simple ingredients

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.

Magical Green Sauce

This flavor-packed, homemade signature sauce will quickly become a staple for spicing up leftovers, saucing your chicken, dressing your salads, or dipping. A few simple ingredients bring a punch of flavor with this magical green sauce. 

Description

Are you looking for a simple and flavor-packed sauce?  This herby flavorful sauce This is just the sauce to spice up a bland leftovers lunch bowl, a night when you are using a rotisserie chicken as the main meal, or any time you are eating and want a boost of happiness!  

Besides big flavor, it’s an ideal way to use up extra herbs that are about the wilt and come to a sad, slow demise. We hate to waste at The Healthy Family Table and this recipe is the superhero that will help you stop the bad habit of wasting.  Ultra-flexible, it’s the perfect way to mix and match herbs based on the flavors you love.

Is it just me…I don’t know why, but when I make a SAUCE, I just feel so EXTRA!! Extra chef-y, extra fancy, and just all-around EXTRA SPECIAL.

There is an amazing restaurant in our neighborhood in the West Village in New York City called Barbuto, by Chef Jonathon Waxman.  It’s the most exquisite — on a corner, with walls that are big almost garage doors that open up — making it indoor and outdoor all at once.  I always feel completely LUCKY that it’s always written up as the neighborhood restaurant that you WISH was on your corner.  We were that lucky family that had it on our corner.  Some of our friends and neighbors joked and called it their kitchen.  We didn’t go there as often as the Prince’s or Wilson’s, but we loved it still.  Dogs are more than welcome, and usually, they will find a new friend.  Our puppy Khushi loved walking by for a warm pet from a new friend and hopefully some tidbits of Chef Waxman’s world-famous chicken.  We went to celebrate: Birthdays.  A friend coming to town.  A friend coming from uptown! A Tuesday night. To discuss our kids and what they most needed from us. Meeting up with our other neighbors. We went there to celebrate our daughter getting into City and Country. We went there to celebrate our son getting into Packer Collegiate High School.  All to say, this restaurant, this sauce, is part of the fabric of our family.

While this is not Chef Waxman’s green sauce — his is perfection – this is perfect in its own way.  PRO TIP: I always, always ask for an extra sauce when I order his juicy flavorful chicken, but it’s my very delicious version. Truly — It’s magical! It definitely saves a dinner.  It will most certainly save a sad desk lunch. And just smelling it will LIFT your spirits.  It’s that magical.

Inhale the intoxicating earthy scent of cilantro, the aromatic scent of basil…feel grounded, thank Mother Earth, and say a very specific thing that you feel grateful for.  

You can thin it out with EVOO and use as a salad dressing.

You can thicken it up with full-fat whole milk yogurt, add some fresh chives and parsley and use it like a tangy homemade ranch.

You can stir some with Tahini and use it as a thick spread on a sandwich or as another sauce.  

The possibilities are endless….

Equipment

High-Speed blender or food processor

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of herbs — it can be a mix of parsley, cilantro, basil, mint, dill, chives, fennel fronds
  • 1 clove of garlic  
  • ½ cup of good quality extra virgin olive oil
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 1 anchovy filet — optional
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Steps

  1. Add one clove of garlic to a mug with hot water to soften the heat and bite of the garlic.  
  1. In a blender or a Vitamix, add herbs, garlic clove, lemon juice, anchovy, and cover with the EVOO.  Blend until it’s come together as a sauce. Adjust the salt and pepper to taste.
  1. Sit in AMAZEMENT at how fancy and CHEF-Y you are!

Substitutions

If you don’t have all the herbs, not a worry.  It will have a different flavor– but it will still be absolutely delicious.

Storage

This stores well for a week or so.  I like to keep this in the fridge in a mason jar AT ALL TIMES.  

Lucky Leftovers

This is such a handy sauce and it is like a sexy chameleon – it can add flavor and depth to many things.  You can thin it out with EVOO and use as a salad dressing.  You can thicken it up with full-fat whole milk yogurt, add some fresh chives and parsley and use it like a tangy homemade ranch.  You can stir some with Tahini and use it as a thick spread on a sandwich or as another sauce.  

HEALTHY HINT: you can barely taste one anchovy and it adds so much flavor, I really encourage you to try it once.  I have a feeling you will love it so much that the next time you will CONFIDENTLY add two!