Made my first ”khichdi” while away from home. On the auspicious occasion of “Ganesh Chaturthi” each family has their own traditional and favorite dish that they prepare. Mine is a moong dal khichdi recipe – rice and green gram lentils cooked to porridge consistency.

Call it Khichdi/Kicdi/Hotchpotch, this is one of the grandma-mother-inspired dishes for me. This is a dish we grew up eating during the Indian festivals and hence holds a lot of sentimental value. Khichdi an Indian dish consisting chiefly of rice and split pulses. Rissoto is very much similar to khichdi the only difference is, Rissoto is from Italy. It is a dish from the South Asia made from rice and lentils (dal). Khichdi was the inspiration for the Anglo-Indian dish kedgeree, and is also commonly considered to be the inspiration for the popular Egyptian dish, kushari.

Place of origin‎: ‎Indian Subcontinent

Main ingredients‎: ‎Rice‎, ‎lentils‎, ‎spices (Bengali mixed spices also called Panch phoron, bay leaf, grated ginger, dry red chilli, turmeric powder, salt to taste) and clarified butter (ghee).