Quinoa khichadi

I recently heard about quinoa by reading the awesome Summer Tomato blog run by Darya Pino (make it a must-read if you want in-depth coverage of healthy food and healthy food habits and nutritional discussion).

I had already read about how whole grains are better than crushed or polished grains or flour and was also interesting in having more carbs in my breakfast and steadily reducing them through the rest of the day with all the other meals.

So I thought of making an easy Indian dish called khichadi which is not strictly a breakfast dish in northern India where it is more popular, but is cooked for breakfast sometimes in southern India (where I’m from). The ease of cooking was what I was going for.

So here’s what you need:

• 1 cup quinoa: rinsed (this removes residual bitterness) and soaked for 15 mins

• ½ cup masoor dal(a kind of Indian lentil - you get this at any Indian store) rinsed and soaked for 15 mins

• 1 cup frozen peas thawed (I microwave them in a bowl of water for a couple of minutes)

• 1 carrot peeled and chopped either into rings or sticks

• 1 garlic (chopped finely or crushed)

• 1/3 tspn cumin seeds

• 1 pinch turmeric

• 1 pinch hing (aka asafoetida)

• ½ tspn cumin powder (you get this at any Indian store)

• ½ tspn coriander powder (you get this at any Indian store)

• Salt and cayenne pepper/paprika/red pepper powder to taste (as per your tolerance)

• 2 tspn oil

• 4 and ½ cups of water

Method:

• Take a deep vessel that you can boil rice in (not a wok or a flat pan)

• Add 2 tspns oil

• Once oil is hot, add the garlic

• Once garlic starts to brown, add 1/3 tspn cumin seeds, pinch of hing and turmeric

• Let cumin seeds sizzle for a few seconds

• Immediately add peas (make sure to drain the water after thawing) and sliced carrots

• Stir fry for 2 or 3 minutes (upto you…decide how stir-fried versus boiled you want your veggies)

• Add 1 cup water

• Drain the quinoa of the water it is soaking in and add to the cooking vessel (make sure to drain water as otherwise it will throw off the measure of water)

• Drain the masoor dal of the water it is soaking in and add to the cooking vessel

• Once both quinoa and masoor dal are added, then add the remaining 3 and ½ cups of water (you can use some of this water to rinse out quinoa or masoor dal stuck to the bowls they were soaking in)

• Boil on medium without a cover for 15 to 20 mins (This depends on your vessel shape and size, stove heat levels etc. Makes sure to check frequently - when you dip a stirring ladle in, there should be no water at the bottom of the vessel, but the cooked quinoa should not start sticking to the vessel)

• Switch off flame and put a lid on it and let it sit for 5 mins (this will cook it a bit more in the steam, and absorb any residual water)

Done!

And here's how the finished dish is gonna look like: