Veganuary Recipe: Bengali Healing Khichuri

This Veganuary we wanted to share one of our (vegan) recipes taken from our fantastic Cooking for One book which is available to purchase from us at Rosedale and also from a number of local stockists. All profits from the sale of Cooking for One will be donated to Cruse Bereavement Support whose work in supporting bereaved people is invaluable.

Bengali Healing Khichuri (Kedgeree)

by Hasina Zaman, CEO Compassionate Funerals

“This is good healing food to eat when you are unwell. The kedgeree has
the consistency of somewhere between porridge and soup, so it is soft to
eat and easy to digest.”

Ingredients

1 level tbsp red lentils
1 level tbsp basmati rice
2 tsp salt
1 clove garlic
1 small piece of ginger
1 red onion
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp cumin
1½ tbsp coconut oil
2 dried chillies (add more if you like your food hot!)
½ tsp cumin seeds
5 cherry tomatoes

Method

Soak the lentils and rice together in a bowl of cold water. You can do this
the night before or in the morning, or otherwise, it’s okay to just do it as
you start the other preparations. The longer they are soaked, the quicker
they will cook.

Peel and roughly chop the garlic and ginger. Slice the tomatoes in half.
Drain the water from the soaked rice and lentils and rinse before covering
them in fresh water. Add salt and set to boil.

As they heat up, a bubbly ‘film’ will form over the top which you need to
skim off (My mum told me that this is not good for us and causes acid in our system).

Add half the onion, the turmeric and cumin powder, and just ½ tbsp of the coconut oil.

Continue cooking for around 20 minutes in total.

Melt 1 tbsp coconut oil in a large frying pan, and add dried chillies and cumin seeds. Add the
ginger, garlic and remaining onion, and stir frequently to blend flavours. After approx.
10 minutes, combine this mixture with the rice and lentils. Continue to cook adding approx.
100ml boiling water at a time. Continue to do this until the rice and lentils are soft.

Use the same pan that you fried the onions in to fry the cherry tomatoes which you can use
to garnish.

You can vary the recipe by adding vegetables of your choice to the rice and lentil mix. Sweet potatoes or courgettes work well.