Nishel Turpin: Rice and Daal with Vegetables

Coming from Indian parents and a state in North India called Bihar, it would be impossible to make a dish without rice and daal (lentils). I remember when I was growing up (and even to this day), my parents would have Kitcheree every Saturday like a ritual. We weren't allowed to eat it on any other day for some superstitious reason. I grew up with so many Indian hocus pocus old wives tales (more on that to come later down the line). We had to have Kitcheree on Saturdays and that was that.

Maybe now would be a good time to explain that Kitcheree is essentially a mixture of rice and daal with vegetables of your choice (my parents usually put peas and cauliflower in theirs) infused with select Indian spices, particularly haldi (turmeric).

The only thing was, I hated it. I never ate it and luckily, the side dishes my parents made with it, spicy mashed potato, poppadoms and raita was enough to get me through the meal. I think the distaste towards Kitcheree was caused by two main reasons:

(i) it was probably more psychological than me not actually liking the taste of it
(ii) my parents used to put cauliflower in their Kitcheree and I hated cauliflower. I hated everything about it - the look, the texture and the taste. I still do

Although, this has now changed and I can happily eat Kitcheree (minus the cauliflower).

Cooking Kitcheree is actually really simple - throw a cup of uncooked rice, a cup of daal and whatever vegetables you want in a pan of boiling water. Put some spices in the pan and let it simmer for about 30 mins and hey presto. It's almost 0% fat as you boil everything and don't need oil to fry anything beforehand.

When it came to making food for my 18 month old son, I decided to experiment with Kitcheree - the results are below and delicious. I didn't add any spices this time around, but simply put in a vegetable Oxo cube, a teaspoon of Maldon sea salt and freshly ground pepper. I also took out the chunky vegetables after 15 mins, blended them and then put them back in the pan. Just so it's easier for Aaren to chow down on as he doesn't have any molars yet.

Note: Kitcheree is usually far more yellow in colour, because of the lentils and haldi. However, because of the lack of colourful spices and the fact I blended the mushrooms and carrots, it ended up being a more woody colour.