Delicious Nutrutious Balancing...Kichari!

1 cup whole mung beans
2 cups brown rice
4 1/4 cups cold water

PUT those ingredients into a pot, put the lid on until it boils, then lower the temperature to Low and cook for 45 minutes.

THEN...put the following ingredients into a frying panwith the heat on low for ten minutes or so...just to fuse all the spices...

1-2 tbsp clarified butter
3/4 tsp Sea Salt or rock salt
1 tbsp ground cumin (grind your own or not!)
1 tbsp ground coriander (")
1 tbsp turmeric

THEN, spoon about half the rice/mung bean mix into the frying pan and mix all up. You're done. It's super yum! I'd say that the above amount of spices does two huge helpings for dinner. (*the rest is great with some yogurt and banana in the morning or reheated with almond or whatever 'milk' you like with maple syrup and cinnamon and raisins if you like)

VARIATIONS: you can add carrots, potatoes, spinach, kale to the rice/mung bean pot...you don't have to add extra water or anything. Don't add onions or garlic, though...because this recipe is to BALANCE (not stimulate) your organs and self.
ALSO...to the finished product you can top with some chopped up fresh ginger (good for circulation), a couple tablespoons of plain yogurt...and squeezes of lime. mmmmmmmm good! (I never eat it without these three extras, they really make it taste yummy and correct somehow)

How to clarify butter...just melt the butter on low in a small container, then let it sit and seperate. Skim the top white blobs off...then pour the golden (good) butter off, and spoon/skim the rest off...you just don't want to get the white milky stuff that sits on the bottom. You can do a whole bunch of this butter (ghee) because it keeps (like olive oil)...now that the part of the butter is gone that causes rancidity! aha!

This is what this food does:
"We have discussed the value of brown rice as the most balanced food because it supplies a well-balanced complex carbohydrate for sustained balanced energy. Mung beans are unique in that they supply the necessary amino acids, which, with the brown rice, help enrich the overall protein value. Another important and unique aspect of mung beans is that because they have a cool energy, they are detoxifying and help neutralize acids. Mung beans are even recommended as one of the substances to treat toxicity symptoms of aconite poisoning. Mung beans are therefore a proteinaceous, highly nutritious blood purifier. By neutralizing toxins throughout the body, they are able to calm the mind, relieve hypertension, clear the accumulation of excess cholesterol and other lipids from the veins and arteries of the body, and promote the healing of all diseases. Unlike fruit or vegetable fasts, which are also cooling but lack the denser nutrients, a diet high in mung beans, especially a kichari and mung bean diet, achieves a more balanced detoxification without aggravating any nutritional deficiences."

"This isn't food; this is medicine!" The combination of brown rice and mung beans in kichari represents a perfect combination of life-sustaining protein and carbohydrates. Secondly, the addition of whole rock salt supplies added trace minerals the body needs to properly use other nutrients. Third, but not least, the three essential spices, coriander, cumin, and turmeric, the basis of curry mixtures, each have unique therapeutic properties that aid digestion and prevent food and other stagnations from occuring. Traditional nutrition beliefs of both China and India seem to imply that it is the subtle combination of the five flavors, which activates each of the internal organic processes, and this may be more important even than the nutritional content of food. Let's look at these. Coriander and cumin seeds have warm, spicy energy and benefit the lungs and spleen for better assimilation and transformation of food into energy. Turmeric, with its bitter and spicy flavours, is well known in TCM for its liver-detoxifying and blood- and qi-circulating properties that help to prevent stagnation and relieve pain.”

*To complete this meal I always have a small bowl of miso soup. ‘Genmai’ Dark Brown Miso Soup. Add boiling water to the bowl with about 1 tbsp of miso mixed into a paste first. One should never actually boil the miso...always just add water.

Miso has special qualities too!

“Miso is one of the most perfect foods. First, because of the fermented soybeans, it is rich in easily assimilated high-quality protein. Second, it is commonly taken before or during Japanese meals because it aids the assimilation of other foods. Miso contains live enzymes and lactobacilli which are only present in unpasteurized miso (the kind I recommended is unpasteurized) and should never be boiled. Miso is low in fat and has absolutely no cholesterol. The bacteria in naturally fermented miso have been found to manufacture vitamin B12. Miso is used to relieve acid indigestion, symptoms of hangover, and other digestive upsets. Because of this, it is used with ginger and/or garlic to prevent and/or cure colds, improve digestive metabolism, increase resistance to parasite infestations, and neutralize blood toxins and therefore clear the skin.

Still another benefit of miso is in its ability to counteract the adverse effects of radiotherapy, Antibiotics , chemotherapy and environmental pollution. By 1972, Dr. Akizuki, his nurses, and co-workers, whose hospital was located only 1 mile from the atomic bomb blast in Hiroshima in 1945, still had experienced no side effects from radiation exposure, despite the opposite experience of others in the near vicinity. He attributed this to the fact that they regularly ate miso. Stimulated by Dr. Akizuki’s claims, Japanese scientists conducted a study of miso and one of the ingredients used to make it, called natto. They found a substance they called zybicolin, which is produced by the yeasts of these products. It has the special ability to attract, absorb, and discharge such radioactive elements as strontium. Miso is also able to detoxify the harmful influences of tobacco and traffic pollution.”

Taken from the book, "The Way of Chinese Herbs" by Michael Tierra...a great book for learning about chinese herbs, and foods listed alphabetically that help with various conditions. Excellent~!

I have this meal probably twice a week and never tire of it. It just tastes so right. Of course it might not be for everyone, but it works for me and my boyfriend!

Tracey