Instant Pot Quinoa Khichdi
Feb 23, 2019, Updated Sep 07, 2019
Instant Pot Quinoa Khichdi, one-pot wholesome meal made with quinoa, lentils and veggies! It's nutritious, filling, comforting and good for you!
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One-pot wholesome meal, this Quinoa Khichdi is a healthier spin on traditional Indian khichdi.
Made with quinoa and lentils, this khichdi is lightly spiced and packed with nutrition.
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One-pot meals are my favorite! It is one of the prime reasons I love the instant pot so much. I hate cleaning dishes, I really do so if I can make something in one-pot and have less dishes to clean, there’s nothing like it.
Being an Indian, khichdi has always been my comfort food. Mom always made khichdi when I was not well or when we all felt like eating something simple and wholesome.
However, I make khichdi a lot in my kitchen. I think mom didn’t make it on a regular basis because my brothers hated it. They thought it was bland and boring so if she made khichdi then she had to make something else for them.
But me and sarvesh, we both love it so I make it often. More so, after we are both fed up of eating outside after a vacation or trip.
To change things up a bit, I have been replacing rice with quinoa and making Quinoa Khichdi. This is such a simple meal but one that you will love- that much I can promise.
This Instant Pot Quinoa Khichdi
✓ is healthy, wholesome, one-pot meal
✓ gets done in 30 minutes
✓ packed with protein
✓ vegan and can be made gluten-free by skipping the hing (asafoetida)
Usually for khichdi, we do half rice and half lentils and so I should have followed the same rule with quinoa khichdi as well, however I have used 1:2 ratio of quinoa to lentils here.
The reason is that Sarvesh isn’t a huge quinoa fan. So first time, I made the khichdi with half quinoa and half dal, he didn’t like it much. It was too much quinoa for him.
So now I just cut the quantity in half and he likes it way more. In fact I also prefer this version with more dal and less quinoa.
However feel free to do half quinoa and half dal. Totally up to you.
I used yellow moong dal (moong dhuli) and masoor dal (red lentils) here, you can use also use only moong dal or only masoor dal.
If you plan to use toor dal, increase the cook time to 7 minutes since it takes little more time to cook than these dals.
This khichdi is really easy to prepare. Once you have chopped everything, it’s just a matter of few minutes to put everything in the pot and then pressure cook.
It’s so good for those days when you want something comforting, filling and without many spices.
Vegetable Quinoa Khichdi
This quinoa khichdi recipe has quite a bit of veggies here- onion, tomato, carrot, peas.
You can add more like green beans, potatoes, cabbage, even spinach would be great at the end.
I just happen to have few veggies at home when I made this and hence used those.
How to Serve The Khichdi
You can eat it as such. But I always prefer eating my khichdi with yogurt. It’s a match made in heaven.
Also some pickle on the side is so good!
Method
1- Press the saute button on the Instant Pot. Once it displays hot, add the oil or ghee and then add the bay leaf and cumin seeds.
Let the seeds sizzle for few seconds and then add the hing and stir.
2- Add the onion, ginger, garlic and cook for 3 minutes until softened.
3- Add the tomato, carrot and frozen peas and stir.
4- Add the moong dal, masoor dal and quinoa.
5- Also add the turmeric powder and salt.
6- Add water 2 to 2.5 cups. I add 2.5 cups (20 oz) because I prefer little thin khichdi. And it also thickens as it cools down so I like adding 2.5 cups. You may add 2 cups (16 oz) water.
7- Stir everything together and close the pot. Press the manual or pressure cook button and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. The pressure valve should be in the sealing position.
Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then do a quick pressure release.
8- Open the lid and add chopped cilantro. Then squeeze in some fresh lemon juice.
Enjoy quinoa khichdi with a side of yogurt or pickle.
Check out more Indian Inspired Quinoa Recipes!
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Instant Pot Quinoa Khichdi
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon oil or ghee 15 ml
- 1 bay leaf
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 1/4 teaspoon hing asafoetida
- 1 small red onion chopped
- 1 inch ginger finely chopped
- 4-5 large garlic cloves finely chopped
- 1 medium tomato chopped
- 1 large carrot cut into rounds
- 1/4 cup green peas frozen
- 1/4 cup yellow moong dal (moong dal dhuli) 55 grams, split moong beans, rinsed
- 1/4 cup masoor dal 50 grams, red lentils, rinsed
- 1/4 cup quinoa` 50 grams, rinsed very well, I generally rinse quinoa for 1-2 minutes.
- 1/4 + 1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder
- 3/4 teaspoon salt or to taste
- 2-2.5 cups water 16 oz- 20 oz, 2.5 cups if you want thin khichdi
- chopped cilantro
- half lemon juice of
Instructions
- Press the saute button on the Instant Pot. Once it displays hot, add the oil or ghee and then add the bay leaf and cumin seeds.Let the seeds sizzle for few seconds and then add the hing and stir.
- Add the onion, ginger, garlic and cook for 3 minutes until softened.
- Add the tomato, carrot and frozen peas and stir.
- Add the moong dal, masoor dal and quinoa along with turmeric powder and salt.
- Add water 2 to 2.5 cups. I add 2.5 cups (20 oz) because I prefer little thin khichdi. And it also thickens as it cools down so I like adding 2.5 cups. You may add 2 cups (16 oz) water.
- Stir everything together and close the pot. Press the manual or pressure cook button and cook on high pressure for 5 minutes. The pressure valve should be in the sealing position.Let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes and then do a quick pressure release.
- Open the lid and add chopped cilantro. Then squeeze in some fresh lemon juice.
- Enjoy quinoa khichdi with a side of yogurt or pickle.
Notes
- Usually for khichdi we do half-half so half lentils and half quinoa/rice but here I have used more lentils and less quinoa. You can definitely do half-half. If you use 1/2 cup quinoa, do use 2.5 cups water.
- Skip hing or use gluten-free hing to make this khichdi gluten-free.
- You can also add veggies like green beans, spinach, cabbage here.
- I have not used any chili powder here as I wanted to keep it super simple. However you can spice it up by adding red chili powder or green chilies as per your taste.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
