Broccoli! Is it the glyphosate-vanquishing avatar that will save us from the wastage of toxic food that some food researchers now claim?
According to Jeffrey Smith, the producer of the documentary Secret Ingredients and the founding executive director of The Institute for Responsible Technology, research has concluded that glyphosate blocks an essential detoxifying process within the body, blocking the body’s ability to heal and purify. But research also shows that sulforaphane, a primary chemical in broccoli, helps negate the effects of glyphosate on the body.
Teaching Ayurveda, I see that people can get overwhelmed and confused trying to figure out their dosha, how to modify it for each season, and what to eat at every meal. But this new research is a reminder that the best approach to nurtrition is simple: More organic, lots of greens, and a daily dose of cruciferous (sulforaphane is in kale, cabbage and cauliflower too).
Going back to basics is what healthy cooking is all about. In Ayurveda, basics means Kitchari – and a super healthy Kitchari will be loaded with greens. So I offer you here Ayurveda’s most purifying, everyday staple, boosted with the detox power of cruciferous and greens.
KITCHARI & GREENS
In my book, Ayurveda Cooking For Beginners, you will find recipes to make seasonal spice blends. Each seasonal blend combines 5 spices that help boost digestion and enhance flavor. Once you know your dosha, you can also use the spice blend that relates to your dosha, all year round. {By the way, I want to give away one copy of my book. Want it? Just comment below.}
Ingredients
1/2 cup whole mung beans
1/2 cup basmati rice
1 tablespoon ghee or coconut oil + 1 teaspoon
3-4 hearty shakes seasonal spice blend, or curry powder
6 cups low sodium veg broth
1 inch piece of kombu, optional
3-4 stalks celery
1/2 head of broccoli, broken into small florets and stems chopped
1 cup spinach
turmeric, pink salt
a small fist of cilantro leaves
Instructions
Soak the mung beans for 8-24 hours. The longer you soak, the closer they get to sprouting making them even easier to digest. If you soak up to 24 hours change the water every 12 hours. Rinse and drain. Rinse the rice and drain.
Melt 1 tablespoon ghee or coconut oil in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat. Shake in your spice blend and swirl to sauté the spices for one minute.
Stir in the mung bean and the rice. Add the broth. Lay the top on the pot but slight off so that a bit of steam can escape. Cook for 20 minutes. Mix in the celery and the broccoli and cook another ten minutes.
Melt the remaining 1 teaspoon ghee or coconut oil in a small saucepan. Stir in a few shakes of turmeric and a few shakes of pink salt. You can also add some hingvastak or a small spoon of miso, or tamari for flavor and increased digestibility. Remove from heat and pour over the kitchari.
Place the spinach into the pot with the kitchari. Pour the turmeric ghee over that and stir. Serve in bowls with a garnish of fresh cilantro.
Stay tuned for Part 2, when I’ll share with you two scrumptious ways to turn kitchari leftovers into a meal or a snack that everyone loves! The top photograph and this last one are clues 😉 Enjoy!
P.S. Would you like a copy of my book? I am giving away one free copy. Just comment below and I will randomly draw a name Thursday. And in part two, I have another great giveaway I am excited about. Hint: Mooooo! {Giveaway now closed}
Thanks & Big Love!
More research:
The Guardian: Weedkiller in Food?
What’s the broccoli research?
What’s the sulforaphane research?
I did a Spring Cleanse with you a few years ago and still use a lot of the recipes on a regular basis. Your approach to healthy living and foods has subtly and powerfully changed how I move through life. Thank you.
Ah, that makes my heart leap! I am so glad to hear this. Thank you Jillian.
I would love to be in the draw for your Ayurveda book, thank you!
You’re in! Thanks Paulina.
You make healthy, healing food easy to cook, delicious and beautiful to look at! Thank you! 🙏
It is easy – mostly because it is already so delicious. All we have to do is love it they way it loves us, and it all comes so easily. Thanks Marsha!
Hey Marsha, Congratulations. Your name was randomly, blindly chosen to receive my book! I will send you an email to find out where to send it. Thank you!
I LOVE your recipes and you especially make Kitchari so easy and tasty!! I would love to have your cookbook…thanks for sharing!
Thank you! It means so much to hear this. Best wishes for the book!
I appreciate the time you take to send out emails to inspire my cooking and eating. I need the reminders!
Thank you – It is the next best thing to coming over and cooking with you!
Hi Laura,
Thanks for your beautiful web stories. My comment is also a question. I see this recipe uses whole mungs, rather than the traditional split mung. What’s your thinking about the difference?
Debra
I love whole mung! If you soak them well they are also very wholesome. Split mung is easier to prep and are wonderfully digestible, but they are also harder to find, so I like to create healing, healthy recipes with both to make kitchari accessible to all! Thanks for asking Debra!
loving your newsletters and recipes, Laura! with gratitude
Pamela
Pranams. Thank you for all you do to bring Ayurveda to more and more people – such a remarkable healing science. Looking forward to seeing your recipes for ‘day-old kitchari! Om shanti. Abhaya
Thank you Abby. It is remarkable, isn’t it? Big Shanti to you!
Thank you Pamela. I love hearing from you. Grateful for all you do!
I had to look up what kombu is and I am so excited to introduce it into my cooking. Thank you for the beautiful recipe Laura – cannot wait to give it a go!
