When your body needs a rest, this is the meal that gives it one. Kitchari (khichdi) is soft, warm and easy to digest, the dish Ayurveda turns to for cleansing, for recovery, and for the days you want to feel light and clear again. Babies eat it, elders eat it, and so do people deep in a cleanse.
Kitchari is very easy, simple and quick to cook, and very nutrtional!
Two recipes below. Start with the everyday one. The traditional one is lighter to digest, for when you want the deepest reset.
This is the one I cook most. Whole green mung and a wholegrain, gentle spices, and vegetables if you have them. Nourishing enough to live on for a few days, simple enough to make on a weeknight.
Serves 2
Optional, and worth it:
Make it your own. The spices above are the staples. Once you have them down, add what you have and what your body asks for.
Lighter, plainer, and the easiest of all to digest.
This is the classic cleansing kitchari: split mung, white rice, spices & ghee, no vegetables. When digestion is weak, post surgery or birth, or you want a deepe resst, this is the one.
Serves 2 to 3
Optional: a small handful of leafy greens stirred through at the end, and fresh coriander with lemon to finish.
Equal parts mung and grain suits most people. If your stools are loose or your gut feels inflamed, use more rice than mung. If you feel depleted or constipated, use more mung than rice. Soaking helps either way.
Kitchari does something most meals cannot: it nourishes you deeply while asking almost nothing of your digestion. That is the whole point. During a cleanse, when you are unwell, or after travel has thrown you off, your body has more energy to repair when it is not busy breaking down a heavy meal.
Mung beans are prized in Ayurveda as the lightest and most balancing of the legumes, gentle on the gut where heavier beans sit and ferment. Paired with a grain, they also form a complete protein, the combination of legume and grain that has fed people across the world for thousands of years. It is comfort food that happens to be medicine.
Soft, warm, unctuous food like this soothes the gut wall, which matters more than we tend to think. Most of the body’s serotonin is made in the gut, not the brain, so how you eat shapes how you feel. Kitchari is one of the kindest things you can put in your body when you want to feel settled.
Both are kitchari. The difference is how much work you are asking your digestion to do.
The traditional version, split mung and white rice with no vegetables, is the lightest and most cleansing. White rice has its husk milled off, which makes it the easiest grain to digest, exactly what you want when you are resting the gut or on a dedicated cleanse.
The everyday version, whole mung with a wholegrain and vegetables, carries more fibre, more minerals and more staying power. It is the one for ordinary days when you want a nourishing meal that still keeps things light.
Rule of thumb: the weaker your digestion, the simpler and lighter you go.
Here is the part most recipes miss. Ayurveda is not a fixed menu, it is a set of principles you apply to your own body, season and place. The goal is a warm, easily digested, grain-and-legume meal. Mung and rice are the classic pair because they grow well in India and in Australia, so they are local, fresh and suited to the climate.
If you live somewhere mung does not grow, the principle travels even if the bean does not. A lentil, a local split pea, or whatever legume is grown near you can take its place, matched with a grain that suits your region. You are not copying a recipe from another continent, you are cooking with the same intelligence: light, warm, local, seasonal.
That is Ayurveda working the way it is meant to. Not a rulebook to obey, a way of reading your own environment and eating in tune with it.
Make kitchari when you are run down, when you have overindulged, when you are travelling and your gut needs an anchor, or simply when you want something warm and kind. It asks little and gives a lot. Keep the spices in your cupboard and you will always be one pot away from feeling clear again.
Special thanks to Rudolf Steiner and Jiddu Krishnamurti for providing content.
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We pay our respects to the traditional custodians and caretakers of the lands on which we treat, teach, work and live. Vital Veda headquarters work on Bundjalung country which is now commonly known as Byron Shire, Northern Rivers NSW Australia. We also frequently work on Gadigal land, now known as Sydney, Australia. We recognise the traditional custodians have never ceded sovereignty and their culture remains strong and holds supreme wisdom for all of humanity to enjoy.
*This information and these statements have not been evaluated by the Therapeutic Goods Association or the Food and Drug Administration. This information and these products are not intended to treat, diagnose, cure or prevent any disease.
Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dylan Smith. This information is in no way to be construed as a substitute for consultation with a licensed health professional. It is not intended as medical advice. They are intended as sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dylan Smith and his community. Dylan Smith encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional.
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