Recipe
🍽️ DINNER
Bhuna Khichuri
Toasted rice and moong dal cooked rich with ghee, whole spices, and caramelized onion, monsoon comfort from Dhaka.
Bangladeshi · easy · serves 4
prep 15 min · cook 40 min
~608 cal · 19g protein · 98g carbs · 15g fat · 8g fiber · 4g sugars · 9g sat fat (estimated, per serving)
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Bhuna khichuri is the rich, festive rice-and-lentil dish of Bangladesh, rice and moong dal first toasted ('bhuna') in with whole spices until fragrant, then cooked together into a savory, aromatic one-pot meal. Unlike a plain, soupy khichuri, the bhuna style is drier and deeply flavored, a dish of celebration rather than convalescence.
Toasting the lentils and rice before cooking gives the dish its nutty depth and distinct character, layered with , cinnamon, bay, and ginger.
Eaten above all on rainy monsoon days and at festivals, bhuna khichuri is classically paired with fried eggplant, beef bhuna, or a boiled egg across Dhaka and Bangladesh.
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Make it yours
✓ Naturally vegetarian and gluten-, nut-, egg- and pork-free. No swaps needed.
Toggle a diet and the ingredients rewrite themselves with regional substitutes.
🥕 Vegetarian
🌱 Vegan
🌾 Gluten-Free
🥛 Dairy-Free
🥜 Nut-Free
🥚 Egg-Free
🐖 Pork-Free
Dietary labels are a cooking guide, not allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish; we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, read the label on every product you use, and note that a kitchen can cross-contaminate in ways a recipe cannot control.
Ingredients
US
Metric
Serves 4
1.5 cups basmati or kalijira rice
1 cup moong dal (split yellow lentils)
4 tbsp
2 onions, sliced
2 tbsp ginger and garlic paste
1 cinnamon stick
4 pods
4 cloves
2 bay leaves
1 tsp each turmeric and cumin and red chili powder
3 green chilies, slit
1 cup frozen peas (optional)
Instructions
1
Dry-toast the moong dal in the pot until nutty and pale gold, then set it aside with the rinsed rice.
✎ Chef’s note
Toasting the dal first is what makes it a bhuna (fried) khichuri rather than a plain one, giving a deep, nutty aroma throughout.
2
Fry the onions in ghee until bronze, then scoop out half to use as a topping.
3
Add the whole spices, ginger-garlic, and ground spices to the pot and fry 2 minutes.
4
Add the rice and dal and bhuna (fry), stirring, for 3 minutes more.
5
Add 5 cups hot water, salt, and green chilies, bring to a boil, then cover and cook on low 20 minutes, adding the peas for the last 5.
6
Rest 10 minutes, fluff, and crown with the reserved fried onions.
Dhaka monsoon-day tradition.
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🌏 While it simmers, know your destination
📍
Dhaka. Ilish, the hilsa, is the national fish and a seasonal one, running up from the sea into the rivers with the monsoon and landed in quantity at Chandpur and Mawa. At the Bengali new year it is eaten as panta ilish, fried fish alongside rice that has been left overnight in water.
🗺️
Bangladesh. The Bengali meal has an order, which is unusual in South Asia: bitter first, then greens, then lentils, then fish or meat, and something sweet at the end. Malai in the name of a prawn dish means coconut, not dairy cream, a distinction worth holding on to. The same cuisine sits on both sides of the border drawn in 1947.
🌍
Asia. Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, and its food spans the delicate seasonality of Japanese washoku, the chili-fired curries of India and Thailand, and the wheat-and-lamb traditions of Central Asia. Rice, noodles, soy, and fermentation recur across its regions, while ancient spice routes and religious traditions shaped distinct grammars of flavor. Whether from a street-cart wok or a monastery kitchen, eating is deeply communal and ritual-rich.
The story behind this dish is up top, worth a read while the pot works.
More from Bangladesh
Ruti with Aloo BhajiSoft whole-wheat flatbread with a lightly spiced potato-and-onion curry, the everyday Dhaka breakfast.
Shorshe IlishHilsa fish in a pungent mustard-and-green-chili sauce, the prized national dish of Bengal, eaten with rice.
RoshogollaSpongy cheese-curd balls simmered in light sugar syrup, the springy sweet of Bengal.
Browse all Bangladesh recipes →
Good to know
You’ll need: Pot or saucepan.
Storing it: Cool leftover rice quickly and refrigerate within an hour. Keep up to 2 days and reheat until piping hot all the way through.
Make it a Bangladesh meal
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Frequently asked questions
What is Bhuna Khichuri?
Toasted rice and moong dal cooked rich with ghee, whole spices, and caramelized onion, monsoon comfort from Dhaka.
Where does Bhuna Khichuri come from?
Bhuna Khichuri is a Bangladeshi dish from Dhaka, Bangladesh.
Can Bhuna Khichuri be made vegan, gluten-free, or dairy-free?
This Bhuna Khichuri recipe includes substitution suggestions for vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy-free, nut-free, egg-free, and pork-free versions, including several at once such as gluten-free and dairy-free together. Treat them as a starting guide rather than a guarantee, and see the allergen note below.
Is Bhuna Khichuri safe for people with food allergies?
Our dietary labels and substitutions are a cooking guide, not medical or allergen-safety advice. We track dairy, egg, gluten, tree nuts and peanuts (we count coconut as a tree nut, following FDA labeling), fish, and shellfish, but we do not screen for sesame, soy, mustard, celery, or sulphites. If you have a food allergy, always read the label on every product you use, and remember a home or commercial kitchen can cross-contaminate ingredients in ways a recipe cannot control.
How long does Bhuna Khichuri take to make?
About 55 minutes total (15 minutes prep, 40 minutes cooking), serving 4.
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