Recipe and photo by Emma Frisch
Prep Time: 5 minutes- Cook time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients:
- Ghee – 1.5 teaspoon
- Coriander seeds – 1.5 teaspoons
- Fennel seeds – 1.5 teaspoons
- Cumin seed – 1 teaspoon
- Turmeric powder – 1.5 teaspoons
- Cumin powder – 1 teaspoon
- Split mung dahl – 1 cup
- Basmati rice – 1 cup, rinsed
- Split yellow dahl – 1/4 cup, rinsed
- Cardamom pods – 4
- Bay leaves – 2
- Cinnamon stick – 1/2 stick
- Fresh ginger root – 1 tablespoon, minced
- Water – 4 cups
- Cilantro leaves – 1/4 cup per serving
Instructions:
- Toast the fennel, coriander and cumin seeds over medium-low heat. When they begin to pop, transfer them to a mortar and pestle or clean coffee grinder, and grind into powder.
- In a large pot, melt the ghee. Add the ground spices, turmeric powder and cumin powder. Stir into a paste.
- Add the split mung dahl, yellow dahl and rice to the pot. Stir and toast for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the cardamom pods, bay leaves, cinnamon stick and minced ginger.
- Add the water and stir the kitchari. Cover the pot with a lid and bring the liquid to a boil.
- Reduce to a simmer for about 30 minutes, until the water is absorbed and the kitchari is tender and porridge-like.
- Serve warm with a generous helping of cilantro leaves.
- When reheating for each meal, I like to add a splash of water to loosen up the kitchari.
For more recipes by Emma Frisch, visit her food blog at www.emmafrisch.com
This recipe is from the 3-Season Diet Challenge – a 12-month guide to eating with the seasons as nature intended. This FREE program takes you through a year of eating seasonally with month-to-month support and guidance. You can start the challenge anytime throughout the year. >>> Learn more and sign up here!
What did you think of this recipe? Have any tips or tricks to share?
Hi there! I just need instruction on how to copy and print the recipe! Somehow I can’t just select/copy/print with this. Help!
Thanks,
Janni
Hi, you can use the ‘snipping’ tool to select and copy the recipe then paste into a blank word document to print. Hope that helps x
working with a cancer patient who cannot eat rice, i’ve been making this dish with quinoa instead.
a few friends have noted that this recipe has a lot of ingredients … as a cleansing recipe, i’d suggest simplifying it.
and, last but not least, for those who feel they need to soak the beans: split beans do not need to be soaked for more than an hour. in fact, they can ferment from oversoaking. (i use whole mung beans in my kitcheree, soak them for two days – changing the water after 24 hours – so that they begin to sprout before cooking).
Hi Dr John and Emma,
Generally I love all your stuff. I first tried your kitchari based on the recipe in the Short Home Cleanse e-book about 9 months ago. It was great, if a little underspiced for my taste (I get to eat indian curry whenever I like) – and of course it had the intended effect!
This recipe seems to be wildly different!
The recipe in the e-book calls for 1/4 to 1/2 cup basmati per cup of yellow moong dahl. Now you say 1 whole cup of rice!! Also you add 1/4 cup of ‘split yellow dahl’ which as others have noticed is exactly the same as yellow moong dahl. So now we have more dahl, a lot more rice, and hardly any water! in the first recipe I tried you suggested 7-8 cups water, which for my I cup moong dahl + 1/4 cup basmati worked very well! And you left out the salt here…
Do you think it might be worth checking the recipe given here?
Keep up the good work,
Shaanti,
Laura
No Salt is it not a missing part
I am having a hard time differentiating between the split mung dahl and the yellow dahl. There is only mung dahl on your site, and no other kitchari recipe calls for both. I can’t find the yellow dahl anywhere only the split yellow mung dahl.
Hi Kelcey, the terms yellow dahl and split yellow mung dahl are interchangeable. We do recommend that if you are buying split yellow mung dahl beans elsewhere that you make sure they are not dyed yellow and are organic.
Be well,
Dr. John
Thanks for the clarification. If they are the same why does the recipe call for both? After some searching I did find some organic yellow split lentils/chick peas that were called chana dahl split yellow lentils . The organic Moong dal was much easier to find.
Hello Dr. D! Is it okay and healthy still, if the beans are grown in China? I have been looking for non chinese grown and haven’t found any. And then I ran across this on a website:
The USA-produced organic split (yellow) dal is grown in China but split in the US. Therefore, it can be labeled as a product of the USA.
To my knowledge there is not a single source of “grown in USA” organic split yellow dal. According to my research, all organic dal I have found comes from China — even when it is sold at Ayurvedic/Indian sites.
In my comparisons, the USA-split organic yellow dal is much better than the China-split product. The USA-split dal has significantly fewer loose husks (which is a very big problem with the China-split product) and it also produces less foam when rinsed. This is currently the best dal I know of. Being split in the USA does make a difference.
But we do need a source of non-Chinese organic dal.
This recipe looks delicious, but having made kitchari countless times, I’ll bet anything you need more water or else this is going to be too thick. I’ve heard it’s more digestible when it’s more soupy, so I’d add at least 2 more cups of water, and maybe even 3 or 4. Also, I think it needs more than 30 minutes to cook, and definitely more then 5 minutes to prepare. And FYI, I also usually add veggies to my kitchari, often root veggies, and especially greens towards the end of cooking, cuz why not make it more nutritious?
Recipe sounds delicious. That be said the most important preparation is missing which is soaking the beans in water overnight.
Hi Robin,
Yes, you can definitely soak the beans overnight for easier digestion.