- I stock a variety of whole grains, including millets, brown/red rice, oats and wheat and vary their consumption through my week.
- I often substitute a cup of millets (ragi, samai, thinai, kutharavallietc) for boiled rice when making idlis or dosas. They taste even better, I find.
- I use ragi(finger millet) as often as I can – in porridge(kanjimavu/sattamavu), in biscuits, in pancakes.
- I use some millet flour (jowar, bajra, ragietc) when making chapatis, methitheplas and baking bread.
- We often make curd millets (instead of curd rice), barnyard milletpongal,, millet vegetable pulao, and we use foxtail millet (instead of potatoes) to add fibre and texture to vegetable cutlets/tikkis.
- Jhangora (barnyard millet or kuthiravalli) kheer is a family favourite. especially when garnished with nuts, dried fruit and seeds.
Indian Vegetable Couscous
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 cupthinai (foxtail millet) or dalia (broken wheat)
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
½ teaspoon grated ginger
1-2 green chillies, deseeded and chopped fine
4-5 curry leaves
1 smallonion (50g),finely chopped (optional)
¼ teaspoon haldi (turmeric) powder
¾ cup diced carrots/mixed veggies/green peas
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups water
2 tablespoonschopped coriander leaves
Method
- Wash the thinai ordalia. If you are using thinai, soak it in water for 30 minutes and drain.
- Heat oil in a pressure cooker or use a deep pan with a lid. Season with the mustard seeds, then sauté ginger, green chillies and curry leaves.
- Add the onion and fry until translucent. Put in the haldi powder, diced vegetablesand salt and sauté for a minute.
- Add thinai/dalia and 2 cups of water and pressure cook for 1 or 2 whistles or 5-8 minutes on low heat. For thinai, use an extra ½ cup of water if you want it soft, and extend the cooking time to 10-12 minutes. If not pressure cooking, cover and cook on low heat like rice, until all the water is absorbed.
- Garnish with chopped coriander leaves. Serve hot, ideally, with some coconut chutney or pickle on the side.