Ayurveda

Kitchari/Kichadi

Simple, comforting, healing lentil and rice vegetarian stew with healthy, whole ingredients.

Have you been looking to make kitchari and didn’t know how or what to do? Were you intimidated by some recipes? Did you buy an expensive kit? This simple, comforting healing recipe is here to solve your issues and help you feel your absolute best! This is the easiest comforting and nourishing one-pot wonder.  

Description

We grew up eating kichadi almost every Sunday night.  For years, I thought it was because we had eaten through everything fresh in the fridge and our poor mom was exhausted.  She probably was, indeed with three kids and a full-time job.  In reality, my mom was helping to reset us and nourish us for the week to come.  Many of the things my mom cooked incorporated healing Ayurveda tricks.  Often, we hated it, but we were so lucky.

Simple Ayurveda that I practice in our daily life is gentle and kind.  She is the sweet friend who does not say, I told you so,  but here my darling, eat this and tell me everything.  My ayurvedic kitchari does not have too many spices and it is super quick and simple to pull together.  Both our kids ate this as babies, through toddler years, when they got teeth pulled, braces, and most definitely on Sundays when they had gone to multiple birthday parties and had too many slices of pizza and cupcakes to even count!

I love to eat kitchari at least once a week for dinner to stay balanced, for lunch AND dinner after an overindulgent week. Every season, I eat kichadi for a full day or two, to help gently detox my body. I end up feeling light, nourished, and that my digestion is that much stronger.  In my meditations, I can feel my body thanking me. Now we like to call it a cleanse, a mini cleanse, mono eating, put simply: it’s rebalancing the body so it can do the work we ask it to for us.

The beauty of kichadi is to master the ratios, and then you can add any spices and seasonings that make your taste buds happy.  Once you have the ratios down, you are living on a street called EASY and can make kichadi very quickly, whenever the need or urge strikes.

For a fun change in flavor profile, but still easy on the digestion, I have made Mediterranean Kichadi.  It’s not fusion, per se, but I created a lighter flavor profile.  I love it!  I include the fresh herbs of Italy, adding fresh parsley, basil, fresh-pressed olive oil on top with plenty of juicy lemon. It’s delicious!

Separately, if you don’t have these spices, but still want to give it a try, you can make this without all the Indian spices.  It will still help gently cleanse your digestion.  It may taste bland, so make sure you are using good quality sea salt and lots of fresh-squeezed lemon.  Don’t let not having cumin and coriander stop you from experiencing the healing properties of kichadi.

I know I grew up eating this, but this always feels like a hug and a supportive conversation.  I hope the hug makes you warm and happy, that you make this often and feel the LOVE!

Take a moment.  Take a full deep inhale.  Feel the breath in your side body.  Exhale slowly and smoothly.  Take two more breaths just like that.  Know you are loved.

Ingredients

1 cup split moong dal (the split is important for easy digestion)

1 cup short-grain rice or a mix of rice and quinoa

2 Tablespoons ghee

1 Tablespoon cumin

1 Tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon of turmeric (if you love the taste like I do, add more)

1 — 2 inches of ginger (I love ginger) grated or chopped

½ teaspoon whole cumin seeds

¼ teaspoon of hing, asafoetida

1 bay leaf

2  to 3 teaspoons sea salt

Fresh cilantro

More ghee for serving on top

Fresh lemon for squeezing on top

Steps

  1. In a large bowl, add the rice and dal.  Rinse the mix.  I always like to rinse mine three times.  

Take the time to really be present and take deep, grounding breaths. 

  1. Soak the mix for 20 minutes or as long as you have time for, I always find this quickens the cooking process. (Don’t worry if you don’t have the time.)
  1. On medium heat, warm a  large pot or dutch oven, then add the ghee.  As the ghee warms and melts, add the cumin seeds.  As the aromas of earthiness fills your being, add the turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, and asafoetida.  Continue stirring,  so the spices do not burn.  Add the grated ginger.  Stir so everything is uniformly colored–one nameless dark color that smells like fresh earth and warm rain.
  1. Add the rice and dal along with 4 to 6 cups of water.   Add the bay leaf.I like mine on the more watery porridge side, but if you want it to be more like fluffy rice, stick with 4 cups of water.  Season generously with sea salt (Please please NOT MORTON’s.  Use real sea salt, celtic salt or himalayan salt).  
  2. Raise to medium high heat to bring the kitchari to a gentle boil, then lower to a medium low.  Cover withthe lid, but keep it a few inches open to allow some steam to escape.  Continue cooking until everything is a tiny bit “overcooked” to maximize digestive ease, usually about 20 minutes.  Stir a few times so nothing sticks to the bottom or sides.  The kichadi will look creamy.  
  3. Taste the kichadi to test the doneness and flavors.  You may need more water or salt.
  4. Squeeze plenty of fresh lemon and sprinkle with fresh cilantro.  

Say a super-specific gratitude, and enjoy healing your body and spirit.

CCF tea – AKA Your Digestion’s Bestie Tea (Cumin, Coriander, and Fennel Tea)

If you are seeking an herbal tea to adopt into your routine to aide and soothe your digestion track, Cumin Coriander Fennel Tea is the perfect elixir. Quick and simple to make with good, whole ingredients, this tea will ensure everything is running smoothly and at an optimum level.

