Vegan Kitchari Recipe

If you're looking for an easy vegan meal that's both grounding and detoxifying, look no further than kitchari. It is a simple dish made with rice, beans, and spices, and it's perfect for a busy weeknight. Plus, this vegan kitchari recipe is a great way to detox your body! You can customize your kitchari by adding different spices or herbs. Here's my favorite recipe. Enjoy!

Have you ever heard about Kitchari cleansing? I hadn’t, but I dogged in and loved the concept as the good researcher I am. This recipe encompasses all the Vegan Kitchari Recipe preparation basics, a great main dish for detox periods.

Our Ayurveda Lifestyle friends contacted us to develop a Kitchari Detox menu for their yoga students making a Kitchari Cleansing at their Yoga Academy.

According to the Ayurveda practice, the cleanse involves juicing and eating in a certain way for the detox duration to cleanse the gut and release the body from inflammation. By the way, we are taking part in the detox!

The idea was to develop a meal plan, including breakfast, lunch, and a light dinner, typically including juice detox, legumes, cereal-based kitchari recipe (Also known as kitcheree recipe), and soup. All are making part of a perfect kitchari bar menu!

Try also our Superfood Green Detox Smoothie on this site to complement your weekly breakfast meal plan.

Jump to:

• 💚 Why you will love it
• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💡 Expert tips
• 📖 Variations
• 🥢 How to serve
• 🥡 Storage
• 🇮🇳 More easy Indian recipes
• 🎥 Video
• 📋 Recipe
• 💬 Reviews and Comments

💚 Why you will love it

• Easy to digest
• Nutrient-rich ingredients
• Comforting and warming
• Quick preparation time
• Versatile meal options

🧾 Ingredients

I will go one by one because I think the exercise is worth the reading. Moreover, we will explore what each ingredient contributes to the detox.

Rice and Bean base

Mung beans are easier to digest than all the legumes, making them perfect as a post-illness food option and work great for vegan stews.

Mung beans are ideal because they are high in fiber and low in calories. They are safe to eat for people with diabetes because their glycemic load is low. These green pearls also help to regulate blood sugar.

The carbs present in mung beans are digested better than the rest of the legumes, making them optimal for a cleansing period, where some changes are also taking place within our bodies and souls.

You can also find them in their yellow mung daal form. These ones are even easier to digest.

Rice – we all have been given a plain rice bowl when our stomach feels a little funny. Whole bran rice is an essential source of insoluble fiber (dietary fiber) that we humans cannot completely break down entirely. This fiber prevents constipation and colon cancer. Rice is naturally gluten-free, making it safe for people who have gluten gut irritation issues.

Seasoning

Turmeric powder

The curcumin component in turmeric helps fight inflammation and improves the strength of our immune system.

See how to include more turmeric in your diet with this morning tonic, a lemon, turmeric, and ginger anti-inflammatory tea.

Ginger root

It is an excellent anti-inflammatory as it helps in two ways. One is locally reducing inflammation, stabilizing the white globules to release less inflammatory signals. You can alternatively use ginger powder.

Sesame oil

The linoleic acid of this oil is also antioxidant, anti-bacterial, and anti-inflammatory. Sesame oil is especially advantageous for pacifying Vata dosha. This oil prevents the skin from getting excessively dry. I recommend you go easy on it, as it has a strong flavor.

The Traditional Ayurvedic recipe uses Ghee (clarified butter) instead of sesame oil, but we are making a Vegan Kitchari Recipe. If you are vegetarian or omnivore, you may choose to use Ghee instead of sesame oil, as although it is not dairy-free, it has a minimal amount of lactose, which we know a lot of people are intolerant to.

I once read a text I found very interesting:

“You are not lactose intolerant; you are just not a baby cow.”

Since sesame oil is also part of an Ayurvedic diet, we chose to take the vegan path to replace Ghee for this recipe.

Other alternatives are coconut oil and avocado oil.

Seeds

Cumin Seeds

These delicious digestive seeds are considered a cooling spice in Ayurvedic medicine. They also aid digestion and help flush toxins out of the body.

Cumin is very versatile. You can use it either ground or as whole seeds. It can be consumed raw, dry-roasted, sautéed, or roasted. In this recipe, we will slightly sauté cumin seeds to bring their flavor and aroma to life.

Although cumin has a strong flavor, it is well-suited to combine with many other spices, including turmeric, coriander, ginger, fennel, and cinnamon.

Black pepper

This well-known spice activates curcumin’s properties. It also has anti-inflammatory benefits on its own, along with many other benefits such as helping to control blood sugar levels, lowering cholesterol levels, and great benefits for our brains.

Coriander Seeds (powdered)

Coriander helps prevent flatulence and controls spasmodic pain. It also boosts the digestive system in hot seasons when digestion seems to be weaker. Coriander seed is a digestive aid and diuretic. Although the leaves (fresh cilantro) are cooling, the seeds are slightly warming spices. Its bitterness reduces pitta, while its pungency improves digestion.

