Kitchari Stew

I’ve always been intrigued by this dish because of it’s vibrant yellow color. It’s quite beautiful, if you ask me. It also doesn’t help much that I’m instinctively drawn to vibrant colors/patterns/things either, but you may have already guessed that. And after coming across a picture of it most recently, I thought to myself, “What is this beautiful dish called Kitchari!”.

So after doing a little research, I found that Kitchari (also known as Khichdi, which means a mixture of rice and beans), is not only beautiful, but it is also widely known for being used in cleansing and healing in digestion in Ayurvedic Medicine along with aiding in other things as well.

Elephant Journal and The Ayurveda Institute were good sources of information in exploring this dish and they inspired me to make a more “relaxed” version of the dish. If you are not “cleansing” per say, then you can use a different grain of rice or type of bean if you choose, granted it will change the taste of the dish completely. But with these ingredient, I found this dish to be quite comforting. With every bite, I can almost feel all these wonderful ingredients doing wonders for my body.

Get the Recipe: Kitchari Stew

Yield: 6 servings

Prep: 15 minutes mins

Cook: 45 minutes mins

Total: 1 hour hr

5 from 1 review

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Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons coconut oil, or an oil of your choice
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
• 1 tablespoon ground turmeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 cup white basmati rice, rinsed
• 1 cup split mung dahl beans, discard any pebbles and rinsed (You can also soak these in water for an hour or so and it will cut down the cooking time, but it's not a must)
• 2 medium carrots, diced
• 1 shallot, diced
• 1 tablespoon ginger, minced
• 1 can unsweetened coconut milk
• 5 to 6 cups vegetable broth, can be substituted with water (You may need more depending on how thick you like it)
• 1 cup thinly sliced kale
• salt and pepper, to taste

Optional Toppings:

• cilantro
• A squeeze of lime juice

Equipment

• Large Pot or Dutch Oven

Instructions

• In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the coconut oil over medium heat. Stir in the mustard seeds, turmeric, and cumin and sauté until fragrant, about 1 minute. Stir in the rice, beans, carrots, shallot, and ginger and sauté for 3 to 5 minutes.
• Stir in the vegetable broth, cover the pot, and simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes or so, stirring occasionally.
• Stir in the coconut milk and continue cooking for about 15 minutes or until you have the consistency you desire (your cook time will be a little less if you pre-soaked your beans). The key, is letting it simmer until your rice and beans are soft and have broken down mostly and you have a thick, soupy consistency. If you feel like you need to add more water, then do so.
• The very last thing that you will do is stir in your kale until it has wilted, about 5 minutes prior to you taking it off the heat.
• Serve and enjoy!

Notes

Feel free to add or omit whatever veggies you like with this dish, winter squash or zucchini would be nice as well. It's totally up to you.

Calories: 485kcal, Carbohydrates: 56g, Protein: 14g, Fat: 24g, Saturated Fat: 20g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Sodium: 827mg, Potassium: 382mg, Fiber: 7g, Sugar: 6g, Vitamin A: 5001IU, Vitamin C: 14mg, Calcium: 80mg, Iron: 4mg