Oh Tegan – Kombu is an excellent way to get a bit of sea vegetable into your meals, but also it helps make legumes even more digestible. xo
Hi Laura, I was so impressed by your interview with Penny Collins, I came directly to your food blog. The Kitchari and Greens recipe looks wonderful…I’ve had mung beans in my cupboard for ages and was never very sure what to do with them other than sprouting. I’m 70 years old, and have noticed that if I eliminate most of the gluten from my diet, my knees and hips are less painful. I think that rather than gluten, the culprit is glyphosate. Knowing that cruciferous vegetables can counteract these negative effects could be life-changing for me, so I humbly thank you. I’d love a copy of your book, but in reality, having access to all the recipes here is enough.
With a deep bow of gratitude,
Polly
I also believe glyphosate to be a culprit – and that removing it from your kitchen, your cooking and your body can only be a good thing! Thank you for coming over after listening to that interview. I love Penny Collins, and now love her even more for introducing us. My fingers are crossed that your health improves. Thank you Polly!
I love your changing take on Kitchari and often make a batch that I eat for breakfast for a week. I bought your cookbook for my daughter but don’t have my own copy yet. I enjoy your blog and it stimulates me to eat healthier.
What a great way to start the day! I hope your daughter is enjoying the book, and I hope you get one too. Thanks.
I love this information about broccoli- I never knew that! I will definitely be boosting my meals every day with something cruciferous
Isn’t it great? I love it when the best things are the simplest… 🙂
Love this information, especially the approach to Ayurveda that isn’t so stuck on the dosha! Will be adding in some cruciferous vegetables every day
Thank you Jennifer for “getting it” – Let’s apply Ayurveda as it is meant to be applied, with love for love, in the name of love. That is the essence of healing.
I follow you on Facebook and get your newsletters and absolutely love what you do! I practice Ayurveda myself but would love to add your book to my collection! Thank you Laura!
Thank you Leanne. That touches my heart. I am so grateful to you for spreading the genius of Ayurveda!
After discovering you earlier this year, your recipes, philosophy, cleanseveda recipes have changed the life of myself and my husband. Thank you!
Linda, I am touched and delighted to hear this. Thank you!
I grew up in India eating basic Khichari but your versions with vegetables, makes me even more excited! Please enter me in your drawing.
There is nothing like khichari in the homeland! But we do what we can to make it accessible here. I hope this version doesn’t disappoint. Thanks Shweta.
You have a lovely way of making Ayruveda tasty and accessible.
Ah, thank you Elie!
Love the recipe. will try it this week. Thanks for sharing
Thank you Geetha! I hope you enjoy it.
I wish I had found you earlier. I have so much to catch up on now. Many blessings to you and yours.
I hope the journey of catching up is delightful and delicious!
Always looking for more ways to play with kitcharie. Thanks for the option of a new cook book! We are in need of inspiration. Hope the drawing is still on…
mahalo,
Pamela
Yes, the drawing is still on. I hope this recipe, and hte book, do inspire!
Hi Laura, can you recommend a substitute for those of us who can’t eat rice? I’ve been meaning to try making Kitchari but I never know what to use instead of rice.
Thanks
Hello Fresca, Of course. First I have a recipe here, https://food-alovestory.com/winter-kitchari/ that is gran free. You make a sort of emerald “rice” with broccoli or broccolini. If you want a grain, just not rice, you can use millet, amaranth, quinoa, buckwheat, barley. But it is also good just mung and vegetables! Please let me know what you find works best for you. I’d love to hear and would be happy to devise a unique recipe for your needs.
This recipe looks amazing! I can’t wait to try it!! I have had a jyotish reading from you which was incredible and I’m excited to try your recipes. I hope I win 🙂
Thank you Natasha. I hope you find some you love!
I’m excited to explore your website having just listen to the insightful convo with Dipika. Thank you. Beautiful to be privy to wise and Inspiring ayurvedic elder women speaking from each country 🙂
Soooo interesting to learn about the amazing benefit of broccoli to dodge the glyphosate bullet! Glad I have so many growing atm.
Fingers crossed to win your cook book!
Hi Prue, Thank you for listening in to that convo with Dipika. She is truly amazing, a goddess of light and healing for our world. Best wishes for the broccoli – I love that you have so much growing at your fingertips.
The timing of having found you & this blog is so wonderful! I was just pondering a detox AND whether or not aruyvedic eating could possibly help me heal from decades of food abuse & disordered eating. Fingers crossed to win your book!
Erin, I have been there and was really helped by Ayurveda. I hope that you do have a chance to explore it, and while this offer was closed by the time you replied I am offering the book again on my most recent post. So please have a read and comment if you are still keen. Thanks!
I am over the moon to have found you! Not sure how I got on your list, but enjoyed a webinar with you last night. I use to follow an Ayurvedic lifestyle, but lost hope when my Ayurvedic doctor was unable to help me when I was feeling poorly. Ended up back with functional medicine, and other influences, after a diagnosis of Hashimotos. Just listening to you brought so much peace to my heart. I feel inspired to refresh my mind and body with your website. Ayurveda always felt the best to me. Namaste Laura.
Thanks Patricia! Hashimoto’s is tough, so I am over the moon too that you are finding peace and support. Best wishes to you.
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grata de coração
sou estudante ayurveda (técnica para já) e adoro a calma e prazer com aborda tudo… grata e obrigada por disponibilizar receitas
ja agora cleansveda e muito bom
Thank you Joana! I appreciate your words and your heart.
This was the best kitchari ever. I loved the flavor of this kitchari. I would not have thought to add celery and broccoli it was so good. This past winter I made this at least once a week. Now that its spring I would like to add some asparagus and switch up the spices. Thank you for sharing this is my go to recipe now.
How wonderful! I am so glad to hear this Christine. Asparagus will be good. I’ve been adding lots of leafy greens, including dandelion, spinach, chard, a bit of radicchio and celery of course. Enjoy!