Vaghareli Khichdi and Gujarati Kadhhi


gujarati-khichdi-kaddhi
Its pouring this weekend, and I'm craving for some simple comfort food, something that brings back fond childhood memories, is easy to make, and is indeed warm and comforting in this gloomy cold weather! As me and B sit chatting together, we find solace in a plate of hot Mung Dal Khichdi and authentic Gujarati Kaddhi. "Khichdi", literally means "hotch-potch", where you cook rice and lentils together, and throw in a bunch of spices, and maybe some vegetables of your choice. "Kaddhi" is the perfect counterpart for Gujarati Toor Dal, and is made of buttermilk and besan (chickpea flour) Together, they create a healthy, satisfying and very comforting meal that no restaurant menu can match! Here is a recap of my original Khichdi-Kaddhi recipe.

Ingredients

For Khichdi
3 cups moong dal
2 cup basmati or plain rice
3 tbsp ghee (clarified butter)
7-8 whole black pepper-corns
1 cup onions - finely chopped
1 cup potatoes - finely diced
1 cup fresh/frozen green tuvar (lilva)(optional, but you can get it in Indian stores)
3 tsp turmeric powder
2 green chillies - chopped
2 tbsp cumin seeds (jeera)
salt - to taste (about 1 1/2-2 tbsp)
lemon juice - to taste (about 2 tbsp)

For Kadddhi
3 cups sour buttermilk
1/4 to 1/2 cup besan (chickpea flour)
2 tbsp ghee
salt and lemon juice - to taste
jaggery or sugar - to taste (start with less if you like it sour!)
2 green chillies - chopped
1 tbsp cumin seeds (jeera)
2 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi)
a pinch of asafoetida (hing)
chopped corander for garnish
5-6 curry leaves (limdo)

Method - Khichdi
Take the rice and moong dal and wash them under running water for a couple of times. Then take a pressure cooker, add add 3 tbsp ghee and add the cumin seeds, black pepper-corns, onions, and green chillies. Saute for 2 mins, then add the diced potatoes and the rice and moong dal mixture. Add in the turmeric powder and saute again so everything is mixed well. Now add the required amount of water(I generally use the ratio of 1 cup rice to 1-1/2 cup water), cover with the lid and cok it for 4-5 whistles.

Alternately, you can cook the khichdi separate in a rice cooker, and saute the remaining ingredients (use boiled potatoes in this case) in a frying pan, and add the cooked khichdi to the vegetables later.

Method - Kadhhi
Take a large vessel and por the buttermilk in it. Now slowly keep adding the besan a little at a time, constantly stirring or beating the mixture (use an egg-beater) so no lumps are formed. This is very important, and you should make sure there are no lumps at all or the kadhhi will not taste nice. Taste a little to make sure you do not get a pronounced taste of besan, it should mainly be buttermilk with a hint of besan in it.

Now take a kadhai, put 2 tbsp ghee in it, add the cumin and fenugreek seeds, asafoetida, the green chillies and the curry leaves. When they start spluttering, slowly add the buttermilk mixture and stir. Add about 3 cups of water. Keep the flame on medium to medium-high. Now add the jaggery or sugar, salt and the lemon juice. Cover partially and let it boil. Once it gets a bit thick, but not too tick, check for taste and see that it does not taste like a spoonful of besan. If so, add a little more water. Garnish with chopped coriander.

This is a really simple gujarati recipe that anyone can easily make at home. Serve the Khichdi and Kadhhi hot with pickle and enjoy the taste of a traditional gujarati meal:)

Related Recipes:
Rava Dhokla
Instant Khandvi (Suralichi Wadi)
Methi Palak na Muthiya


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36 comments :

Richa said...

hu kadhi kyare pan khai saku :) khichadi kadi sathey lasan ni chutney maney bau gamey :) looks very tempting

Rajesh &Shankari said...

I love the kadhi..my friends in the hostel in pune wld make it for me, they were from Baroda.

Anonymous said...

That's a totally alien dish to me...but the ingredients are not, and the looks are tempting:)

-Helene

Mansi said...

Richa - lasun chutney would be best! my husband loves it:)

Shankari - I'm from baroda too:)

Helene - sometimes aliens can be friendly too:) I think you'll like this one!:D

vimmi said...

just made it last week. love it. nice recipe

FH said...

RCI Gujarat is next, hold on girl!:D

Comfort food, send it to Meeta!:)

Have a great weekend. It's going to snow here for us, all of 2"!! Hurray!!

Pooja V said...

Saras che..i know v few gujju waords so tried using them I hope i am right since i meant to say " very good ".

Anonymous said...

I ate this so many times on my India trip...we stayed a gujarati couple's place and I was totally hooked onto the kadhhi:) thanks for the recipe!! it looks wonderful:)

-Sarah H

Alpa said...

