Vaghareli Khichdi with Kadhi
Gujarat's Sunday-night supper: a tempered moong-rice khichdi with vegetables, poured over with thin, sweet-sour Gujarati kadhi.
- Region
- Gujarat
- Status
- Adaptation — more moong than rice in the khichdi
- Diet label
- Strictly vegetarian, egg-free
- Time
- Prep 10 min · Cook 30 min
- Serves
- 3 (about 300 g khichdi plus 150 ml kadhi each)
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Good for
- Light dinner, comfort food, recovery days
- Tags
- Good source · Soy-free · Whey-free · Gluten-free* · Meal-prep friendly
- Allergens
- Milk
Nutrition (estimated)
- Calories
- 365 kcal
- Protein
- 17 g
- Carbs
- 51 g
- Fat
- 9 g
- Fibre
- 7 g
Headline values are per serving, as written.
| kcal | Protein | Carbs | Fat | Sat fat | Fibre | Total sugars | Protein per 100 kcal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Khichdi with kadhi (complete meal) | 365 | 17 g | 51 g | 9 g | 5 g | 7 g | 9 g | 4.5 g |
Good source. The only dinner below 20 g protein; see the boost. Includes 8 g jaggery for the batch (under 3 g added sugar per serving). Values checked against IFCT 2017 on 14 Oct 2026.
Ingredients
- Khichdi: 100 g yellow moong dal (or split green moong) · 60 g rice · 150 g vegetables (50 g peas, potato, carrot, onion) · 8 g ghee · 1 tsp cumin · 2 cloves · 1 bay leaf · pinch of hing · ½ tsp turmeric · 5 g salt · 600 ml water
- Kadhi: 350 g sour-ish curd · 30 g besan · 400 ml water · 1 tsp ginger-chilli paste · 8 g jaggery · 3 g salt
- Kadhi tempering: 5 g ghee · ½ tsp mustard seeds · ½ tsp cumin · 2 cloves · 1 small cinnamon stick · 1 dry red chilli · 8 curry leaves · pinch of hing
Method
- Rinse moong and rice; soak 15 minutes.
- Heat 8 g ghee in a pressure cooker; add cumin, cloves, bay leaf and hing. Add vegetables and turmeric; cook 2 minutes.
- Add the dal-rice, salt and water. Pressure-cook 3 whistles. Rest until the pressure drops; stir to a soft, spoonable consistency.
- For kadhi, whisk curd, besan and water until completely smooth. Add ginger-chilli paste, jaggery and salt.
- Heat on medium, stirring constantly, until it comes to a boil (this stops it splitting). Simmer 8–10 minutes until slightly thickened and no longer tastes of raw besan.
- Heat 5 g ghee; add the tempering ingredients and pour over the kadhi.
- Serve khichdi with kadhi poured over.
Protein optimisation
- Moong dal supplies 8 g per serving, curd 4 g, besan 2 g, rice 1.5 g, vegetables 1.5 g.
- Boost: stir 50 g crumbled paneer per serving into the khichdi (+9 g protein, +130 kcal), or serve with a side of 75 g hung-curd raita (+6 g protein, +75 kcal) — either lifts the plate above 20 g.
Variations, serving and storage
- Regional: Kathiawadi version — spicier kadhi with garlic, less jaggery.
- Substitution: little millet (kutki) or broken wheat for rice.
- Storage: khichdi and kadhi keep 2 days refrigerated, separately.
- Food safety: cool khichdi within 1 hour; reheat kadhi gently, stirring, until it simmers.
- Meal prep: good.
Nutrition values are estimates calculated from the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (ICMR-NIN) and typical product labels. They have not been laboratory-analysed and will vary with your ingredients, brands and cooking. Recipes are for healthy adults and are general information only, not a substitute for advice from a doctor or qualified dietitian. If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, cooking for children, have food allergies, or live with kidney disease, diabetes or any other medical condition, please take professional advice about your diet. From the collection Protein-Rich India by Dr. Shantanu Deshpande · drshantanudeshpande.com