Vegetable Kichdi

Radish Kichdi or Mooli Kichdi

what you need to have

Rice - 1 cup

Tuvar Dal - 1 cup

Sliced Radish - 1 cup

Sliced Tomato - 1 cup

Sliced Seeme Badanekaayi - 1 cup

Water - 6 cups

Black pepper - 4-5 seeds

Turmeric Powder

Refined oil or Ghee - 2 spoons

Take the pressure pan, keep it on low flame. Add oil or ghee which ever you prefer. Once its warm add

mustard seeds, wait till they splutter, then add Jeera or Cumin Seeds, followed by curry leaves, Pepper

seeds, Turmeric Powder. Now add the vegetables and required amount of salt. Better to put less as you can

add it later too. But make sure you wont put more. Then add water. You can put one spoon of grated

coconut if you have.

Now add the washed rice and Tuvar dal. stir once and close the lid. I use Prestige Cooker and wait for 3

whistles. Else you can keep it on medium flame for 10 minutes. It will take another 10 minutes for the air

to escape or for the cooker to cool. Now you can remove the weight, and taste the kichdi.

It will almost taste like Moolangi Sambaar rice. But will be just right for kids and elders too.

If you are preparing for small babies say who are 6 months to 18 months old, then you can grate the

vegetables so that they can eat it easily.

I have added pepper seeds, as its raining these days, and pepper is good during cold weather. But you can

skip it if you dont want it. And you can make it more spicy if you wish by adding sambaar masala powder.

You can try this with Moong dal also, instead of Tuvar dal.

Let me know once you try this.

Rice with Dal

Once your baby is 6 months old, You can start with solid food. You can mash it and give until baby is able to chew well. Once baby has got enough number of teeth, no need to mash the food.

The recipe which I am going to write is called as Thovve in Kannada. Its common in 'Bayaluseeme' of Karnataka state. Also referred as 'saptage' by village folk.

How to prepare rice.

Rice - 1 cup (100gm)
Water - 3 cups

Wash the rice twice with clean water. Then add 3 cups of water to 1 cup of rice. Pressure cook. Let the cooker make 3 whistles. Because we are putting more quantity of water, if you dont wait for 3 whistles it would not have cooked properly.

If you are not using cooker and making the rice directly, then you need to put atleast 5 cups of water for 1 cup of rice.

Now the rice is ready.

To make Thovve ( Dal tadka)

Tuvar Dal - 1 Cup ( Called Togari beLe in Kannada)
water - 10 cups

finely chopped onions - 1 onion
Garlic cloves - 2-3
curry leaves - around 5
dry red chilly - 1
oil - 1 spoon
mustard - 1/2 spoon
cumin seeds - 1/2 spoon
Turmeric powder - a Pinch
Salt - To taste - 1 spoon

wash the Dal and add water in 1:10 ratio and pressure cook in cooker. You can keep this along with rice also. In separate container.

Take a Cooking Pan. Put 1-2 spoon of oil or Ghee. Always cook on a low flame to avoid any over burning. Once the oil is hot, add the following one after the other in the order given

1. mustard seeds. Let it splutter.


2. Then add cumin seeds.


3. Dry red chilly


4. the Garlic Cloves.


5. turmeric powder and Curry leaves.


6. chopped onions.

roast the onions for while. Once onions become transperent you can add the cooked dal. Add salt. Let the Dal tadka or Thovve boil for 2-3 minutes.

Turn off the heat and close the lid.

How to give it to the child

Take rice in a plate, mash it little. Add good ghee if you have. This is optional. Then add the Thovve. mix well. First you eat and see whether it is tasting good. Then give it to the child. Its important for mother to taste the food before giving to child because if its not tasting good, little less of salt or something, they wont eat even if you repair later. So first bite should be tasty for them. You know kids are very very choosy. I have learnt this from my daughter.

Please try this out and let me know if your child liked it.

Kichdi

If your baby is ready to eat soft solid food, then she will definitely enjoy this one.

Ingredients
rice - 1 cup
Moong Dal - 1cup
Water - 6 cups
ghee - 1 spoon
Ginger paste - 1 pinch or very little
finelty chopped onion - 1/2 cup
turmeric powder - a pinch
salt to taste

Take a pressure pan. Add ghee to that and keep it on the gas stove. Once ghee is hot add mustard seeds, cumin seeds followed by turmeric powder, and curry leaves and ginger. Then add the onions and fry a little. then add rice, dal and water. Add salt to taste. If you have grated coconut or coconut milk you can add it. Close the lid. On a low flame make one whistle.
Once air escapes your kichdi is ready to eat.

Boiled Sweet Potato

You will never know what your baby will enjoy eating. Thus we need to try more and more varieties of food for them. Here is one which I tried. My daughter enjoyed it during her 5th month. This can be given when you start giving her solid food.

Ingredients

Sweet Potato - 100gm ( one medium sized peice)

cleanly wash the sweet potato.

Cut and remove both the ends upto 1/2 inch.

Then keep it in the pressure cooker and cook for 15 minutes or 3 whistles.

Once it is cooked, take a knife or even a spoon and cut it lenghtwise.

scoop out the inner part. And ensuring that its not very hot, you can give it to your baby. You can enjoy the left overs!!!

Raagi Ganji

Raagi is one of the greatest gifts god has given us.

Ingredients

Raagi Flour - 1 table spoon
Water - 200ml
Sugar - 1 table spoon

Always keep separate bowls for preparing baby foods. This is a good practice because if we use common bowls, how much ever clean it is, it might have the flavor of other foods cooked in that which might not be good for the baby.So take a clean bowl, pour water in to that then add the Raagi flour, and keep on stirring so that it is mixed well. You can even put that in a blender to make sure it is homogeneous. Then heat the solution and keep on stirring once it comes to the consistency of a soup add salt or sugar as you prefer. Then heat it for another few minutes so that solution boils. But don't stop stirring. Once it boils for 1 - 2 minutes, our Raagi Ganji or Raagi Soup is ready. You can turn off the heat and let it cool.

Depending on the age of the baby you can either give directly or filter it using a sieve and put it in feeding bottle and give to the baby.

Even for babies who do not get mother's milk, and if they don't accept other milk this Raagi Ganji is a substitute.As long as you ensure its cooked properly, its very good for the baby and elders as well. No side affects at all.

You can use this for 3 to 4 hours after preparation. Then you can discard the same or drink it yourself if you don't want to throw.