The Return of the Rice Cooker

It’s hard to believe that my semester ends this coming Wednesday. I have two finals that day, one for my Debt class in the morning, and the other for Equity in the evening. My butt has been glued to the dining room chair for the length of today in preparation for the tests,

save for a much needed (although slightly resisted) Ashtanga yoga class, and a cooking break for dinner.

My friend Stacy cooks an Ayurvedic dish called Kitchari, a mix of lentils, rice and spices, at her house almost nightly. We get together for dinner a lot, often in the company of our yoga friends, and this dish is always requested for our “yogi family dinners,” as we like to call them.

In fact, we’ve even given our beloved dish a nickname. But I won’t tell you until after we’re done here, k? Don’t want you to lose your appetite

So what is Kitchari? And for that matter, what is Ayurveda?

To get a general idea, I’ll give you a very simplified definition. Ayurveda is a holistic approach to medicine and healing that comes from India. It consists of guidelines for maintaining everyday health and preventing future illnesses based on your “constitution”, or dosha.  According to Ayurveda, each person is made up with different characteristics and qualities that require a certain diet and daily rituals to maintain balance and overall health.

Kitchari is a cleansing ayurvedic dish used to “purify digestion, and cleanse systemic toxins,” bringing the body back into balance. It’s extremely comforting, and most importantly, very delicious.

I decided to make this tonight, mostly because it’s super simple with the help of a rice cooker, and because it is cozy and comforting on a cool day.  Oh, and because I couldn’t look at another example of mortgage backed-securities. That would have just been WAC. ..

Did anyone get that? A little finance joke for all of my fellow nerds scholars out there. Thank you, I’ll be here all week.

Anyway. Back to the kitchari.

I have made it before with mung beans but for tonight’s kitchari I used 3/4 cups of red lentils, 1/4 cup of rice, and lots of spices…

Into the pot went ground coriander, ground cumin, curry powder, cayenne, turmeric and ground ginger. I also added a bit of garlic, and some herbamare as well. The herbamare is definitely untraditional and probably not ayurvedically sound, but what can I say….I like to live on the edge.

Next up; add water. Lentils get a 3 to 1 ratio of water to lentils and rice gets a 2 to 1 ratio. Ooh, geez. Math is clearly on my mind. For tonight I added 2 cups of water. Err, did I do that right? Nevermind…

And ta-da! 45 minutes away from Kitchari.

Voila!

Okay, so it looks disgusting right? I promise you, it isn’t. When the lentils and rice are cooked (about 45 minutes later), I add in a nice heaping spoon of ghee, or clarified butter, which is often used in ayurvedic cooking as well.

And that’s that. A yummy, healthy bowl of lentil stew.

Oh, and about that nickname that we all so lovingly gave it… I’ll give you one hint. It’ starts with a “b” and rhymes with “maybe poo.”

Tagged as: ayurveda, cooking, kitchari