Did you overeat? Are you feeling bloated? This is a simple, quick herbal tea infusion to make for yourself to get your digestion back on track.  When used regularly, it helps your digestion work at an optimal level. It’s the simple and powerful trick that you always wanted!

This herbal infusion is an old ayurvedic recipe to aid in digestion. I remember my mother making it for us whenever we had a stomache–usually after too much Halloween candy or too much COTTON CANDY from a carnival. 

I started incorporating it into my life again when I began my Ayurveda studies in my 40’s – having completely forgotten how powerful it is.  I won’t lie.  It was certainly not love at first sight.  The first time I thought….hmmmm.  This isn’t what I want to be drinking.. However, SHE PREVAILED, as we now know say! 

I love how it promotes healthy digestion, and helps with the discomfort of indigestion, or too much eating.  I try to live a balanced life — but I am very human and NOT PERFECT.  I have eaten too much at that delicious restaurant I have been trying to go to for months!  You know the one…that makes the delicate pasta by hand.  Or had a few too many bites of my mother in law’s flavorful chicken biryani. Or too many bites of my daughter Anisa’s homemade chocolate pudding…it is so silky and luscious. 

It’s this magical potion that saves me EVERY TIME.  This tea has so many benefits that make it worth adding to your daily habits. Or, you can also just incorporate it when you “need it the most”, for example after a too heavy to digest meal or a meal that you indulged in too much!  CCF Magical Tea to the rescue.  Even too much of a balanced and healthy meal can cause digestive distress. This Ayurveda tea is here to save the day by doing wonders for your gut health.

Confession —  It may take some getting used to the taste, it’s a very different taste than most of us are used to.  It is not going to taste like your usual mint tea!  But it really does the JOB!  Believe me – it’s a gamechanger.  An easy new habit to add into your daily practice, have this tea daily for 7 days and see how you feel.  You will feel lighter and less bloated, I promise.  

I know it sounds strange…these are spices I cook with (or don’t cook with! Ha ha!).  How can this be tea? Technically, it’s more of an infusion.  The combination of these three spices come together and create something bigger with profoundly healing properties.  It’s one of those, wow! If I had known it could be so easy, I would have done it years ago. 

Healthy Hint to make your life easier – Once I mix a jar of this, I  keep it right there with all my teas. Let them be tea Besties!  It makes it much quicker to have it when I need it and it lasts several months.

In the beginning, I advise you to try it a few times, maybe make it a few different ways as your taste buds adjust.  I drink this many afternoons, it’s especially comforting during the first chilly days of Fall.  I like to add a tiny taste of local honey and some fresh lemon, especially in the beginning as you get adjusted to this taste.  You can also add a sprig of fresh mint from your garden.

Luckily, we live in a world where many spices are available at local supermarkets.  Most likely, you will be able to find all three spices at your Whole Foods, Kroger’s, Ralph’s, Gristede’s or wherever you market. You will certainly save yourself money by visiting your closest Indian store.  These spices are versatile and long lasting, so do yourself a favor and pick up a larger bag of all three.  Or, you can always order online.  If you feel so inclined, there are smaller spice purveyors who are making sure working conditions and wages are fair that I highly recommend looking into for the future, including Diaspora Co., Curio, SOS Spices, and Zameen spices, among many others.  I love spending time at SOS Spices in the East Village of New York.  Atef Boulaabi’s shrine to  spices and cooking is tiny, crowded, and beautiful.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Most often there, she is welcoming and ready to talk cooking whether you are a celebrated chef, or a home cook looking to try something new.  I love sharing what I’ve been making, what I want to try, and what I am afraid to try!  Single source spices are super fresh, and she also makes blends that I love.   

Take a smooth, deep breath.  Close your eyes.  Feel the warmth inside you.  Connect to that love that you have for yourself.  Self care can look many ways.  Take good care of yourself.

Equipment

Kettle or pot to boil water

Ingredients

  • -1 tablespoon cumin seeds
  • -1 tablespoon coriander seeds
  • -1 tablespoon fennel seeds

Steps

  1. Add one tablespoon to a mug of just boiled water.  Cover.  Let steep for five minutes. 
  2. Set a timer and meditate for 5 minutes.  
  3. What a relaxed and focused afternoon you will have!
  4. Strain into a mug, using your strainer.
  5. Add local honey to taste.
  6. Breathe it in and toast your health!

Substitutions

You really can’t substitute – but, if you only have fennel, just chew on that.  A handful or two will help.  

If you only have two out of three, give it a steep – a little is better than nothing.

You can certainly ADD things – ginger, mint, chamomile, tulsi, to round out the flavors and add additional benefits.

Storage

Mix up larger quantities in a glass mason jar.  It will last for several months.

Healthy Hint:  I mix a jar of this and keep it right there with all my teas.  It makes it much quicker to have it when I need it and less to put away.

Healthy Hint: Add a small spoon of local honey and a juicy squeeze of lemon to help you adjust to the taste.  

Summer Cool

While the thrill of summer and summer vacations never goes away, the glare of the sun can be taxing.  Keep your temper low and your energy high by incorporating these tips.  Since summer is hot, bright and sharp, this is the time to balance our bodies with natural coolness.  Simply change the diet to cool and pure foods to enable our bodies to feel naturally fresh and light.
Continue reading “Summer Cool”