Moong Dal Khichdi is a complete meal in itself. Made with rice and lentils, khichdi is healthy, wholesome and good for you! This recipe is also gluten-free. It can be made vegan by replacing the ghee with oil.
Serve this moong dal khichdi with a dollop of ghee on top and yogurt & pickle on the side!
Sometimes I share on this blog things that I couldn’t have even thought of sharing when I first started the blog. I mean who shares khichdi recipe? Not me! would have been my straight answer few years back.
For those unaware, khichdi is a complete meal made with rice and lentils which are pressure cooked together and in India it’s synonyms with illness. I mean if you are ill, you eat khichdi! Usually the simple khichdi is made using only rice, lentil (usually moong dal since it’s very light on the stomach) salt and turmeric.
It’s served with little ghee on top and with side of yogurt. It’s very easy on your stomach and that’s what mom made us whenever we were down with fever or stomach ache or whatever.
It’s also one of those things which most Indian students learn to cook when they leave the country. Every Indian students carries with them a pressure cooker and is always told by their mom to make khichdi if nothing else. You just add rice and dal and water and pressure cook. Can’t get simpler that that right? Wrong!
It becomes all wrong when you have no idea on how to go about it! I never thought I should share such basic recipes on the blog but once I was telling my younger cousin this recipe where I told her “so you add boiled potatoes to this” and she goes like “but how do we boil potatoes” ! Point, I thought!
I mean for someone who has never cooked obviously boiling potato is also not easy, forget about making khichdi! So I hope this post will help those students or newbies who want to learn how to make simple moong dal khichdi. It’s wholesome, easy and good for you!
How to Make Khichdi
Khichdi is made in different ways in different parts of the country. The place I belong to, it’s made like a porridge. So we add extra water with rice and dal and cook it to a porridge like consistency.
In some parts of the country, it’s made almost like a pulao, so if you want your khichdi like that, add only double the amount of water, I added around 4 times.
Also different lentils can be used in khichdi, the most common one in my home is moong dal. It’s actually the most easily digestible dal and so used in khichdi.
The funny thing is that since khichdi is generally assumed to be bland and boring, people don’t really like it. I know my brothers would never eat it unless and until they were ill!
Luckily me and hubby love it, so I make it whenever we want to eat something light and homemade. Hope you guys like this simple Indian recipe.
Method
Take 1/2 cup rice and 1/2 cup moong dal in a bowl.
Soak it in enough water for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, drain the water and set aside.
Add the rice and dal to a pressure cooker and add around 3.5 to 4 cups water. Add salt, turmeric powder and asafoetida and pressure cook on high heat for 5-6 whistles. The rice and dal will cook and be very soft and mushy, set aside.
To another pan on meidum heat, add ghee and oil. You may use only oil to keep it vegan.
Once the oil & ghee is hot, add cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Wait till cumin seeds start sizzling and mustard seeds pop up.
Add chopped ginger and green chili. Saute for 30 seconds or so or till ginger starts turning light golden brown in color.
Add chopped tomatoes and green peas. Cook for 2 minutes, you don’t want the tomatoes to get too mushy.
Add the cooked rice and dal to the pan.
Mix till well combined, add salt and adjust to taste. 
Garnish with cilantro and serve the moong dal khichdi with some extra ghee on top. Also it’s usually served with some papad, achar (pickle) and yogurt on the side.
Moong Dal Khichdi
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup rice
- 1/2 cup moong dal I used moong dal dhuli
- 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon hing powder also know as asafoetida
Tempering
- 1 teaspoon ghee
- 1 teaspoon oil
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
- 1 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
- 1 green chili finely chopped
- 1 large tomato chopped
- 1/4 cup green peas
- salt to taste
Instructions
- Take 1/2 cup rice and 1/2 cup moong dal in a bowl.
- Soak it in enough water for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, drain the water and set aside.
- Add the rice and dal to a pressure cooker and add around 3.5 to 4 cups water.
- Add salt, turmeric powder and asafoetida and pressure cook on high heat for 5- whistles.
- The rice and dal will cook and be very soft and mushy, set aside.
- To another pan on meidum heat, add ghee and oil. You may use only oil to keep it vegan.
- Once the oil & ghee is hot, add cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Wait till cumin seeds start sizzling and mustard seeds pop up.
- Add chopped ginger and green chili. Saute for 30 seconds or so or till the ginger starts turning light golden brown in color.
- Add chopped tomatoes and green peas. Cook for 2 minutes, you don't want the tomatoes to get too mushy.
- Add the cooked rice and dal to the pan.
- Mix till well combined, add salt and adjust to taste.
- Garnish with cilantro and serve the moong dal khichdi with some extra ghee on top. Also it's usually served with some papad, achar (pickle) and yogurt on the side.
Notes
- Use only 2 cups of water if you want a more pilaf/pulao like consistency for your khichdi. This recipe is for a porridge like khichdi.
- You may use other veggies in the khichdi like spinach, carrots, onion.
- To make it vegan, simply skip the ghee and use oil only.
- The khichdi tastes best when it's warm. It will become thick once you keep it inside the refrigerator. Simply add more water and little salt and bring it to a desired consistency when heating it up again.
Nutrition
Moong Dal Khichdi
Hi! This turned out really good! I was going to make my boring old kichidi and found this alternate. It’s just different enough. My picky daughter even said “This is really good!”
I followed the recipe precisely, but added 1/2 cup of potato/carrot to this, and used 4 cups water. It is definitely creamy. Thanks for sharing it!
This is the best kichdi recipe I have tried. The aroma resulting from combining the sautéed ingredients with the rice and moong daal was very nice and it was very tasty. I cooked the rice and moong daal just like I do rice using 4 cups of water. Next time I will use more onion and a little fewer peas. Thanks for the recipe.
Hi. Which rice did you use? Basmati or another one? It looks so nice and creamy.
basmati
Hi Manali, can you share an instant pot version too? Thanks
you can follow the same recipe and cook for 6 minutes on high pressure in the IP
Hi Manali, can you do an instant pot moong dal kichdi pls?
you can follow the same recipe and cook for 6 minutes on high pressure in the IP
I put around 3 cups of water and got the consistency I wanted. I also added til and coarsely ground pepper in the tempering. Thank you Manali, God bless!
I am one of those people who only eat khichdi when they are sick. I followed your recipe and I was so happy that I did! Really simple and tasty.
Great recipe. Thank you so much! One thing I would like to add to the recipe is 1/2 tsp ground black pepper. It has been proven to significantly enhance the bioavailability (absorption) of turmeric. This can be very beneficial while fighting illnesses by utilizing the full medicinal properties of turmeric.
Oh if only talking taste? But think about next morning wash room trip early after having Moong Khichhrhi a night before. I have not seen any medication doing wonders as this khichhrhi.
How would I cook the rice and lentils on the stove (without a pressure cooker)? Thank you!!
Follow all the steps as is and cook on stove top until done, it will just take more time probably around 20 minutes. This is moong dal, it cooks pretty quickly so stove top shouldn’t be a problem!