The ultimate Indian vegetarian dish

Kitcahri is an age old staple vegetarian dish of India. It's one of my absolute favorites, and was a natural choice as this blog's first recipe. In India it's revered for its easy digestibility and cleansing nature, and it's advised to eat if you are sick because of its nourishing properties.  
The great thing about Kitchari is that it contains complete protein, herbs that stimulates digestion and lots of antioxidants and fiber.

Kitchari can be created in many different ways but the base is a combination of rice and mung beans that are cooked together with spices and vegetables. I make it several times a week and use different types of vegetables in it. My favorite is to use beetroot and spinach because it gives so nice colors,  besides that it tastes really good and is full of important nutrients. Both mung beans, spinach and beetroot is high in iron!


Recipe (2 people):

1 cup whole grain rice
1 cup mung beans
2 medium beets
2 handfuls of spinach
1 / 2 lime
1 / 2 chili
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon kumen
1 tablespoon fresh ginger
1 tablespoon extra-virgin coconut oil / ghee (trusted butter) / butter
Add sea salt to taste

Procedure:
Melt the oil / butter in a saucepan and add all the spices in the hot oil. This opens up all the flavors so that they come out better. 
Then mix in the rice and the mung beans in the hot oil before adding water, so that it covers about 5 cm above the rice and mung beans. Replace the lid and let boil before turning down the heat.  
Peel and cut up the beets and ginger into cubes and add after about 10 minutes cooking time. Then let it cook another 15 minutes.  
Check that the rice and beans are soft, if they are ready add the chopped chilli, spinach and press the lime over. Stir in the spinach and allow it to be a little soft before serving.  
Garnish with some coriander and ginger in thin strips on top.


Hope you like it! Experiment with local and seasonal vegetables



Oppskrift (2 pers):

1 dl fullkorns ris
1 dl mungbønner
2 medium store rødbeter
2 never spinat
1/2 lime
1/2 chili
1 ts koriander frø
1 ts sort pepper
1 ss gurkemeie
1 ss kumen
1 ss fersk revet ingefær
1 ss extra virgin kokosolje / ghee (klarert smør)/ smør

Fremgangsmåte:
Smelt olje / smør i en kjele og tilsett alle krydderne i den varme oljen. Dette åpner opp for alle aromaene slik at de kommer bedre frem. 
Bland deretter i ris og mungbønner før du heller over vann som dekker ca 5 cm over risen og mungbønnene. Sett på lokk og la koke opp før du skrur ned varmen. 
Skrell og kutt opp rødbeter og ingefær i terninger og tilsett etter ca 10 min koketid. La deretter koke ytterligere 15 minutter. 
Sjekk at risen og bønnee er myke, hvis de er klare tilsetter du finhakket chili, spinat og presser lime over. Rør inn spinaten og la den bli litt myk før du serverer. Pynt med litt koriander og ingefær i tynne strimler på toppen. 


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