Toor dal khichdi
Preparation Time
20 minutes
Cooking Time
30 minutes
Difficulty Level
easy
Meal Type
Lunch
Serves 4
Key Ingredients
- Toor dal (arhar)
About This Recipe
Khichdi is the dal-and-rice pot eaten across the country in a hundred forms, and this one is built on toor dal. Where moong khichdi melts to a cream, toor keeps a little bite, so the pot is soft but still shows its grains, with a nutty note the green dal does not have. The same dal goes by both names, so this is an arhar dal khichdi too.
The recipe is one pot and a pressure cooker. The dal and rice soak together for twenty minutes so the slower grain catches up with the faster one, then fry briefly in the tempering ghee and cook under pressure with five cups of hot water — a four-to-one water ratio that gives a spoonable khichdi, not a dry rice.
The toor dal guide covers the dal's nutrition. An arhar dal khichdi recipe of this kind works just as well with the dal alone, without the rice, for a thin dal to pour over rice; the toor dal recipes roundup has the plain pot and the rest.
Ingredient List
Serving Size:
1x
2x
3x
Khichdi
- Toor dal (arhar) — 1/2 cup
- Sona masoori rice — 3/4 cup
- Turmeric Powder — 1/2 tsp
- Salt — 1 1/2 tsp
- Hot water — 5 cups
Tempering
- Ghee (half for the tempering, half to serve) — 2 tbsp
- Cumin Seeds — 1 tsp
- Hing (asafoetida) powder — 1/4 tsp
- Ginger, finely chopped — 1 tsp
- Green chilli, slit — 1 piece
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Serving Suggestions
Serve hot with the last of the ghee spooned over each bowl, along with curd or chaas, a roasted papad and lime pickle; a squeeze of lemon brightens the top of the pot. The pot thickens overnight, so keep leftover khichdi in the fridge for up to two days and reheat it with a splash of hot water; slices of cold khichdi also pan-fry crisp in a little ghee.
Tips for Cooking Toor dal khichdi
Give the dal and rice the same twenty-minute soak; toor is the slower grain, and it must catch up with the rice. Water from the kettle, not the tap, brings the cooker to pressure sooner. Leave the pot alone until the pressure drops, and serve the khichdi loose, because it firms within minutes of leaving the flame.
Chef’s Note
Toor dal keeps a little bite even when the rice has melted, which is what makes this khichdi different from a moong one. A bowl comes to about 284 kcal with 8.4 g of protein and 3.3 g of fibre, from the rice and dal together.
Per serving (approx.): 284 kcal, protein 8.4 g, carbs 43 g, fat 8.1 g, fibre 3.3 g. Computed from IFCT 2017 / USDA values for the listed quantities. Measures: 1 cup = 240 ml, 1 tbsp = 15 ml, 1 tsp = 5 ml.
Happy Cooking
!!
ByCOWBERRY
Apr 29, 2026
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