Masala Khichdi

There are certain days in a month when we are simply too lazy to cook something lavish. And then there are days when we want plain comfort food. Just the other day, these two types of days coincided at our place.

My dear husband’s stomach had been acting funny (thanks to the momos he had the other day). So I decided to cook him masala khichdi. Khichdi is a dish cooked with lentils and rice. Unlike plain khichdi which is cooked with a heeng-jeera (asafoetida-cumin) tempering, masala khichdi is slightly more interesting (though I love the plain tempered khichdi too).

My husband who otherwise doesn’t like boring food absolutely loved the khichdi and so did I.

It is a quick fix for dinner, easy on the stomach yet filling and yummy to eat. So, if you feel lazy today cook this for dinner and no one would complain.

masala khichdi with melted dollop of ghee!

Ingredients (serves 5 lazy people)

½ glass of rice (soaked for 30 minutes)

½ glass of moong chilka/green white lentils (soaked for 30 minutes)

4.5 glasses of water

1 tomato chopped

1 green chilli chopped

½ a finger of ginger grated

1 tbsp of garlic powder

1 tbsp cumin seeds

10 curry leaves

Few sprigs of fresh coriander

2 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)

1.5 tbsp of turmeric powder

Salt to taste

Recipe

Put soaked rice and lentils in a pressure cooker. Add water to this; tip in salt and turmeric powder.

Close the lid and wait for two whistles. Take the cooker off the flame.

Pour ghee in a separate wok. Once the ghee is hot, add curry leaves and cumin seeds to it. 

After they crackle, add tomato, grated ginger and chopped green chilli to it. Cook till the tomato chunks soften and the ghee separates.

Meanwhile release the steam from the cooker. Stir the rice and lentils nicely mashing them a little.

Now add a few spoonfuls of rice and lentils to the tomato tempering in the wok, mix it well. 

Add this to the remaining the rice and lentil mix in the cooker.

Add chopped fresh coriander leaves to it. Stir well. Adjust salt to taste. 

Add a dollop of ghee on the top while serving and garnish with coriander leaves.

Serve it with yoghurt, pickle, chutney and papad on the side (who says khichdi can’t be grand?)

It is ready to be eaten.

Note:

Besides the soaking, the cooking takes just 15 minutes, now that is NOT a LOT of time if you are cooking a proper wholsesome meal.

You can make this with simple yellow moong lentils also.

You can add veggies to the rice and lentils while cooking them in the pressure cooker. This will make the dish richer.

I was too lazy to grate garlic cloves, hence I used the powder. However if you do not have the garlic powder, just grate 3-4 cloves of garlic. 

If you are even lazier and do not feel like chopping a tomato also, just use some boxed tomato puree.

Happy Cooking!