Hi Mansi - great recipes, I love that you don't have to stir the kadhi constantly until it comes to a boil! Isn't this the ultimate Gujju comfort food?

Rina said...

Kichidi looks gr8 Mansi, Love to try it.

Suganya said...

Its comfort foods everywhere. I myself posted one :). You can sedn this to Meeta's Mingle.

Anonymous said...

My husband loves gujarati kaddhi..I'll definitely try this one Mansi!

-Ananya

DEEPA said...

wow mansi !!!khichdi looks great ..I have never made this at home ...I have booked marked it ...

Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) said...

Jaden from Steamy Kitchen just sent me some curry leaves, and I've been looking for recipes that use them. Hooray -- I will bookmark this one!

Rajitha said...

yummers...love it! both of em..i can drink bowlfulls of kadhi!!

AnuZi said...

Usually kichidi in our household means someone is sick....but your kichidi and kahdhi looks too good to be just a "make better" meal. We have our kichdi with a lil ghee and lemon pickle :o)

Lynda said...

Oh no... a delicious blog.. I adore good Indian Food, lived for 2 years in Mumbai. Might be a stuggle to find all the right herbs and spices here in Cairo. thanks for dropping by.
Cheers Lynda

Anonymous said...

hmmm....khichdi.....we have the Saraswati Puja coming in a few days here in Calcutta & Khichdi is the special dish for that day...we share it among our relatives & friends in different forms...mu mouth has just started watering from now...this time we will try your recipes....lovely!

Rosie said...

Something new to me but your recipes so look very tempting indeed!!

Anonymous said...

I'm not familiar with this but it surely sounds delicious!
Great job!
:-)

Anonymous said...

Khichdi sounds interesting mansi. Would love to try it.

chemcookit said...

Mansi, the more I look around your blog, the more I want to try everything you made! This looks really good, it could be a good one to start :) Thanks!

Archana Doshi said...

Yummy. The past week, the whole house had a stomach upset :). SO we lived on different versions of this kichadi and kadhi :)
Archana
http://www.archanaskitchen.com/

Anonymous said...

It seems to me that 1 and 1/2 cups of besan for 3 cups of buttermilk is too much Do you mean 3 Tbs? In your write up you say the besan should only give a hint. Please clarify.

Mansi said...

hi Suren - sorry for the typo! it should actually be 1/2 cup...sorry, I'll update it asap! actually, you can start with 1/4th cup, blend it well with buttermilk, and only if u need a thicker consistency, add 1/4 cup more...hope this helps!

thanks for pointing out my typo!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the quick response. One more doubt. For the kichdi, rice to dhal ratio you used 2:3. Common ratio I observed is 2:1. It seems a lot of dhal. It looks like some people do use equal portions but here dhal seems to be too much. What do you think?

Mansi said...

Suren - that 3:2 ratio is intentional in this recipe; Khichdi generally has more mung dal and less rice, and that's the reason for a nice gujju flavor...so I'd recommend that you try this!:)

mayank said...

hu khichadi sathey khati chas maney bau gamey it's amazing

Uma said...

wow, the khichdi looks so good. And the kadi is mouthwatering.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this nice and easy recipe for Khichdi. I was in a dinner dilemma Sun evening and decided to look at your blog to see what you had posted. Voila, the easy recipe for Khichdi and I made it!! I didn't make kadi unfortunately. I also wondered about too much moong but followed the recipe and it turned out well. Only one problem I found was that Kichdi was a bit dry. So I added more water and cooked it in the pressure cooker a bit longer. Thanks!

Anonymous said...

this looks so tasty. unfortunately I don't get moong dal here. Nobody knows it here. Is there any substitute I can use?

Mansi said...

hi Fluge - you can use "Toor Dal" is that's available in your grocery stores, and I think it might, as its more common. if that's not an option too, then just use "whole green mung", which is actually a cereal, but tastes great in this recipe. Just make sure you soak them in water for at least 2 hours before making "Khichdi":)

hope this helps! but try any indian grocery store if you ahve one, and you'd be able to find "Toor Dal" there...

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much Mansi!
I have found an indian grocery store in the town next to where I live. The people there are very friendly and they said, that usually they got moong beans. So I just baught toor dal and what's left to say: THANKS for this great recipe! It tastes really awesome, next time I'll try to get mung, so I can compare the options. I really can just recommend to everyone to try toor dal as well!

Anonymous said...

hi mansi. your receipe helped at lot. 1st time i cooked food in my life coz my mom went to india. since last three days i am on your blog everyday looking for receipes. thanks a lot.

Mansi said...

glad my effort helped you become a chef Dipen:) I hope you keep enjoying the recipes, and cook some of them for your mom too when she comes back:)

fickle philosopher said...

Hi Lynda, any idea where to find Indian Vegetarian food or family take away in Cairo?