Kitchari for the Single Person – or when your Lover can’t stand it!

The standard Kitchari Recipe makes a lot, enough to feed like 5 or 8 people. So what do you do if you’re single, or the other people in your house just won’t eat the Kitchari with you? You could just make the normal recipe, and heat a bit up over the next few days… though, many people don’t like to use microwaves, and fresh, newly made Kitchari each day is always the best anyways.

Now, if you look at the original recipe, the amount of spices used for that BIG dish are already really small. Many of them are like 1/4 of a teaspoon, and while 1/8 of a teaspoon is fairly easy to guestimate, that would still be a LOT of Kitchari only cutting the recipe in half, so I decided to create a “Kitchari Single Portion Recipe” to help with this. The awesome thing is, Kitchari is honestly pretty flexible and forgiving.

Kitchari Smaller Portion Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup white basmati rice
• about 1/16 cup of whole green or split yellow mung dahl (take your 1/8 measuring cup, and only fill it about 1/2 way)
• 1/2 to 1 tsp ghee
• 1/4 tsp fresh or dried ginger (wet ginger is best for Vata and Pitta, dry is best for Kapha)
• 3 mustard seeds (yes, only three of those little things – though, if you get 4 in there, that isn’t horrible and won’t kill you)
• Kitchari Seasoning Mix (you will use this as your base seasoning a few times)
  • 1 teaspoon turmeric
  • a few cracks of black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp coriander powder
  • 1/4 tsp fennel powder
  • 1/4 tsp cumin powder
  • 1/4 tsp Celery Seed (celery seed helps a person give off pheromones) – optional
  • 1/4 tsp Tulsi herb (you can substitute basil, but Tulsi is much more preferred – it helps to deal with stress and a bunch of other things) – optional
  • 1/4 tsp dried Parsley or Nettle – optional
• 1 pinch of asafoetida
• Dash or about 1/16 of a tsp of salt (don’t add this to the mix as it makes the kitchari really crunchy if added to oils right away)
• 1/4 to 1/3 leaf of wakame broken up (use 1/2 a leaf if you get less iodine in your diet – though, you can do a full leaf to be honest)
• 1 and ½ cups of filtered water
• about 1/8 cup of the veggies (based on your dosha, optional)

Directions

First, if you have time, you want to soak the rice and mung dahl in water overnight or for like 3 or 4 hours, though, if you can’t do that, the dahl sometimes might be a little crunchy, though pretty rare. If you soaked the rice and dahl, drain it – or if you didn’t soak it just rinse it, any floaters remove as they will be crunchy when cooked, and let it sit in the strainer until ready to use. Next, in a separate dish or container, add the dry herbs from the Kitchari Seasoning Mix (turmeric, black pepper, coriander, fennel, cumin, etc), and mix well. You will use some of this Kitchari Seasoning Mix when you make the Kitchari, so save the leftover for the next batch.

Now, in a small pan on low heat (low heat on a small burner in a small pan is similar to medium heat in a big pan), add the ghee and the 3 mustard seeds, ginger and a heaping 1/2 tsp of the Kitchari Spice Mix (note: if you do this separate like in the original kitchari recipe, allowing for the oil to heat up, it will splatter everywhere seeing you’re making such a small amount… so the compromise on this is to add all these items at the same time). After about 30 seconds to a minute the aromas should release, and time to add the rice/dahl mix, asafoetida and veggies, and mix well and allow it to heat up for about another minute. Then, add the water, salt, and wakame then cover and turn to high until it starts to boil. Once boiling, turn down to low heat and keep on a low heat for about 15 to 25 minutes (until all the water is absorbed). If you go much longer than that, it will burn to the bottom of your pan. Yes, the original kitchari recipe says 30 to 45 minutes, but such a small amount will burn in that time period. After it’s done, enjoy

Ideas for Left Over Kitchari

Even though this is enough for 1 person, it is sometimes still a little much. Some ideas for leftover kitchari: add some milk (enough to cover the leftover rice), about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, a dash of clove, about 1/8 to 1/4 tsp of cardamom, and a splash of vanilla, and you can put this into a dish overnight and then the next morning you can put it in the pan on a low to medium-low heat and make it into something similar to a breakfast rice pudding for the morning.