with tadka(tempering) of dry red chillies.

This is Simple Kadhi that you can make every day. One of the best thing about kadhi is that it needs no vegetable- just plain simple Indian spices and you are good to go. You can have kadhi plain like a soup but the deadliest combination is to have it with kichadi. But we prefer and enjoy it with rice dishes such as methi mutter pulav, basic biryani, corn rice or mixed capsicum rice. We like to use leftover rice  with some veggies and make pulav with it (Namkeen Chawal). 

Ingredients:

(for kadhi)

2 tablespoon gram flour/besan

1 cup full fat yogurt /khatta dahi

2 cups water

1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder/haldi powder

salt as per taste

(for tempering)

1 teaspoon mustard seeds/rai

1 teaspoon asefotida/hing

5-6 curry leaves/kadhi pata

2 tablespoons oil

1 teaspoon blackpepper powder/kali mirch

1 small to medium bay leaf/tej patta

1/2 teaspoon red chili powder/lal mirch powder.

Method:

Mix gram flour, water, yogurt, salt and turmeric properly. Make sure there are no lumps. If needed sieve the mixture.

Put this mixture on kadai/wok and cook on high flame. Keep stirring till the kadhi starts to boil. Turn the slow to low and cook till kadhi is thick.

Prepare the tempering. Heat oil in a pan. When oil gets hot, add mustard seeds. Let it crackle.

Add aseofetida, curry leaves and bay leaf.

Finally mix in red chilli powder and black pepper. Turn off the heat.

Put this hot tempering (tadka) on the kadhi. Mix and serve.

Notes:

Make sure that you keep stirring the kadhi till it comes to boil, else the kadhi will curdle.

You can also add garlic and ginger in the tempering.

Serving suggestion:

Goes well with all rice dishes. Methi mutter pulav, pulav or capsicum rice.

Have it as it is like a soup on a rainy or wintery day.

Serve as a main dish with parathas .