The dish that provided the inspiration for kedgeree, Moong Dal Khichdi is the original Indian comfort food eaten in the home and at celebration across India. There a number of varieties of khichdi, but this recipe is about as basic as they come. Not that it suffers from its simplicity.
Unlike other Indian rice dishes – biryani, for instance – khichdi has a very soft, dense texture. It’s almost porridge-like, a result of the softened moong dal. You can see why it’s described as comfort food.
Spoonful after spoonful, this is the sort of dish that will never get old. It’s probably a good idea to portion it out. If you don’t, you could find yourself with an empty pan and a rather larger belly than before.
As for how to serve your moong dal khichdi, it’s as delicious with another curry as it is on its own. Use it as you would any other dal, but because of its consistency, khichdi is at its finest simply mopped up with flatbread.
Moong Dal Khichdi
Serves 3-4
Ingredients:
- 100g rice
- 100g split mung beans (moong dal)
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 tsp ginger paste
- 2 chillies, finely sliced
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp salt
- 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
- a handful of garden peas
Method:
- Soak the rice and moong dal together in cold water for half an hour. Rinse through with fresh water until it becomes clear.
- Tip the rice and dal into a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and cook until both ingredients are softened.
- Meanwhile, heat 2 tbsp of oil in a frying pan or wok. Gently toast the cumin seeds, followed by the onion, ginger paste, chillies, turmeric, salt and tomatoes.
- Allow the ingredients to thicken and cook down, adding water if necessary. Once the rice and dal are ready add the spice mixture to the pot, along with a handful of garden peas.
- Allow the dish to simmer together for 2 minutes and serve immediately with flatbreads.
Cost: Rice, dal and spices. Vegetarian Indian food is some of the cheapest available. Flavour per penny, you can see why many consider it the best cuisine in the world.
Even if I’m slightly overestimating the cost of ingredient in the recipe above, the khichdi still comes in under £1.
17 replies on “Moong Dal Khichdi”
How funny – we must have cooked and posted almost identical dishes this week at the same time! Yours looks delish 🙂
Hah – that is strange. I find it often happens actually. Or I’m thinking about a dish and it pops up.
Every time you cook Indian food, I become a bigger fan of yours! 😀 Moong Dal Khichdi is one of our family’s Saturday dinner recipe! 😀 This one’s gonna be on the stove soon! 😀 Looks YUM!
I’ll have to make sure I do more. I plan to do a new dish tonight actually. I’ll be making more khichdi too. It’s great.
Have you tried yellow lentils khichdi? Or another version where you can add a lot of veggies – khichdi becomes a combo of “pulao” and “khichdi” 😀 Waiting for your new dish!
No, I haven’t – I’ve been thinking about doing a second version too. Thanks for the info!
Looks beautiful!
Thank you 🙂
I believe this is one of those really healing dishes in Ayurveda too. I make this quite often, every week, will try it out with your combination of spices next week! I don’t believe in full-on liquid detoxes and crazy juice cleanses- this is the perfect kind of little reset for the body 🙂
Exactly – just always eat healthy food and things will be fine.
I remember “borrowinG” q book from my mu – a Sainsburys cook book of indian and far eastern cookery and the Khichdi was one of the first I ever made. A favourite to this day and definitely fits in with the frugal theme
Quite an obscure dish to try as your first! I’m impressed. I think I’ll make it again tonight.
Must try this dish, looks tasty, can easily imagine eating it with bread before the main meal.
I could eat this cold as a side dish, great mix of spices, full of flavour.
I’ll certainly try this out next time we have an Indian meal.
This looks like it’s on my list of comfort foods.
Thank you for recipe with easy to follow step by step instructions.
Odelle Smith. ( U.K.)
My pleasure, Odelle. This is proper comfort food indeed.
In ayurveda this is the fasting meal…you go a few days only eating khichidi, it’s the only fasting I like:)
That sounds excellent! I’ll have to try it 🙂
Khichdi is the very tasty and healthy food. nice recipe thanks for sharing.