In other words, it's practically perfect.
The first food I ever ate wasn’t an avocado slice or a roasted sweet potato. It was khichdi, a soul-warming, one-pot meal of rice, lentils, and spices. Easy to make, easy to digest, it’s a common first food for South Asian babies.was a constant in my upbringing, mainly made when I was sick. I’d get a sniffle, my mom would take out the pressure cooker, and I knew exactly what she was making for dinner that night. The dish could clear up my sinuses in a single bite.
Yes, khichdi is good for you—it’s got tons of fiber and protein, and all those spices are very digestion-friendly—but what makes the dish so special is the method of cooking the rice and lentils together in the same pot. The starch from the rice and the potlikker from the lentils merge to create a luxurious consistency that's creamy but with a little texture. The ghee adds richness, and the spices punctuate each bite.
In the version I make at home, there are two starring elements. The first is peppercorns—I love the way they tenderize in the pot and give the dish a kick. The second is the, the ghee-sizzled spices that are poured in at the end. The finishing hit of crunch and fat is so satisfying. Sometimes I’ll add a splash of coconut milk as the dish is coming together for an even creamier texture, or a bag of frozen spinach for bonus roughage. You can crown your bowl with a fried egg, or some chopped herbs.
It’s this one-pot-infinite-possibilities trait that makes khichdi, in times like these, the dish that I find myself returning to at least once a week. When I can’t go outside, when I can’t dine out, when the grocery store has been out of toilet paper for the last three weeks, I know that I can simmer some combination of rice and lentils and spices in a pot, and at the very least, that’s going to turn out okay.
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