Dahlia Khichdi

Dahlia Khichdi translating to Broken Wheat Porridge is a wholesome healthy meal! It is a one pot quick meal. You can slow cook in your stove top in a heavy bottom pan or make it quick in your pressure cooker or you could use Electric pressure cooker like Instapot or Mealthy Multipot.

Dahlia Khichdi

Dahlia Khichdi also sometime referred as vegetable dahlia is a very common solid food for babies 8 months and above, once they promote to grains . It’s easy to cook, light on the tummy and extremely nutritional. When my son was in that age, I would prepare Dahlia Khichdi every other day, by switching the vegetables. Once he turned 3, I almost stopped making this savory porridge and would use broken/cracked wheat mainly to make fritters. 

The texture of this dahlia khichdi is smooth runny which makes it easy to digest. You can treat it as a blank canvas and add your own choice of vegetables or spices. 

Dahlia Khichdi is 

• one pot meal
• easy to adapt as per your taste bud
• makes a great baby food
• can be prepared in electric pressure cooker or your Instapot very quickly. 

Ingredients for Dahlia Khichdi:

• Key Ingredients is broken wheats and lentils. Pick your choice of lentils. I used yellow mung daal
• Use your choice of veggies and greens. Just dice the veggies into bite size for even cooking
• Ghee tadka – A drizzle of pipping hot ghee tadka is the best way to elevate the flavor of dahlia Khichdi. 
• Just like most porridge this Dahlia Khichdi too will settle down and thicken up as it cools down. I prefer the consistency to be runny so I would always more water than actually required to boil the grain and lentils.

What is Dahlia?

Dahlia is broken/cracked wheat which is a very common ingredient used in Indian cooking. We use grain and lentils together to prepare Khicdi. While using rice is the most common ingredient, dahlia is a great healthier substitute.

TRY THIS RECIPE – Broken Wheat Dukkah Fritters With Labneh 

Recently Tanvi shared her dahlia khichdi in Instagram and it instantly inspired me. I had some gorgeous beetroot greens that I wanted to use. Along with some assorted frozen vegetables and a good dose of beetroot stems and leaves, I made Dahlia khichdi after ages.

Saved some of the tender leaves to crispy fry along with the eggplant. It was a simple comforting meal that took me barely 5 minutes of prep and 15 minutes of cooking in Mealthy Multipot.

Dahlia Khicdi

Yield: Served 4

Dahlia Khichdi translating to Broken Wheat Porridge is a wholesome healthy meal! It is a one pot quick meal. You can slow cook in your stove top in a heavy bottom pan or make it quick in your pressure cooker or you could use Electric pressure cooker like Instapot or Mealthy Multipot.

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Ingredients

• 1 cup dahlia (broken/ cracked wheat)
• ½ cup yellow mung daal
• 1 cup assorted veggies (carrot, peas, corn, beans)
• 1 and ½ cup finely chopped beet stems and greens. I saved the smaller leaves to crispy fry and serve on the side
• ½ inch fresh ginger, finely chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 bay leaf
• ½ teaspoon cumin powder
• ½ teaspoon coriander powder
• 2 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon turmeric
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 5 cups water
• 3 fresh green chili
• 1 tablespoon ghee
• ¼ teaspoon asafoetida

Instructions

1. Wash the dahlia and lentils.
2. In a heavy bottom sauce pan or pressure cooker or your multipot (in saute mode) pour the oil, bay leaf, cumin seeds and ginger. Stir it around for few seconds.
3. Then add the assorted veggies, beetroot stems and greens, sprinkle
   the salt, turmeric and stir it around. Cook for 1 minutes then add 1 fresh green chili finely chopped, the cumin and coriander powder. Stir it around for 2 minutes.
4. Scatter the washed dahlia and lentil along with the water and mix it around.
5. If you are slow cooking in a heavy bottom pan, then coverand let it simmer until it’s all cooked and softened. For Indian pressurecooker - cover with the lid, let it giveone whistle and then switch off. Allow the steam to release on it’s own. Formultipot (Instapot or Mealthy) cancel saute mode, let it pressure cook for 15minutes, then release the steam before you open the lid.
6. Give a stir around and if it looks too thick then add some water and loosen the texture.
7. Just before serving prepare the ghee tadka. In a small pan, heat the ghee with asafoetida, and slit remaining 2 green chili. Drizzle the pipping hot ghee on top and serve warm.