Vegetable Khichdi
Vegetable Khichdi is a tempting and nutritious comfort food from Indian cuisine. This recipe requires sautéing basmati rice, dal and mix veggies in ghee with spices followed by boiling in deep pan to make one of the best veg khichdi. Unlike other khichdi recipes, this recipe uses a deep pan with the lid to get a sparse, uncompressed texture. However, you can use pressure cooker to make it in a traditional way too (see tips given below).
| Ingredients: |
| 2/3 cup Basmati Rice |
| 1/3 cup Moong Dal (split green gram) |
| 1 medium size Onion, finely chopped |
| 1 cup Mix Vegetables, chopped |
| 3¼ cups Water |
| 2 tablespoons Ghee |
| 4 Cloves |
| 5 Black Peppercorns |
| 5-6 Curry Leaves |
| 1 Cinnamon stick, broken into 2-pieces |
| 2 small pieces of Bay Leaf |
| 1/4 teaspoon Cumin Seeds |
| 1/2 teaspoon Red Chilli Powder |
| 1/4 teaspoon Turmeric Powder |
| 2 tablespoons Coriander Leaves (chopped) |
| Salt |
Notes: You can use any vegetables of your choice like green peas, French beans, cauliflower, potato, carrot, cabbage etc. to make healthy khichdi with mixed vegetables. To make it even healthier, you can safely increase the quantity of vegetables too. However, you need to increase the quantity of water accordingly.
Directions:- Wash and soak rice and moong dal in water for 30 minutes. Drain and keep aside. Finely chop mix vegetables.
- Heat ghee in a deep pan over medium flame. When ghee is hot enough to sauté, add cumin seeds, cloves, bay leaves, cinnamon, black peppercorn and curry leaves. Sauté for 30-40 seconds.
- Add chopped onion and sauté until it turns light brown or for approx. 1-2 minutes.
- Add mixed vegetables (cabbage, green peas, potato, carrot, french beans) and sauté for 2 minutes.
- Add soaked rice, moong dal, turmeric powder, red chilli powder and salt. Mix well and sauté for 2-3 minutes.
- Add 3¼ cups water and bring it to a boil. When it starts boiling, cover it with a lid and cook for 10-15 minutes over low flame. Stir occasionally in between to prevent sticking.
- Open/remove the lid and let it cook until rice grain is tender and almost all water is absorbed; approx. 2-3 minutes.
- Turn off the flame and garnish it with coriander leaves.
Taste: Salty and spicy
Tips and Variations:
- If you are a health conscious person, then reduce the amount of ghee to 1 tablespoon.
- You can also cook mixed vegetable khichdi in pressure cooker. Use medium size (3-5 liter cooker, pressure cook for 3 whistles, 1st whistle on high flame and remaining 2-whistles on medium flame).
- If you like mushy and dense texture, then use short grain rice, add 1 more cup water and let it cook until all water is absorbed.
Serving Ideas: Serve it on its own or with cucumber raita and mango pickle as a light and healthy dinner. Veg khichdi and Punjabi kadhi is a traditional combination menu for scrumptious dinner.