Kichari, the Most Amazing Healthy Recipe

Kichari sometimes also spelled “Kitchari”, “Kitchadi”, or "Kitcharee" is one of the healthiest recipes that you can find.

Kichari is an Ayurvedic dish that is used primarily during healing fasts and during and after Pancha Karma or illness. It is a perfectly balanced, healing food for all three doshas - Ayurveda Body Types . Use organic ingredients for highest nutrition. You can eat this on a monofast diet for 2-3 weeks if you want. It will harmonize the body and mind and regulate the blood chemistry.

Ingredients of this healthy recipe:
1-2 TBS clarified butter or other high quality cooking oil
1 cup mung beans (split beans are best; they are yellow; can also use the whole mung beans, which are green)
1/2 white basmati rice
1 tsp each of cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, and mustard seeds
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/8 tsp of hing or asafoetida (could be omitted if you cannot find it)
1-3 tsp fresh grated ginger
Organic veggies: Anything goes here (except garlic, onions, tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, bell peppers). My favorite combination is 1/2 cup each of yam and sun chokes and 1 or 2 cups of chopped kale, chard or spinach. You can add burdock, 1 teaspoon dried burdock or 3-4 inches of fresh root will give you a nutty, slightly bitter taste.
6-8 cups water

Note: Rinse mung beans and rice 3 times before cooking. Soak mung beans for 1-8 hours before cooking. Overnight is good, but not longer than 8 hours (soaking helps to eliminate the formation of gas).

Step One: Make the Magic
• Melt 1 tablespoon ghee or other cooking oil in deep pot over low to medium heat. Add 1 teaspoon of cumin, fenugreek, and mustard seeds and the grated ginger. Saute until slightly brown, careful not to burn!!

Step Two: Make the Kitchari
• Add rice and mung beans and saute for 30 seconds or so. Turn down heat.
• Add turmeric, coriander, and hing powders and saute for another 30 seconds or so. Do not burn!
• Add 6-8 cups of water (depends on how long you soaked the beans but Kichadi should be soupy; add more water if needed)
• Add root veggies at this time. Cover and cook for 20-30 minutes
• Add leafy greens at this time. Cover and cook for another 20 minutes

Step Three: Enjoy!
You can put Bragg’s seasoning on top if little salt is desired.

Kichari is one of my favorite healthy recipes. By varying the mung dals (green and yellow), spices and vegetables, you can always make a new, different dish out of this recipe. There are many variations of this amazingly healthy recipe. You can play a little and experiment with different vegetables and spices to make it 'just the way you like it'. Every Kichari has mung beans and basmati rice. All of the other ingredients vary from recipe to recipe. I would recommend always including fresh ginger, turmeric, cumin, and coriander because of their medicinal properties (but again, that is only my recommendation; it's not set in stone ;-).

Have fun with Kitchari and let me know your favorite combination!

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