Kitchri Lentils and Rice

Who here loves Indian food?  I do!

I was pretty excited to receive the book Cooking School Indian as a gift from fellow ND Krysten DeSouza!  This recipe for Kitchri is one of my favourites; here is my version cut in half to serve 2 people and with instructions for using a rice cooker.  Enjoy!

Kitchri Lentils and Rice

(Makes 2 generous portions)

Ingredients:

• 5/8 cup white basmati rice
• 5/8 cup red lentils
• 1/2 large onion
• 1 Tablespoon ghee
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1/2 to 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1.75 cups water

Directions:

1. Rinse lentils until water runs clear. Drain and set aside.

2. Rinse the rice in several changes of water until water runs clear, then let soak for 30 minutes. Drain and set aside.

3. Finely chop the onion.

4. Melt ½ Tablespoon of the ghee in a large pan over medium-high heat.

5. Add the onion and saute for 5-8 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden but not browned.

6. Add the other ½ Tablespoon of ghee to the pan.

7. Stir in rice, lentils, garam masala, and salt and stir for 1-2 minutes, ensuring it all gets a coating of ghee.

8. Pour in about ½ cup of the water, stir everything together, then transfer the whole mixture from the pan to rice cooker.

9. Add the remaining water.

10. Place cover on rice cooker and press button.

11. When rice cooker stops, stir mixture before serving.

Notes:

• I leave out the asafetida and fresh cilantro from the original recipe.
• You can make this even easier by substituting onion powder for fresh onion (1 teaspoon onion powder = 1 small onion or 1/2 large onion) and skip steps 3-9 by putting all the ingredients straight into the rice cooker and pressing the button.

For more recipes, check out my Recipes page!