repost: recipe: kichadi

our kichadi - we added daikon because I love it and served it with cilantro and some guacamole

I AM REPOSTING THIS BECAUSE I MADE IT AGAIN AND IT JUST FEELS SO GOOD AT THIS TIME OF YEAR! with all of the summer foods that we eat, which we may not be used to (tomatoes EVERY day! for example) it can be hard on your digestion. I know I have not been feeling super well lately and I know that I needed some kind of well cooked grain meal, and this Kichadi really did the trick for me! I think a bowl of brown rice could have worked as well... but YUM I couldn't give up a chance to make this...


Recently, my husbands niece was here for a visit and helped out with the kids while he was out of town for a few weeks. It was so much fun to have her here, you know when having someone in your house can throw you off, well this was not the case with Sydney! She is a delightful girl and the kids were just wild for her, but that is for another story. We had a few delightful weeks of yoga, macrobiotic food and a new recipe to me, Kichadi! My friend who made it for us said "it's what munks eat" and that's all that I needed to hear.

Mung beans are a member of the kidney bean family and originally from India. They are easily digested and extremely detoxifying for the liver and gallbladder. They also help cleanse the heart and vascular system. In Ayurvedic medicine mung beans are one of the most treasured beans as they can be eaten by all three doshas (body types). There is a wealth of knowledge of kichadi online and you can find many recipes so if the one that I have listed here does not suit you, please look around to find one that you love. The base is always the same, mung beans and rice (I like to use brown rice). This is a healing dish that many people use as a cleanse and Sydney and I could have ate it for every meal we just loved it! Even the kids loved it, I mixed in some additional brown rice for them and we had it with a bit of guacamole and they ate it all up!

photo via: coconut & quinoa - soaking mung beans and rice

This is our favorite recipe, it's from a very nice blog called: Coconut & Quinoa, when you make the kichadi your who house will smell delightful and fill with delicious spices.

Brown basmati Kichadi

1 cup brown basmati rice
½ cup mung beans
1 tablespoon coconut oil or ghee
1 tablespoon minced ginger
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
15 curry leaves, if available (we couldn't find them)
½ cinnamon stick
6 cups boiling water
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 inch piece kombu
sea salt
tamari to taste (we didn't use this all the time)
cilantro to garnish

Combine basmati rice and mung beans in a bowl and wash thoughly. Drain and cover with 2 inches of filtered water. Soak over night. Drain and rinse again.

Warm coconut oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add minced ginger, cumin, curry leaves and cinnamon stick. Sauté for a few minutes until fragrant then stir in the drained rice and mung beans.

Increase heat to high and add boiling water, turmeric and kombu. Once mixture is boiling, reduce heat as low as possible, cover and simmer 1 hour. Add a large pinch of sea salt and simmer for another hour, stirring every 20 minutes to prevent sticking.

Remove from heat and let sit at least 10 minutes before serving. Season with tamari to taste and garnish with cilantro.
Serves 4 to 6.

photo via: coconut & quinoa - cooking spices

click here to get whole recipe on blog: coconut & quinoa