Green Moong Dal n Spinach Kichadi

And I am finally back and writing here again! I thought I will never get a chance to. Well, with a kid as active (read hardly sleeps) as this one (with an exceptional love for the 'laptop'), it is tough to sit down and write a blog post too! Anyways, since I am posting today, I decided to do one of my favourite, as well as Athyn's favorite lunch recipe, THE GREEN RICE as we call it - is an easy to make, very healthy n balanced, yummy green moong n rice based pongal / kichdi. I do add all the vegetables I can in this, although Spinach / Palak takes prime importance as it blends awesomely with the rest of the ingredients.

Method to make Green Moong Dal n Spinach Kichadi

1. Wash, peel and cut all the vegetables you like to add in the kichadi - I add potato, pumpkin, ash gourd, carrot and raddish other than the spinach)
2. Wash the spinach twice or thrice and chop into fine pieces.
3. Add rice and green moong dal in 1:1 ratio (unlike in normal pongal with lesser dal).
4. Mix a pinch of jeera powder, hing and turmeric powder.

5. You can also freshly grind jeera and black pepper and add, if baby is old enough.
6.  Don't forget to add a generous amount of ghee
7.  This will need 4 times water (say 2 spoons of rice-moongdal mix will need about 6 to 7 spoons of water considering what vegetables you have added, some give water out by themselves)
8. Pressure cook for 30 to 40 minutes (or till almost 10 whistles)

You can give it a mix and serve for toddlers (and in fact adults in the family too, i love it and my mom loves it too!). For babies, you can hand mash it and feed (which is easier to do if you cut the veggies in chunks and not small bits initially - saves a lot of time too).

Just be careful about the whole moong dal skin peeling off, it could be a choking hazard for really young babies. It is also very heavy on the tummy so preferred for lunch than dinner, do not overfeed either.

You can choose to add turmeric powder, cumin powder and hing (asafoetida) if you are giving it to your baby already. It is completely harmless and in fact good for the stomach to add these after 7 months.

I think this is the quickest nutrition-packed (protein, iron and fiber rich), yummy meal I have ever made and has become a regular household lunch on mondays to kick start the week with loads of energy!

Simple One-pot Dal Khichdi

This was Athyn's regular lunch until recently. Now that he has a lot more variety, still most days of the week he has this, now with a little rice added to it though. Dhal Kichadi is a one pot meal most moms gives their baby once they turn six months old. This was given on prescription to him by the doctor starting 6 months. We were asked to add each vegetable one by one every 3 days and make sure he gets a complete balanced nutrition. Although any dal (lentil) is good to start with Moong Dal is the best for digestion.

A simple short cut to reading up on nutritional value of all vegetables is to pick a vegetable from each color, it does the job of making sure all the nutrients are in. Although I always believe in doing my research and keeping up-to-date on the knowledge front when it comes to baby, this trick I learnt in my pregnancy classes comes handy always.

So I add a variety of vegetables, started with carrot, pumpkin, ash gourd, potato, spinach, radish and tomato, one by one and by 7 months he was eating a good amount. I still add all of this everyday. Sometimes I have added Papaya or Apple too to give it a natural sweetness, although Pumpkin and Carrot does the job most times. Initially I gave him just the kichdi with vegetables, then added potatoes to it, slowly introduced broken rice (sold as rice rava) instead of potato and now (after 8 months) I use regular rice with it.

Method to make Moong Dal Kichdi

1. Wash three small tsps of moong dal and let it soak in water for few minutes while you cut the vegetables. (It is said that it helps remove the gassy-ness off it)
2. Wash, peel and cut the vegetables - add two to three pieces of at least 4 vegetables in a day
3. Wash the Spinach very well and chop finely.
4. If adding Tomatoes, deseed and peel the skin off, use only the flesh
5. Bring in 1/2 a teaspoon of ghee n optionally - cumin powder, turmeric powder, hing, etc. (I started adding these after 7 1/2 months but not regularly)
6.  Bring in rice if you are using, 6 small tsps (2:1 ratio with the dal).
7. Add enough water to cover the entire lot. Use limited water if using water vegetables like ash gourd that will give out water by itself. (you can also measure 3 times the rice and dal quantity and use, although it is only through repeated cooking I could get the right amount of water required with each vegetable combo)
8. Pressure cook for 35 to 40 minutes or 10 whistles whichever is sooner.
9. Mash with a hand masher when warm, so that it does not require blending. There is absolutely no need to use a mixer or blender even if baby is as young as 6 months. 

Try to keep the Kichdi at a proper consistency after mashing. Alternatively, you can remove the excess water if any before mashing and add it if necessary. This helps to make sure the Khichdi is not too dry for the baby to swallow or too watery to make big mess! Trust me, the more watery the more messy it is to feed, especially cos our babies are as curious about the texture of the food they eat as the taste :)

As your baby grows older, you can increase the quantity of rice and dal in the same ratio. Substitute Moong Dal with Toor Dal too.

Tomato-flavored Sooji Kheer / Upma

This one came out of an experiment with adding taste to simple rava (sooji) upma while not adding salt. I usually add some vegetable or fruit to make his food tasteful without the need of salt or sugar, but here I get stuck. I know babies have no taste of salt and it does not matter to them but somehow the idea of bland sooji kheer (porridge) seems boring right?

So I started out flavoring the water that I use to make the Upma and was amazed by the result. The smell in the kitchen after making this Upma is divine! It is sooooo tempting that you wanna eat it yourself. Well the best part is when I did, I absolutely didnt feel the need for salt in it even for me!

Method to make Tomato-flavored Sooji Upma / Kheer

1. Wash and deseed a couple of juicy tomatoes
2. Boil them in water for few minutes.
3. Mash and squeeze the juices out of the tomatoes and strain.
4. Boil the tomato-flavored water in a fresh pan
(make sure the water is in 1:4 ratio with the sooji to be used)
5. Add Jeera (cumin) powder, hing (asafoetida) and ghee.

6. When the bubbles form, slowly spread the rava  into the boiling water.
7. Keep in lowest flame and let it cook.

Serve it warm to baby, they love it. It hardens when cold. You can increase the water ratio if you want to feed like a porridge. You can even add little pepper and turmeric powder if you are giving your baby. But i think its the cumin, hing and ghee combo that makes it smell and taste so yumm.

Some people start rava / sooji right after 7 months, but in case of tomato, do the 3 day test for sure, cos it is a known allergen in many people (especially if one or both of the parents / siblings are prone to allergies). And about the spices, its your call again, cumin is very good for digestion and I started it a little before 8 months or so. You can wait until 8 or 9 months or until you feel your baby is ready.