Instant Pot Kitchari
I LOVE KITCHARI! 💛 It’s like an Indian version of chicken soup… an ancient healing porridge with tons of flavor and aromatic spices. It’s nourishing and super easy to digest—so much so that many people use it for fasting. A kitchari fast isn’t really a fast of course since, well, you’re eating! Nevertheless, I always feel great after I eat this delicious dish, which Mountain Man and I often have for breakfast!
Cooking this in the Instant Pot is great, offering a relatively fast method and easy cleanup… one pot wonder. Traditionally, kitchari (like most Indian dishes) is spiced using the tempering method by first cooking all of the spices in ghee. I do not use this method, simply because 1) we are vegan and 2) we avoid added oils and fats. Adding the spices to the Instant Pot without the traditional tempering in ghee has little to no effect on the finished dish and its lovely flavors!
Ghee has been ubiquitous for so long in India, with many people praising it for its healing and nutritional value. I’m not convinced. But here’s the thing about ghee… in India, they make ghee using butter from particular breeds of cows, whose milk apparently has a different protein structure than any other cows…
Desi cow breeds like Tharparkar, Gir, and Sahiwal, have a genetic make-up that yields milk high in A2, a particular kind of casein (protein), which some people consider “healthy.” But regardless of the type of protein, all ghee has high levels of oxidized cholesterol (COPs) which has been proven in studies to raise dire concerns for our health. And all animal protein, especially the casein in dairy products promotes cancer growth. For more info about ghee and its potential hazards, check out THIS VIDEO by Dr. Michael Greger.
For the rice, I use white basmati in this recipe. You can certainly use brown, but it would need a MUCH longer cooking time than white so you’d have to cook it separately and add it after the beans and rice are cooked. If you’re going to do this, simply decrease the amount of water to 4 cups and cook your brown rice separately.
Let’s get to the recipe…
Ingredients
1 cup split yellow mung beans
½ cup white Basmati rice
7 cups water
3 TBS grated fresh ginger
6-8 fresh curry leaves see notes
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tsp ground coriander seeds (I buy them whole and grind my own for a super fresh flavor)
2 tsp minimally processed sugar (I use coconut sugar)
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp hing (asafeotida) see notes
½ tsp sea salt (optional and to taste)
Method
RINSE the beans and rice until the water runs clear. I do this right in the IP pot but it can be tricky pouring off the water and not losing any beans. You can rinse it in a strainer if that’s easier for you but you won’t be able to tell when the water is clear. This is an important step. Don’t skip it. It usually take about 10 rinses to rinse away all of the unwanted starch.
After rinsing, add all ingredients to your Instant Pot, mix well and cook on high pressure for 12 minutes.
Add love! đź’—
Carefully and gradually release the pressure manually after 10-15 minutes.
Garnish with some cashew cream and/or cilantro.
Serves 4-6. Enjoy!
NOTES
The thing about Indian dishes that makes them so special are the SPICES. I have a cabinet full of them because we love Indian food in our house. One ingredient that MAY be difficult to find is fresh curry leaves. But fear not, you can find them on Amazon here. Otherwise, if you have an Indian market near you, they always have some in the refrigerator section. They store well in the fridge. You can also freeze them for future use.
What the heck is HING anyway. Hing comes from the resin of giant fennel plants that grow wild in Afghanistan and Iran. Many Indians do not eat garlic and onion, due to religious reasons. Hing is a super pungent spice/herb that adds a deep note to any Indian dish and replaces the onion and garlic without sacrificing ANY flavor. If you’ve never used it, on first whiff it may seem overwhelming but it mellows perfectly after cooking. And you only need a VERY small amount. You can purchase it here.
All of the spices used in this dish can be found online or at an Indian market.
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