When I had to air-travel with my 9 months old infant, my mom and I were thinking of various options for his feeds during the flight.
He was in a complimenting diet (my paediatrician always insists to call it a ‘complimenting’ diet and NOT a ‘weaning’ diet as the foods we introduce at that stage are not to wean off the mother’s feed but to compliment along with it).

Until then we never gave him any packed or external foods. Only home made porridges (made of sprouted finger millets and black gram), idlis and rice with dal!. While looking for packed foods, I was searching for something that will be closer to his daily feeds like mashed rice and dal with some veggies. And was happy to have found Cerelac moong dal kichdi.

At the same time we were also preparing a large batch of sprouted health mix powder (sathu mavu) and by going through the ingredients in the store bought package, I felt that the same can be made at home too!

It did take a bit of effort, but the outcome was really great. In this post, I am giving the step by step instructions to prepare the instant moong dal kichdi recipe for babies.

This has been one of my long pending post. I wanted to self test the shelf life of this powder, travel experiences before posting it. This powder has lasted for more than a year and still has the fresh aroma!

Now that we are all preparing for the lock down across the countries, I thought this would be handy for moms with infants. Now, to the recipe!

Ingredients

• Raw rice – 100 grams
• Moong dal – 100 grams
• Curry leaves – a fistful or a sprig (optional)
• Carrot – 1 Medium sized (optional)
• Cumin seeds – 1 tsp

Steps

• Wash the rice and moong dal well under running water

• Soak them in water for two hours (until the rice and dal lose their hardness when pressed)
• Drain the water

 

• Spread a clean cheese or cotton cloth and dry them under hot sun for 5 -8 hours (only when it is sunny). Bring them in before the sun goes off.
• Similarly, wash and peel the carrot.
• Chop it into small and thin chunks.
• Place it under the hot sun for 2-3 days (bringing it in before the sun sets). We are dehydrating the carrots to give them a longer shelf life. The carrots will eventually shrink in size. When you drop the carrot chunks on a plate, you will hear the hitting sound. That is when you consider them done.
• Wash and sun dry the curry leaves. Once all your ingredients are sun dried, it is time to dry roast them in the pan.
• Take a clean and dry pan, and dry roast cumin seeds in medium flame
• Then dry roast the rice and moong dal in medium flame. Roast until the aroma rises. (You should roast for more time than you do for pongal but don’t burn it).
• Turn off the flame and in the same pan while it is still hot, dry roast the dehydrated carrots for 1-2 minutes (you can skip this step if you are confident that your carrots are completely dehydrated)
• Allow them to completely cool. You can even let them cool over night but ensure that no dust or insects can come in contact.
• Grind them in a clean and dry mixer to very fine powder.

 

How to prepare khichdi

• Heat 1/2 Cup of water in a saucepan. When the water starts to boil, reduce the flame and add two teaspoons of the kichdi powder and a little salt if needed. Cook in low flame it for 2-3 min. The powder will absorb all the water and becomes thick.

• If you are away from access to stove, simply add piping hot water to the required powder and keep it closed for 5 to 10 mins (like we do for cup noodles). And your instant kichdi is done.

Note:

• Always taste the baby food before feeding the baby to check the salt and temperature.

Some useful tips given by my paediatrician:

When you are feeding a new preparation (a pulse or grain) for the first time, ensure that you give it while at home (not on a travel directly) and during day time.

While introducing complimentary diet, it is important to introduce only one grain or pulse at a time. Saying that, items like mashed rice, finger millet and black gram porridge go first in the list whereas idli (made of a grain and pulse) goes next. Same applies to rice with dal!