Ayurvedic Cleanse Recipe: Vegetable Khichdi

Ayurveda

Khichdi is a beloved South Asian comfort food that's not only delicious, but it's also an excellent way to detoxify the body after a long winter. Packed with fiber and plant-based protein, Khichdi is easy to digest and is known for its gut-healthy properties. It's a perfect meal to enjoy on a warm spring day, as it can help to boost your metabolism, support healthy digestion, and promote overall wellness.

Whether you're looking to cleanse your body or simply want to enjoy a nourishing meal, Khichdi is a must-try. Keep reading to learn more about this South Asian staple and how to make it.

What Is Khichdi?

In its traditional form, Khichdi consists of mung beans (moong dal) or lentils, cooked with rice (or buckwheat), vegetables, and mild Indian spices, including turmeric and coriander. It is considered one of the most healing meals in Ayurveda because it is very nourishing and easy to digest. Often people who practice this tradition will do a “cleanse” by eating this simple meal 3x a day for 3-7 days.

Cleansing Your Body With Khichdi

Doing a “cleanse” doesn’t have to be drastic or expensive – it can actually be very gentle, holistic, and energizing. The Ayurvedic interpretation of a “cleanse” is based on the idea that our bodies are like filters. They take in all that we give them, absorb what is needed, then hopefully filter out the rest. But sometimes the filters get clogged, get weaker, and stop working as efficiently as they used to. This makes our bodies stop burning fat as we used to, and our metabolisms become sluggish.

Eating cleanly for a period of time – with meals such as this Vegetable Khichdi – can actually reverse this and assist the body in catching up with its inner cleaning and do what it naturally wants to do – shed and filter out what’s not needed for it to be healthy.

Giving ourselves a rest from rich, fatty, sugary, processed, and or nutrient-poor foods, allows our bodies time to restore itself and focus on the task at hand, healing itself, without being overburdened from what else is coming in. It’s like pushing the reset button. After a few weeks of rest, the digestive fire will start burning again. The metabolism will become more efficient, energy levels will increase, skin will clear up, and you will glow from the inside out.

How To Make Khichdi

Below is a recipe straight from AAVRANI Founder & CEO, Rooshy Roy. It's vegan, gluten-free, and makes about 4 servings.

The ingredients

• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil or coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon grated ginger
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1 tsp whole mustard seeds
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp curry powder, more to taste
• 1 small dried red chili pepper, crumbled (or half for less spicy)
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 cup split mung beans, split lentils (or whole mung beans or whole lentils, soaked overnight)
• 1/2 cup toasted buckwheat (kashi) or basmati rice
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 1 cup veggie broth
• 2 cups chopped vegetables of your liking (e.g., carrot, parsnips, celery, fennel bulb, cauliflower, broccoli)
• 2 tablespoon chopped cilantro (garnish)
• 1 squeeze of lemon or lime (garnish)
• 1 diced tomato (garnish)

The instructions

In a medium pot, sauté onion in oil over medium-high heat for 2-3 minutes. Reduce heat to medium add ginger and garlic, and sauté a few minutes, until golden and fragrant.

Add spices, pepper, salt and stir together, then toast for a few more minutes. Add soaked mung beans and buckwheat or soaked brown rice. Add water, broth and 2 cups chopped veggies bring to a good boil. Cover. Turn heat to low and let simmer for 20 minutes.

Continue cooking for 5-10 more minutes if necessary. Some rice takes longer, and if you do not pre-soak your whole mung beans, or brown rice, you will need to add more water, which will change the recipe proportions and flavor…so try to soak if possible.

Spoon into bowls, top with fresh diced tomato and fresh cilantro and a pinch of salt and pepper, and a squeeze of lemon or lime.

The FYIs

A tip: soaking mung beans in water overnight will double their size, cut their cooking time in half, and increase their digestibility. Plus, sprouted mung beans are exceptionally good for you!

If you prefer your Khichdi more like a porridge (which is traditional in parts of India) feel free to add warm veggie broth to get it to the consistency you like.

Show us your Khichdi

Give this delicious and nutritious dish a try, and share your finished product with us by tagging us on Instagram @AAVRANI!