Beetroot risotto-kitchari & turning things around

This is a kitchari that is also a risotto! Kitchari is India’s comfort food, and Ayurveda which comes from ancient India, prescribes a simple kitchari recipe for the Ayurvedic cleanse.

The word kitchari means muddle or mixture, it refers to a mix of bean and grain. A traditional Ayurvedic kitchari is made with rice and mung dahl. You make this dish by sautéing some spices in ghee, then adding the soaked dahl and rice with water and vegetables, and simmering until cooked.

The first risotto, as we now make it, is believed to have been created in the early 1800’s, in Italy. You sauté rice in oil/fat then slowly add wine/stock until creamy. Adding other things like cheese, fish/meat, vegetables, and flavourings like lemon juice/zest, spices, herbs. It is often served as a starter in Italy. So I thought I would play with small plate risotto recipes.

You might like to try making this beetroot kitchari with the risotto method and using arborio rice, to see if you can notice a difference in the texture. I’d love to know in the comments if you found it came out creamier.

Beetroot risotto kitchari

INGREDIENTS (2 starter portions)

• 1/2 cup arborio rice

• 1/2 cup split mung dahl soaked and cooked

• 4 cups stock

• 2 tablespoons ghee

• 2 inches freshly grated ginger root

• 2 inches freshly grated turmeric root or 1 teaspoon powder

• Pinch black pepper, Hing (asafoetida) & fenugreek

• 1 teaspoon ground coriander seeds

• 1 teaspoon ground fennel seeds

• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamon

• Rock salt

• Fresh lime juice to your taste

• 2 beetroots

METHOD

Cook and purée the beetroot. Sauté the spices, ginger and turmeric root in the ghee, then add the rice. Next add the stock little by little as you would for risotto. Once cooked add the beetroot purée and mung dahl, and season with the lime juice and rock salt.

Joy dots

Raindrops on the washing line

Waking just before the sun rises

Meal satisfaction

Early morning peace

Cushions

New green leaves

Birds flying, always

Bluebells

Sunlight and shadow

seedlings starting to grow

smell of fresh lemons

The power of joy dots can be underestimated. We live in a culture that has normalised stress, as a way of being. Our lives are full of stress on both the outside of us, and the inside; through habits of perception which lead to habitual ways of thinking and feeling. These become predispositions in our consciousness.

Our neural networks, created by the way we habitually think and feel, are forming and falling away all the time, dependant upon where we place our attention. We can’t always change what is happening on the outside of us, but we can change how we respond to that, if we do this before stress levels get too high.

In a culture that is predisposed to normalising stress as a way of being, taking 5 minute breaks throughout the day to focus your attention on joy dots, to simply stare at nature, to do something that makes you laugh, or look at pictures that lift you up; is a radical way of taking care of yourself, and a vote for the culture you want to live in.

I know someone who lived in a hectic city doing a very stressful job, surrounded by other people’s stress 24/7. They focused their attention on images of where they would retire to. Covid came along, it was an even harder and more stressful time, but they kept these images alive in their brain, and by the end of the year everything came together. They ended up taking early retirement, got out of the U.K. just before the Brexit deadline, and now live the life they dreamed about. And it all just flowed so easily. Without knowing it, they were exercising the positive neural networks of their brain. I’m not saying dreaming and imagination alone led to this, but they were able to move through challenging times in a positive way, rather than be brought down by them. And that, can make all the difference in life.

Warmest wishes, till Sunday.

Lucy x