Spring Cleaning with Kitchari

During the winter months, our bodies crave substance. Warm, creamy, carb-laden food are what gets us through the cold and dark. In addition, our modern lives often do not allow us to slow down and take the rest that we also crave in winter. For many of us, that means we emerge in spring feeling tired, bloated and heavy.

Ayurvedic medicine can help! Ayurveda is big on preventing illness with good nutrition and digestion. One of the most recommended dishes in Ayurvedic cooking is kitchari. Kitchari is essentially a spiced vegetable and grain stew, and it's quite tasty, too!

This meal taken as a cleanse or monodiet will heal your body, especially your intestinal tract, as it's considered to be the most wholesome to put in the yogi’s body. I learned to make this when I studied Ayurvedic Medicine, and it has helped me immensely over the years. Here is my recipe. Feel free to adapt the ingredients to fit your needs. This is a great way to do some spring cleaning…from the inside out!

A note about choosing vegetables: Pick a few of your favorite sattvic veggies: most mild veggies are considered sattvic. Sattvic means “pure” or “balanced” in terms of Ayurvedic eating. Meaning, foods that are not aggravating, irritating, heating, or heavy and weighty. Avoid pungent veggies like hot peppers, shallots, leeks, garlic, onion, gas forming veggies such as mushrooms and/or potatoes.

Ingredients:

• 2 cup brown rice (or mix rice & quinoa, or pick your favorite whole grain)
• 1 cup red lentils
• 3 carrots
• A big bunch of kale
• 1 zucchini
• 1 head of broccoli
• 3 ribs celery
• Ghee (clarified butter) ((or coconut or olive oil))
• 2 T. powdered turmeric
• 2 T. ground cumin
• 2 T. ground coriander
• 5 cups water
• Cooking oil of your choice: coconut, olive oil or ghee
• Sea salt
• Fresh cilantro
• Golden raisins if desired

Method: 

Put rice and lentils into a big pot with the 5 c. of water. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce to a simmer. Cook until tender.

Wash and chop your veggies into bite sized pieces. I like to do different shapes for each, just for fun. 

Heat a big pan or wok with coconut oil, olive oil or ghee. Add your vegetables in order of how long each takes to cook. For the vegetables I have listed, I use this order: carrot, zucchini, broccoli, celery. You may need to add a bit more oil or water as you stir fry the vegetables. 

Heat a small skillet with a big spoonful of ghee or your oil of choice. Add turmeric, cumin and coriander and stir for a minute or two.

Pour this into the pan with the veggies and mix, then mix veggies with grains in the big pot. If you cooked the grains and veggies together, just pour the ghee and spices into the pot and mix. There will be leftover ghee and spices in the pan-- take a spoonful of grains to soak it all up and place back into pot.

Serving Suggestions:

Scoop a portion onto a plate, add a dab extra ghee in for taste, sprinkle sea salt on top if you choose, garnish with freshly chopped cilantro, add raisins if you wish...and enjoy!

Once kitchari in pot cools down a bit, place in glass tupperware for future eating. If you’re doing a monodiet cleanse, eat kitchari as two meals per day (check with your physician before embarking upon any cleanse or radical dietary change). This recipe should last you about 5 to 7 days.