An Ayurvedic spice mix is a mix of herbs and spices that accompany the cleansing process to enhance metabolism and digestion. It helps prevent digestive issues and cleanses ama from the body.

Turmeric, cumin, coriander, fennel, mint, asafetida, black pepper, dried powdered ginger, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cayenne are potent Ayurvedic spices that contribute to enhancing metabolism and digestion.

They also cleanse ama (undigested food that gets absorbed into our system without properly being assimilated by our bodies) and help prevent digestive disorders such as gas and bloating.

🔪 Instructions

How to Make Kitchari Recipe: Gut Healing & Anti-Inflammatory. This basmati rice and moong dal recipe is quickly put together, is a delicious dish, and is ideal for meal prep.

• Soak. Add the rice and moong dal; then pour water until it is covered. Let the mix soak for 15 minutes.
• Briefly cook spices. Warm the sesame oil on medium-low heat in a medium or large pot. Then add cumin seeds and let them cook for about a minute until they become fragrant and brown.

Garnish. Serve with your favorite sprouts on top.

It makes a great fall season recipe, as it is cozy and flavorful. Legumes are great for providing energy during the cold seasons, and ginger boosts our immune systems.

📖 Variations

We tried and tested different spice options for kitchari. We picked the minimal spice mix for the base kitchari recipe and explored adding some optional ingredients that are also recommended but are not “mandatory.” They came out equally delicious, which is a great way to scale it up.

Base variations: cereals and grains

Oats

These cheap flakes are powerhouses. They help keep our cholesterol levels low, fat, and high in dietary fiber. You would rarely feel constipated if these friends were part of your routine. We are used to eating oats only during breakfast, as part an oats and chia pudding, or porridge. Still, they are a great kitchen partner to absorb humidity without changing the flavor of meals and improving the dish’s nutritional value; that is how we used them on this eggplant vegan eggplant pie or this savory carrot tart.

Oats are also great for making plant milk in minutes. They are by far the cheapest and most sustainable vegetable milk.

Brown Basmati Rice

You can use brown rice instead of white basmati rice; it will just take longer to cook, and the beans will become more of a porridge consistency, which is OK because the idea of a Kitchari is to make it as easy to digest as possible.

Lentils and peas

This super healthy and protein-packed legume is considered the second most manageable to digest after split mung beans. You can use any kind of lentil, such as red lentils (our favorite), in place of mung beans.

If you go for red lentils, you will save about 15 minutes, as they only need to be soaked briefly and only need to be cooked for about 15 minutes.

See our green pea pottage for a delicious and wholesome vegan meal.

Moong or Mung Beans (Mung dal)

Use yellow split moong beans (moong daal) to make the kitchari faster and easier to digest.

Other ayurvedic cleanse spices and herbs

Mint

This herb is a natural coolant. It has a sweet and intense aftertaste. Mint is great for digestion and can pacify all three doshas. Mint is also great for aiding the assimilation of food and treating colic pain.

Use a teaspoon of dry or fresh mint. If using fresh mint, add it 5 minutes before finishing the cooking.

Fennel seeds

Are used in Ayurvedic medicine to treat digestive ailments and have antispasmodic effects that ease abdominal cramps. Add the same amount of fennel seeds as cumin seeds, either as a replacement or on top of it for a stronger flavored kitchari cleanse recipe. You can use fennel seeds inside a tea infuser filter to get a delicious tea that helps with a stomach ache.

Mustard seeds

Pungent foods stimulate circulation, digestion, and metabolism and promote their metabolic rate. Eating mustard seeds enhances the distribution of heat throughout the body.

Fenugreek seeds

You can grind the seeds into a powder and use them directly. Similarly to cumin, we like to lightly toast them before using them, as this helps to bring their flavor and aroma alive.

These potent seeds have a strong flavor, so use them in moderation, as they can easily change the flavor profile of your kitchari cleanse instant pot. For the recommended recipe, replace coriander in the same quantity.

🥢 How to serve

Pair with white basmati rice and add something fresh on its side, like this bottle gourd recipe.

🥡 Storage

Cool down completely and store in the fridge for up to three days. You can also freeze in portions and thaw.

If you freeze it, you can keep it for up to a month.

🇮🇳 More easy Indian recipes

If you want to try more Indian food, check out our Indian Eggplant Curry Recipe and Indiand Cauliflower Curry.

Try out this simple lentil curry without coconut milk for a nutritious and healthy lunch on a cozy day.

If you love mung beans, you have a look at this delicious mung bean dal, made in 30 minutes using an instant pot. It is big in flavor and high in nutrition!

If you are interested in Ayurvedic medicine recipes, I recommend you try our Soothing vegan golden milk, to fight inflammation and insomnia.

⭐ If you try this recipe, let us know! 💬 Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag us @ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!

🎥 Video

📋 Recipe