Spirit Voyage Blog

From Karan’s Spirit Voyage Kitchen

Karan with a big bowl of Kichari

Since I was a little girl, I’ve eaten Kichari as a healing food whenever I started to feel sick.  For me, Kichari is like Chicken Soup – it’s my cure all for whatever ails me.  It gives me comfort and nutrition and makes me feel so healthy that I tend to continue eating it for the entire winter season.

Yogi Bhajan prescribed Kichari as a great colon cleanser.  When I lived in India, Kichari was the Ayurvedic staple, and anyone living a yogic lifestyle ate Kichari at least once a day.  Anytime I went to an ashram, spa, or clinic, Kichari was the meal served.  It made me feel perfectly at home.

Hargobind eating Kichari with yoghurt

In college, my friends discovered that Kichari is the perfect poor man’s (or woman’s) food.  A 5 lb. bag of rice and 5 lbs. of mung beans can last a few months for very little money.  So, in times when money is tight, make yourself a big pot of Kichari and eat it all week – you’ll feel better and your wallet can stay just a little bit fatter!

Last week, we started eating our first batch of Kichari here at the Spirit Voyage offices and we’ve been loving it.

My Kichari recipe makes 10 servings.

Green Mung Beans

Ingredients:

10 Cups of Water
2 Cups Basmati Rice
2 Cups Whole Green Mung Beans (soaked in water for at least 6 hours, but up to 24 hours)
1 Medium Onion (diced)
4 Cloves Garlic (finely chopped – you can use as much as a full bulb if you are a garlic lover)
1 to 2 Inches Ginger (finely chopped)
3 TBSP Ghee (if you don’t have ghee, olive oil can be substituted, but use a bit less)
1 TBSP Turmeric
1 TBSP Cumin Seeds
1 TBSP Coriander Powder
1 TBSP Crushed Red Chili Flakes
1 tsp Black Pepper
1/2 Cup Bragg Liquid Aminos
1 LB Spinach (you can use any green leafy vegetable)
Fresh Cilantro as Garnish

• -Use the largest pot in your house for this recipe (8 qt. is ideal, but 5 qt. can work) . 
• -Turn the heat to medium, and add the cumin seeds.  Stir them occassionally until they start to pop. 
• -Then add the ghee, turmeric, coriander and black pepper and stir to create a sauce.  Let the spices cook together in the ghee for about a minute.
• -Add the onions, garlic and ginger, and stir.  Let cook for about 3 to 5 minutes until you can smell the onions and garlic cooking.
• -Add 8 cups of water and the soaked mung beans. (The mung beans should have doubled in size while soaking)
• -Cover and bring to a boil. Once the water is boiling, tilt the lid slightly but keep covered. Turn the temperature down to medium-low and allow to cook for 2 to 3 hours, adding water if necessary to keep it slightly soupy.
• After an hour, add the spinach. 

If you have a pressure cooker, you can cook the mung bean part of the recipe in the pressure cooker for 25 minutes.

In a separate pot, you cook the rice. Combine the rice with 5 cups of water. Add the crushed red chili flakes. Bring to a roiling boil and let boil for 7 minutes. Then turn off heat and cover for 20 minutes. Do not remove lid as the steam will continue to cook the rice, making it light and fluffy.

Check the mung beans from time to time. Once they are soft, they are done. You then turn off the heat and mix the rice in with the beans. Add the 1/2 cup of Bragg Liquid Aminos and stir together.

Your kichari is ready to serve.

I usually eat my Kichari with plain yogurt and fresh cilantro.  It’s a delicious combination.

After you let the pot cool, you can put the entire pot in the refrigerator and heat up individual servings all week!

More about Kichari:

Kichari is extremely easy to digest.  In Ayurveda, it is taught that one of the main causes of disease is poor digestion and elimination.  Ayurvedic healing always starts by working through the digestive system and focusing on diet and nutrition.  Kichari soothes your digestive system and is easily processed and eliminated by the body.   Because your body does not have to work hard to process Kichari, it can focus on the job of healing itself.

There are many different Kichari recipes out there, using both green mung beans and the split yellow mung beans.  The recipe we always used in my home as a child was the green mung beans, and when Yogi Bhajan visited us, that was what we always ate.  When I lived in India, Kichari was primarily cooked with the split yellow mung beans, which are considered much gentler on the digestion.  I’ll share one of those recipes in the future.

Akasha (my ex-husband and an incredible yoga teacher and health nut) studied Ayurvedic medicine under an amazing Ayurvedic doctor, Dr. Vasant Lad, at the Ayurvedic Institute in Albuquerque, NM.  He has a great cookbook called Ayurvedic Cooking for Self-Healing  which is available on Amazon.com that has a bunch of different Kichari recipes focusing on specific ailments and your own body type.  Akasha, who is undoubtedly the healthiest person I have ever known, is a Kichari fanatic.  He likes to do Kichari fasts twice a year – in the spring and the fall – to cleanse his system and prepare for the change of seasons.  I would recommend trying this now as the weather is getting COLD!