First, what is this kitcheri (pronounced kich-ah-ree) stuff I speak of rather often. (I have a recipe for Nourishing Kitcheri in I Quit Sugar For Life and an Inside-Out Sprouted Kitcheri Loaf in Simplicious; I also shared how I ate it at the Indian retreat I did some time back.)
In Ayurveda this mung and rice curried bowl of sweet, soft, soupy goodness is considered the ultimate digestion-healing and detox food. It’s warming, soft, light and designed to fire up your digestive energy, or “agni”, via a bunch of select spices. Indeed, it’s served in clinics when people are sick and is used for cleansing purposes (where you eat it breakfast, lunch and dinner).
But it’s a whole lotta grains and legumes!
I know, I know. The stuff is made from mung daal and basmati rice.
At first, I was dubious. I bloat up from such foods normally and tend to avoid them. But consumed in this combo, with the spices and ghee that’s added, something mysterious happens and I’ve found that when I do eat it, my digestion is pacified. Almost immediately.
I asked Ayurvedic consultant Nadia Marshall to explain the deal from an Ayurvedic perspective:
“Both mung daal and basmati rice are light in quality with a predominantly sweet taste (mung is also astringent), a cooling digestive effect and a sweet post-digestive effect. It is quite rare to have foods that are sweet/cooling/sweet… but also light. As a result, mung daal and basmati rice have the special quality of being nourishing for the tissues and immune system but also light and easy to digest. Mung and basmati’s sweet quality (both as their taste and post-digestive effect) has a calming, grounding effect on the mind/body but is also