I have never heard about Khichdi until I met my husband. No, wrong! Until I went to India, fell sick and then my mum-in-law prepared this dish for me for the first time as a light, but nutritious meal.

In India, Khichdi is the most common dish served to babies and toddlers. It’s very simple, easy to prepare and healthy- perfect for a busy mum 🙂

Every Khichdi is always prepared with two basic ingredients- rice and lentils. Moreover, we can add different vegetables into it: peas, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli, pumpkin, parsnip etc. They will make this dish more nutritious and even help to digest lentils better.

Which rice should we use? I recommend only white rice, but if you want to go extremely healthy, then you can use brown rice. However, bear in mind, brown rice needs 3 times more water than white rice while cooking.

Which lentil should we use? My mum-in-law always uses yellow mung (moong) dal, so do I 🙂 It is a high source of protein, fibre and other vitamins.

Which spices should we use? Again following my mum-in-law, I use only salt. However, I know others use turmeric powder, cumin seeds or powder, coriander powder, ajwain (carom) powder or curry leaves. It’s up to you and your kid 🙂

In India, people mostly use pressure cooker to cook it. Personally, it is too much hassle for me, so I use simple, small pot and it works perfectly well too.

I don’t soak rice and dal as well. Just make it extremely simple, but still soft and tasty 🙂

INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 glass of Rice
• 1/4 or 1/5 glass of Yellow Mung (Moong) Dal
• Chopped Vegetables- peas, carrot, cauliflower, broccoli, pumpkin, parsnip (Optional)
• Pinch of Salt
• Spoon of Butter

STEP BY STEP:

1. Mix rice and dal together, wash it twice in cold water, then drain.
2. Heat butter (or ghee- Indian clarified butter) in your chosen pot.
3. Add rice and dal.
4. Add water (if you want to make it more watery, then add even 3cm on top of rice and dal, if you want to make it more dry, like I do, then 1,5-2m should be enough).
5. Add chopped vegetables (I recommend to add peas or broccoli later on, while cooking).
6. Add pinch of salt.
7. Bring to a boil, then simmer it until rice and dal are soft and ready to eat.
8. If you think you need to add more water while cooking, because it is getting very dry, please add it.

COOKING TIME: approximately 20minutes

Enjoy your meal! 🙂

Marlena

(In the Khichdi below I used only peas)