Wheat Khichdi

Wheat Khichdi

A packet of wheat rava (cracked wheat) seems to be far more expensive than much higher quantity of wheat flour. Anyway, that’s not the point. The point is that it is one of the most important grains and possibly one of the most consumed grains. For me it is usually either rice or wheat but I do try and include many more grains but these seem to be my default. As most people know one thing that vegetarians will have to be careful and watch out for is protein consumption. They say it is usually not a problem if you take dairy products and eggs but it is good to take a variety of proteins as vegetable proteins are said to be incomplete. For this reason I decided to combine wheat, which also has some protein, along with dal. This is pretty similar to the traditional khichdi but I guess recipe for that varies. I added as much vegetables to this dish as possible and served it with a tangy side dish (tomato onion masiyal). This complemented the otherwise bland khichdi. Here is how I did it…

1 cup wheat rava
1/3 cup moong dal
2 cups mixed vegetables of your choice
1 green chilly, finely chopped
1 big onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 inch ginger, grated
Cooking Oil
Salt to taste
Asafoetida
Turmeric powder
1 sprig curry leaves

Pressure cook the moong dal and wheat rava together. I used about 4 cups water and allowed it to become a bit mushy.

In a skillet, heat a teaspoon of oil and add the mustard seeds. Once it splutters, add the curry leaves, asafoetida, turmeric powder, green chilly, onion and ginger. Fry the onions.

Add the vegetables and cook until they are done. Alternately, you can even boil or steam your vegetables.

Add the cooked wheat – dal mixture, salt and some water and bring to gruel consistency.

Serve with nice chutney or the masiyal like me.

You can make this with bulgar wheat as well. I noticed that the more water I add to the wheat, the more quantity it yields. This quantity will be enough for upto four.