Skip to main content

Khichdi: A darn fine way to sneak whole grains into your diet








Ask any Indian what their top five most favorite comfort foods are, and I am pretty sure Khichdi makes most lists. What is it about that rich, onctuous creamy consistency that just warms the insides, and brightens up the foggiest rainiest days? When I feel a little under the weather, with  runny nose, sniffles, itchy throat, fever (you know… all the F*%ING COVID symptoms) my craving for this comfort dish pretty much quadruples. Give me a Khichdi made from rice and moong daal, with a generous splotch of Mango Achaar on the side, and an obscenely gigantic dollop of Amul Butter, running rivulets all over my bowl, and my day instantly gets a whole lot better. Needless to say, lot’s of Khichdi was made in my kitchen over the last couple years. Lot's more down days than good ones, wouldn't you agree?


Khichdi has been around India for longer than anyone can remember. Khichdi is hugely popular in the north of India. In several cultures, Khichdi is considered to be the first solid food a child eats, and it quite possibly may have been mine. Maybe that’s why this dish is the ultimate comfort food for most of us. It’s rice and lentils, but often made with other grains as well like sorghum and millet. This information came in extremely handy during my most recent assignment.


I sometimes think I have the best job in the world. As a consultant chef, I get to design Indian menu offerings for many company employee dining programs. On a recent project, I was charged with featuring recipes that focus on seasonal local vegetables and healthy whole grains on the menu. My mind immediately went in the direction of Khichdi. Khichdi has to spend a time simmering on slow flame to cause the grain and lentils to break down and yield its yummy goodness. It made me think, what if we were to substitute the rice component for some healthy whole grains. And thus was born a new dish that has become by far, the favorite part of my lunch. Khichdi made from a combination of Farro, Pearl Barley, Chana Daal and Moong Daal Chilka (Chilka refers to a split lentil with the skin still on). Usually I am not a big fan of farro because it's often made too chewy, and I don't like barley because of the slimy mouthfeel. But in the Khichdi, it all broke down and came together into one gooey, rich mess that was warmly comforting. It almost didn’t need the Tadka. But come on!!! Do you honestly think I’m going to allow a Khichdi to leave my kitchen without a kick ass Tadka. Not happening. Not in this lifetime.


I chose to go with a very simple Tadka of mustard seeds, cumin seeds and asafoetida, followed by curry leaves and chopped ginger. This is almost as basic as a Tadka can get. I chose mustard oil over the traditional ghee, as I wanted to keep the dish vegan. I did miss the flavor of ghee, but honestly, the mustard oil held up real well. It brought a different smoky complexity to the dish, which I really liked. But here’s the best part!! People were eating healthy whole grains without realizing it. And that made me so happy. A chef I worked with in the past once told me this. She said, “It doesn’t matter how good something is for you. People aren’t going to eat it if you can’t make it taste good.” Truer words were never spoken, right?


And it was so good,  I could eat this dish all day. Well… actually I did. Being a chef, I have unlimited access to tasting spoons. And all day long, there was this giant cauldron of Whole Grain Khichdi, just begging to be picked at.

Maybe it’s a good idea to skip dinner tonight.





Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Sindhi Kadhi Experience

  Being the cultural melting pot of a city that it is, Mumbai is known for its opulent and extravagant food scene. However no restaurant can capture the warmth, authenticity and love of a home cooked meal. One of my most cherished memories of my Mumbai trip was a true Sindhi dining experience, thanks to the gracious invitation to dinner by my Sindhi school friend, Deepak Choithramani.  The Sindhi people originally hail from the province of Sindh, an area of great historical significance dating back to the Indus Valley civilization of 2500 BCE which is now in modern day Pakistan. This was a thriving community the country’s Independence in 1947. The partition caused the displacement of hordes of Hindu Sindhis, who were forced to flee to India to avoid persecution, forced conversion and genocide. They settled in many parts of northwestern India, primarily Gujarat and Maharashtra, and started their lives from scratch. In just a few decades of that happening, the Sindhis  esta...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Kinship with American Tea

The Plantations of the American South are an important aspect of her history. At the height of slavery, there were something like 46,000 plantations stretching across the southern states, according to the National Humanities center. The mild temperate climate, plentiful rainfall and fertile soil contributed to the reasons why these operations flourished. That and abundant enforced slave labor at that time. When traveling through South Carolina, a visit to a Plantation is featured on every tourist’s to do list, which is what I chose to do during my recent visit to the Palmetto state. The plantation I chose to visit was the Charleston Tea Garden; the only existing tea plantation in the United States. For some strange reason, I felt a deep connection to my heritage and my roots while I was there. The start of America’s story with Tea began around the 1770s, as an effort to meet the ever increasing British demand for tea at that time.   Tea plantations had been cultivated in large sca...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rajma Masala: A bowl of comfort for those cold evenings

Having grown up in Mumbai, I never really knew what a severely cold winter felt like. I barely remember ever needing a sweater more than once or twice a year. Winter would come, winter would go, we would hardly know it. Then I graduated from Hotel Management school, and accepted an offer from ITC Hotels to join their Management Trainee program. This meant I had to relocate to Delhi. It was the middle of November 1993 was this Mumbai kid got to know what a real winter feels like. Never before did I ever have to face the choice between going outside or remaining indoors, huddled under blankets. Let me tell you, there were many such indoor days that year. You never can forget your first winter away from home. I began to understand the meaning of bleak and dreary very quickly. During those times, Rajma Masala came to my rescue. Rajma Masala on rice brings about a certain kind of hearty comfort that very few other meals can. Rajma is the Hindi word for Kidney Bean, and Rajma Masala is a r...
Post a Comment
Read more