Dal Khichdi is an Indian style lentil and rice one-pot, gluten-free dish. Khichdi is wholesome, fulfilling, and a comforting vegetarian Indian food recipe. Dal Khichdi laced with ghee and served with pickle, sliced onions, and raita is an absolute family favorite lunch.
What is Khichdi?
Khichdi is a popular casserole dish from the Indian sub-continent. A combination of lentils and vegetables cooked with rice in one pot to create a wholesome and delicious vegetarian goulash. Like a lentil stew.
A khichdi is super easy to cook and takes less than 30 minutes to get ready. One can easily cook it in a pressure cooker or an instant pot.
There are many types of khichdi prepared across India. In certain regions, it has a porridge like consistency whereas, in others, it is cooked like a pulao.
Also, different types of lentils like – yellow moong, pink masoor, toor dal (pigeon peas) along with rice and vegetables like onion, tomato, potato, or peas are used to prepare khichdi.
What do you serve with Khichdi?
Khichdi is served with a variety of Indian pickles, curd or raita, fried papad, lot of salad, and dollops of ghee. There is a food saying prevalent in India, ‘Khichdi ke chaar yaar – dahi, mooli, ghee, achaar.‘ It translates as khichdi has four friends – curd, radish, ghee, and pickle, without these a bowl of khichdi is not complete.
My Love For Dal Khichdi…..
With the first flake of snow, you start craving sometime warm and comforting. And for me, a humble bowl of dal khichdi does wonders on a cold winter afternoon.
Every time I cook khichdi in my kitchen, while the pressure cooker filled in the background score, my thoughts are transported to the childhood days. The time when simple pleasures like enjoying a bowl of Dal Khichdi with family would bring a thrill to my Sunday afternoon.
Dal Khichdi evokes so much nostalgia and emotion tied to the roots, it almost overwhelms.
Whenever my pantry is out of stock and there is nothing more left than a tomato or two along with some onion and potato. I prepare a comforting bowl of khichdi for lunch or dinner and everything in life seems so sorted.
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Dal Khichdi Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 Cup white rice
- 1/4 Cup yellow moong dal
- 1/4 Cup toor dal (pigeon peas)
- 1/4 Cup pink masoor dal
- 1 Cup chopped onion
- 1/2 Cup chopped tomato
- 1/2 Cup potato, cut into cubes
- 1 tablespoon jeera (cumin seeds)
- Salt to taste
- 1 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder
- 4 tablespoon ghee or cooking oil
Instructions
- To prepare the Dal Khichdi, first clean, rinse and soak the lentils together in water for 10 – 15 minutes or so. Similarly, soak the rice as well in a separate bowl.
- In a pressure cooker (buy it here) heat ghee/cooking oil over medium flame. Add the cumin seeds, fry for 10 – 20 seconds.
- Next, add the chopped onion. Stir and saute over medium heat or till onion become soft and golden in color.
- Add the chopped potato along with salt, turmeric powder, and red chili powder. Stir to combine.
- Drain water from the soaked lentils and rice. Add in the pressure cooker, stir to combine and saute for 3 – 5 minutes.
- Add approximately two glasses of water in the pressure cooker along with chopped tomato. Stir to combine and seal the lid of the pressure cooker. Let Dal Khichdi cook over medium heat for one or two whistles. Turn off the heat. Let the steam release naturally from the pressure cooker.
- Serve Dal Khichdi warm topped with ghee along with raita, salad, and papad.
Recipe Notes:
- Instant Pot Khichdi: This is an instant pot friendly recipe. You can make khichdi in an instant pot in 10 minutes. Saute mode 5 minutes. Pressure Cook mode 5 minutes. Follow the remaining steps as suggested above
- Vegan Khichdi: To make a vegan khichdi use coconut oil or refined oil for cooking instead of ghee. If you skip adding ghee, then dal khichdi is a naturally vegan and gluten-free dish.
- You can use all of three lentils (moon, masoor, and toor) or any of two along with rice to make khichdi.
- Adding potatoes or any other vegetable in the khichdi is optional. The vegetables make it more fulfilling.
4 comments
Warm comfort food, perfect for monsoons! Love the moody images…
Thank you so much for taking time out and sharing your feedback with us 🙂
Amazing blog and very interesting stuff you got here! I definitely learned a lot from reading through some of your earlier posts as well and decided to drop a comment on this one!
Yummy and Tasty Khichadi ????????????