Orggu
From Small Farmers
One pot, soaked grain, and enough water to make it spoonable
Wash the kodo millet and moong dal together until the water runs clear, then soak for 6–8 hours or overnight and drain. That is the standard soak for whole millets on this site — see the millet cooking guide. Thirty minutes still helps if you are starting late; add ¼ cup more water at step 5.
Heat ghee in a pressure cooker. Add cumin seeds and let them splutter.
Add ginger, green chillies, and curry leaves. Sauté for 30 seconds. Add turmeric.
Add chopped tomato and cook until soft (1-2 minutes).
Add the millet-dal mixture. Stir for 1 minute. Add 3 cups water and salt.
Pressure cook for 3 whistles on medium flame. Let pressure release naturally. Open and mix gently. Garnish with coriander. Serve hot with pickle or curd.
Kodo is the default here because it holds its shape. It has a firmer, more rice-like grain than the others, so it goes soft without dissolving, and its earthy flavour stands up to the tomato and ginger. Barnyard millet works too and is quicker — it is the fastest-cooking millet there is — but it is also the finest, so it turns to porridge sooner. Use it if that is what you want, and take ¼ cup of water out. Little millet sits in between.
Now the water. Our millet cooking chart puts soaked kodo at 1:2.5 and soaked barnyard at 1:2, and this recipe uses 3 cups for 1½ cups of grain and dal together. That is more than the chart, on purpose. The chart is aiming at fluffy, separate grains for a rice-substitute plate; khichdi is meant to be soft and spoonable, and the dal drinks water too. If a recipe on this site ever departs from the chart, it should say why — this is that note.
Fasting? This is not the version you want. Vrat khichdi uses no dal, no onion, no turmeric and rock salt instead of table salt, and it is made with samak, the one millet traditionally eaten during vrat. That recipe is samak khichdi.
Serves 4, at about 50 g of dry millet each.
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| Calories | 155 kcal |
| Protein | 4.2g |
| Fibre | 4.5g |
| Carbohydrates | 33g |
| Fat | 0.7g |
| Calcium | 13.5mg |
Half of the per-100 g figures for unpolished kodo millet in the Indian Food Composition Tables (IFCT 2017, NIN / ICMR), as published on our kodo millet guide. The moong dal, ghee and tomato add to this; we have no sourced figures for those, so they are left out rather than guessed at.
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Kodo goes by varagu in Tamil, harka in Kannada, arikelu in Telugu and kodra in Hindi — and of the millets it is the one that behaves most like rice in a wet dish, which is why khichdi, pongal and bisibele bath all work with it. Its full name list is in our millet names glossary.
Kodo is the pick here: it is the firmest of the small millets, so it softens without falling apart, and it takes the tomato and ginger well. Barnyard is quicker but finer, so it slides towards porridge — use ¼ cup less water if you go that way. Little millet sits in between. For a fasting khichdi it has to be samak (barnyard), which is a separate recipe without dal, onion or turmeric.
No single dish causes weight loss. Kodo millet is higher in fibre than white rice and sits lower on our glycemic index chart, and a high-fibre meal does tend to keep you full for longer — but khichdi is cooked soft and served generously, and portion size and the rest of your diet matter far more than swapping the grain. Treat it as a good everyday meal, not a weight-loss tool.
Infant and toddler feeding is not something we will advise on from a recipe page. When solids start, which grains are introduced and in what form depends on the child, and that is a conversation for your paediatrician. For adults and older children, cook it softer and go easy on the chilli.
Add a tadka of ghee with cumin and garlic on top. You can also add lemon juice before serving.