My Ayurvedic Kitchari Cleanse Experience+ Recipe

In Ayurveda, you rarely hear the word detox. I think of detox as a radical purge of unhealthy lifestyle choices—smoking, use of daily pain and anxiety meds, excessive alcohol, and sitting all day on a sofa glued to your phone screen while the TV is on for mare background noise. Instead, Ayurveda prefers the term cleanse. A cleanse is gentle, like changing the winter duvet to a lighter summer blanket, or cleaning out the dust the house accumulated or putting on storm glass.

I have to admit despite all my efforts I don’t eat as healthy as I would like to. I keep a gluten and dairy free vegetarian diet due to my food allergies and my Celiacs disease  but I still experience belly ache, bloating, constipation, sluggish digestion, unbalanced appetite and at times, lack of energy.

I took probiotics daily, had a strict diet regimen to follow, drank detox and special herbal teas that supposed to be good for digestion. NOTHING HAS CHANGED. I still experienced the same symptoms as before.

I was already digging into Ayurveda for years now, but somehow I totally forgot about the Kitchari cleanse, until I came across a recipe on Mind Body Green that reminded me of Kitchari. And then I remembered what I learned about it. How I didn’t even think of it before?

Everything happens in the right time….

But I made some research with my teachers about it and decided to go for it. Ayurveda has helped me already in so many ways (curing my allergies, coming to my ideal weight, getting rid of cellulite and so on), it could be the solution to my problem.

Kitchari is a dish that mixes rice and lentils into a warm porridge with various spices. It is an Ayurvedic recipe that is said to balance all doshas (in Ayurvedic medicine, the doshas are 3 different energies that are said to govern physiological activity), with some variations in the recipe. While the traditional base is usually split yellow mung beans (mung dal) and white basmati rice, you can also add in variations of cooked vegetables, play with the spices to meet your liking (according to the recommendations for your dosha type), and add in a small amount of ghee (clarified butter) or for vegan coconut oil, as well.

It is important to cook the ingredients all together, not in different batches. If you see a recipe where you have to prepare everything separately, that is not traditional, just a simple plate of food.

Also never add garlic and onion to your kithcari.

The rice-lentil amount is usually 1:1, but depending on your dosha it can be different – eg.vata with not so strong digestive fire can use double amount of rice.

There are theories which say that the spices should be added at the beginning, others recommend to add them at the end. I follow the teachings of dr. Vasant Lad who recommends to add them at the beginning.

A kitchari cleanse is simply eating only kitchari for every meal for anywhere between 3-7 days, depending on dosha type. The dish is very easily digestible and so it allows the gastrointestinal system to rest, while still providing you with plenty of nourishment (unlike other cleanses).
Other than GI restoration, it can also assist in balancing your body out, boosting the immune system, and can provide opportunity for spiritual deepening.

There is no such thing as diet in Ayurveda but cleansing.
Still you might experience to lose some of the unwanted fat you have, but the key word is unwanted. This won’t be extra water weight or muscle you lose, but all the unwanted toxins in your body.

When you are stressed your body can’t burn fat effectively, rather it sets up a storage for fat which also stores every kind of toxins. This also include mental toxin.

The time spared with cooking can also be used to work on yourself. I prefer to turn off my phone during my cleanse, and do shadow on inner child work.

I’m going to be super honest with how I felt during the first time of my 3-day cleanse, as it was not always a positive experience for me. But honestly, is there any cleanse that is? The goal is to cleanse your body, that means getting rid of bad stuff, and that is not always supposed to be pleasant.

I always do a 3 days because I am pitta dosha, and honestly on the 4th day I would go mad.

And I repeat the cleanse usually twice a year (every spring and autumn) and about every 2-3 weeks, I have one day when I am only eating kitchari. And of course whenever I feel like its needed, I have an extra day of kitchari cleanse.

One of the biggest shifts I noticed during my fist cleanse, while eating only kitchari was the dramatic decrease in anxiety. This might be also related to the fact, that I cut back on phone and laptop usage as well during the cleanse. I was only interacting with my family and closest friends once a day.

I didn’t eat kitchari 3 times a day, I choose to start my days with a plain, warm gluten free oatmeal bowl with a half cooked apple and a tiny dash of cinnamon. Then I prepared my daily amount of kitchari for the day that I usually ate 3 times, in smaller portions.

DAY 1

I seriously felt like I smoked a huge joint during the first day. I felt incredibly relaxed and chill and my sleep was crazy deep.

DAY 2

At the end of the second day, I started to feel lethargic, tired, weak and kind of sad. I think this is where the emotional & spiritual release starting to kick in.

DAY 3

The third day was when I started to come to so many realizations about myself. I started to become aware of how much I use food to cope with my emotions and to change the way I feel.

I also realized the energetics of different foods. Kitchari is so grounding and makes you feel very mellow. After the cleanse was over, all I wanted was raw fruits and veggies and could see how my energy lifted tremendously just by the shifting towards more raw food. I didn’t even want to eat sugary, oily food for days after.I still did not return to the “normal” diet I had before, instead I created a new normal for myself.

There were times where I really wanted to eat something else, but realized all these cravings were coming from a purely emotional place rather than from physical hunger. This heightened my awareness around the emotional connection we all have with food. I noticed that I simply don’t need that much food that I consumed daily, because I was eating my emotions or out of habit.

And the most important part, my digestion got so much better, my belly ache stopped after the first day of eating kitchari.

I am not bloated or if I get bloated from certain food, it goes away easily and it’s not painful as it was before.

My digestion is stronger, I have no more issues on the toilet.

Not to mention I finally started to lose the access weight that came up during the hard period of my life.

I’m excited to be sharing this Kitchari (also called khichdi or khichri) recipe that I learned in India from my Ayurveda teacher, which is a flagpole of healing Ayurvedic cuisine, and said to be the best combination of nourishing foods.

1 cup of lentil / red lentil
1 cup of Basmati rice
1 tbs coconut oil
1 tbs grated fresh ginger
2 ts ground cumin
1 ts ground coriander
1 ts fennel seeds
1/2 ts mustard seed
1 ts ground turmeric
1 ts Himalaya rock salt
5 cups vegetable stock
Plain vegan yogurt for serving

Heat the coconut oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium heat.

Add the cumin and mustard seeds and toast them until the mustard seeds start to pop, about 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the spices and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently to keep the spices from burning.

Add the rice, lentils, vegetable broth.

Bring everything to a boil, then reduce the heat to low.

Cover the pot and simmer the kitchari for about 20 minutes.

After 15 minutes of cooking, check to see if there are still enough liquids in the pot. If you notice that the liquids are completely absorbed by the rice and beans, add 1/2 to 1 cup of water and stir to incorporate.

Remove the lid and check to see if the rice is tender.

If the kitchari is looking too runny, let it simmer, uncovered, for a few more minutes. If the kitchari is too thick, turn off the heat and add 1/2 to 1 cup of water and stir. Taste and see if you need to add a small pinch of salt or more herbs.

Serve it hot with vegan sour cream or yogurt.

Some ayurvedic followers keep a clean diet all year, but most of us like (just like me) a cup or two of coffee in the morning. Perhaps a glass of wine in the evening to accompany your dinner. I get a salt craving every few months, but most of the year I get my energy from sugar, especially when I’m working in the forest. That is why an autumn and spring cleanse comes in handy.