Khichdi
When your body needs comfort, it’s time to feed it some khichdi. Not the kind made in Emperor Akbar’s royal kitchen with equal amounts of rice, lentils and ghee but the one prescribed by Ayurveda, with rice, lentils and just a dash of ghee and spices. We’re talking about that melt-in-the-mouth, ghee-topped, warm food that you can spoon into your mouth on a cold day, or when you have a cold or are unwell. It is easy on the palate, easy on the stomach and totally healthy. Chanakya, the author of Arthashastra, suggested a very precise recipe: 1 prastha rice, 1/4 prastha lentil, 1/62 prastha salt and 1/6 prastha ghee. Cook it to a mush with water (oh no, he forgot to mention how many prastha of that!). Called khicca in Sanskrit, it has been eaten in India at least from the time Ayurveda has been practised. That’s at least for 3,000 years now.
Many travellers to India have been smitten by the humble khichdi. Moroccan traveller Ibn Battuta wrote in the 14th century that in India, people ate kishri. The basic dish involves dry roasting moong dal and cooking it with rice, with just a bit of cumin and black pepper. Each…
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