Khichdi Samba Rice – An Overview

An ancient rice native to Tamilnadu, Khichdi Samba rice (also called kichadi samba or kichili samba rice) is one of the popular traditional rice varieties of paddy. It is a fine-grained, white rice that is excellent for sadam, biriyani and kanji. It is a personally experienced fact that regular eating of this rice increases disease resistance in the body and substantially improves our robustness. In spite of being fine-grained with a slender stalk, this variety of rice is also extremely hardy, resistant to both pests and diseases and can withstand both drought and flood.

Favoured by the Royalty

There are only two traditional rice varieties that are fine-grained and white (excluding Jeeraga Samba which is more a fragrant rice variety) – one is Thooya Malli and the other is Kitchadi Samba rice. Preferred for its taste and flavour, this rice was eaten by Kings and Lords in the ancient days. The Tamil film songwriter Marudakasi was so thrilled by the taste of Kitchadi Samba rice that he made a special mention of it in his famous song “Mannaparai Madu katti”.

Varieties of Khichdi Samba Rice

There are three different types of rice made from Kitchadi Samba paddy:

White Polished Rice: This is milled and polished (or semi-polished), which is super tasty and white but lacks nutrition due to the loss of valuable bran.

Khichdi Samba Parboiled Semi-polished Rice

Parboiled Rice (semi-polished): This is rice that is milled after boiling and cooling paddy (????????? – parboiled) where much of the nutrition goes inside the rice because of parboiling and most of the nutrition is preserved.

Brown Raw Rice: This is the best in terms of nutrition; rice is dehusked in a rubber sheller (instead of huller polishing) and all the bran is intact. This is unrefined rice and is more nutritious than parboiled rice.

Cooking Method

In general, the use of urea for fertiliser makes paddy kernels very thin and less meaty. However, rice, when organically grown without synthetic fertilisers, will be tougher than chemically grown rice. So, you could soak the rice in water for 30 minutes before cooking. Alternatively, you can try using extra water, or, with a pressure cooker, extra whistles can achieve the desired level of cooking consistency.

Traditional Rice Varieties with Bio Basics

Bio Basics currently stocks both raw (semi-polished) and parboiled types of Kitchadi Samba rice. Do try this delicious, traditional rice variety! This comes to us from Sirkazhi, the rice growing belt of Tamilnadu.

Do visit our online store for more traditional rice and register to get updates from us