Kitchari Recipe: Rice and Mung Beans Rice Congee

This post may contain affiliate links. Please check our disclosure policy.

Kitchari is rice and split mung dal cooked together in one pot with warming spices. Cheap ingredients, 30 minutes, and far more flavourful than the short ingredient list suggests.

Kitchari 

Kitchari (also called kichadi/khichdi or kitchery) is a thick rice porridge/congee cooked with legumes or lentils and whole spices. It tastes like soft, overcooked rice with a spicy aroma and the rich taste of legumes/lentils. 

In my extended family, Kitchari is often enjoyed when you don’t feel well or have digestion/ stomach problems. 

I appreciate that in India, kichari is also considered an Ayurvedic food. In honesty, I don’t know much about this Ayurvedic diet. But I do know that the legumes/ lentils that we put in this comforting rice porridge are very beneficial for our health. 

And if we cook the kitchari in a pressure cooker, it can be ready in less than an hour. It’s so practical when you don’t really have time to cook, and you need to look after your unwell little one.

Kitchari Mung Beans

The recipe I’m sharing here is kitchari with mung beans. And I use split mung beans to make the cooking easy and quick.

Numerous kitchari recipes use a variety of pulses and lentils. But I’m happy with mung beans. Especially as I learn more about the health benefits of mung beans. 

It makes kitchari mung beans an ideal diet choice when you need a light food that is packed with nutrients. Pulses offer anti-inflammatory properties and are good sources of protein, minerals, and vitamins. You can read the study report here on why mung beans are the poor man’s meat.

How and When You Should Enjoy Kitchari

Even though I often cook kitchari when someone’s not well in our households, I sometimes cook it for our comfort food. Especially in cold seasons, on a cold day. We also have it for breakfast sometimes.

You can just enjoy this simple rice with mung beans porridge as is. But we love to eat it with shorba. 

Shorba literally means soup. It’s basically the sauce, gravy, or soup of a dish. Such as a curry dish like Aloo Gosht.

Kitchari has a high water content. Therefore, when you eat it, you may feel full for a while and then get hungry soon after. If you do that, is it normal?

And because of its soft texture, kitchery is also an ideal choice for your little one. As long as you don’t put a lot of salt, you can feed your baby with this nutritious rice porridge. Just make sure you take all the whole spices out of the food, i.e., whole cloves and whole black peppercorns.

Another reason I love this dish is that you can cook it in bulk and freeze it. And when you need it, you can fully thaw it, add a little water, and reheat it in the microwave or on the cooker. 

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• One pot from start to finish. Temper the spices, add the dal and rice, pour in the water, and let it simmer. No draining, no separate pans, no timing multiple things at once. The whole cooking happens in the same pot.
• Inexpensive to make, even for a big batch. A full pot feeding 3–4 people costs very little. Dal and basmati rice are cheap staples, and the spices — cumin, mustard seeds, turmeric — are standard cupboard items that last for months.
• Leftovers reheat without any fuss. Kitchari thickens as it sits in the fridge overnight. Add a splash of water or stock when reheating, stir over low heat for a couple of minutes, and it’s back to the right consistency. It doesn’t dry out or go gluey the way plain rice often does.
• Takes extra vegetables without any adjustments. Diced sweet potato, cauliflower florets, spinach, courgette — stir any of these in during the last 10 minutes of cooking. The spice base handles them well, and the water ratio doesn’t need to be changed.
• Works as a main or a side. Serve it straight from the pot with plain yogurt and fresh coriander, alongside a raita, or as a base under a curry. It holds its own as a standalone meal but also plays well with other dishes.

Simple Ingredients for Mung Beans Kitchari

1. Rice: I use basmati rice. But you can always use long-grain rice if you don’t have basmati.
2. Mung beans: For the photos in this post, I cooked the kitchari using split mung beans. However, you can always use whole mung beans. But make sure you soak the beans longer, and cook the kitchari for at least 25 minutes in the pressure cooker. 
3. Onion: ½ medium onion is more than enough for this recipe. 
4. Ginger and garlic: You only need about ½ of a fresh ginger root and 2 cloves of garlic. Leave them whole, but peeled.
5. Spices: For this recipe, you need whole spices. They are whole cumin, whole black peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, black cardamoms, and bay leaves.
6. Water, oil, and salt: I think these three are self-explanatory.

How to Make Kitchari

Although I use a pressure cooker most of the time to make kitchari. You can always use a regular cooking pot. It just takes more time and effort to keep checking and stirring the rice while it cooks. 

First, heat 1 tablespoon of cooking oil and fry the onion until lightly golden. 

Secondly, add all the spices, ginger, and garlic. Cook for a minute or two before adding the rice, mung beans, and salt. Fry it for another minute.

Thirdly, add the water, put the lid on, and start your pressure cooker according to the manual. Cook it for about 15 minutes. 

It’s that simple. 

What to Have Kitchari With

Although you can always enjoy this lentil congee as it is, traditionally it is best served along with curries with shorba, such as:

• Aloo gosht: Pakistani-style potato and meat curry.
• Chicken Shorba.

Thank you and all the best.

Kitchari mung beans

5 from 50 votes

Kitchari mung beans (also called kichadi/ khichdi or kitchery) is thick rice porridge/ congee cooked with legumes and whole spices. It tastes like soft overcooked rice that has spice aroma and the rich taste of mung beans. 

BY: Devy Dar

Save RecipeSaved! Print Recipe Pin Recipe Rate Recipe

Prep : 10 minutes mins

Cook : 15 minutes mins

Total : 25 minutes mins

Servings: 8

Equipment

• Mixing bowls.
• Pressure cooker.
• Wooden spoon

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Ingredients

 

1x2x3x

US CustomaryMetric

• 1 cup basmati rice/ long grain rice.
• ⅓ cup split mung beans.
• ½ medium onion chopped.
• 2 cloves of garlic.
• ½ inch ginger.
• ½ teaspoon whole cumin.
• 15 whole black peppercorns.
• 10 cloves.
• 2 bay leaves.
• 1- inch cinnamon.
• 2 black cardamoms.
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt.
• 1 tablespoon oil.
• 7 cups of water.

Instructions

• Wash the rice and mung beans and soak in the water. Set aside.
• Fry the onion on the pressure cooker pot until lightly golden. 
• Add in the whole spices, herbs and salt. Cook further for about a minute or two until it’s fragrant.
• Put the rice and mung beans in. Stir and fry for about two minutes.
• Lastly, add the water in and give it a good stir. Set your pressure cooker according to its manual. And cook your kitchari for about 15 minutes from the moment the pressure starts.
• When your kitchari is cooked. Stir it well before serving.

Notes

• If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can make this Kitchari in a regular cooking pot. It will just take longer to cook the Kitchari. Make sure you soak the rice and mung beans a little bit longer beforehand. And keep stirring the Kitchari as you cook it.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g | Calories: 110kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 2g | Sodium: 455mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 1g

Devy Dar

Devy founded So Yummy Recipes and Drizzling Flavor to share her love of food after exploring various cultures and cuisines for more than two decades. Her mission is to help others easily recreate traditional and non-traditional food with readily available ingredients. Her works have been featured in Reader’s Digest, Al Jazeera, MSN, Yahoo, Bon Appétit, and more.