Cooking with Millet (Giveaway!)
Tropical Traditions recently sent me an enormous bag of hulled millet to do a product review. Finding out that it is gluten-free was of interest to me – while I don’t eat a gluten-free diet, I still like to try to reduce the amount of gluten in the food I eat. It’s also nice to have alternatives to rice in meals!
Millet is a healthy choice because it is easy to digest and it is a powerful source of a variety of important nutrients, including magnesium, phosphorous, B vitamins, and potassium. It is also high in fibre. Millet reminds me a lot of quinoa. It has the same type of shape when cooked, and like quinoa it can be used as a replacement for rice or for oats.
Millet with steamed veggies, beans, and nutritional yeast flakes
So what did I do with it? I combined 1 cup millet with 3 cups water, boiled it on the stove and then reduced to a simmer and let it sit, covered, for about 20 minutes. Millet turns delightfully fluffy when cooked this way and it makes a huge amount. I was eating millet for days the first time I cooked it up 🙂 It’s so easy to whip up a pot of millet. Even easier than rice, if that’s possible! And it freezes very well if you like to make big batches to heat up the following day (or week), like I do.
Cooked millet tastes amazing when combined with some drained and rinsed canned chickpeas (or other beans), steamed broccoli, Bragg’s soy sauce, nutritional yeast flakes, crushed red pepper flakes and ground black pepper. It also works very well in stir-fry with elk meat. I have been using millet everywhere I normally would have used rice. It’s delicious! I’m really enjoying it and I love that it’s tasty, good for me, and gentle on the tummy.
Do you want to try some millet?
Leave a comment below to share your favourite whole grain, or your favourite recipe featuring a whole grain, or your opinions on millet (taste, nutrition etc), or something along those lines. Winner will be announced in one week from today, on Wednesday, December 15th.
Disclaimer: Tropical Traditions provided me with a free sample of this product to review, and I was under no obligation to review it if I so chose. Nor was I under any obligation to write a positive review or sponsor a product giveaway in return for the free product.
A few years ago my neighbor planted an entire field with millet! We had millet everywhere!!
In many ways my favorite whole grain is one most people don’t think of, popcorn!
Popcorn is my favourite too 😀
That’s so cool that you had an entire field of it!
I always associate millet with the treats we used to buy my parakeets growing up! I do really like millet porridge — i would get it often when living in China.
I must try millet porridge soon.
Lately my favourite whole grain is quinoa. I jsut discovered it a while ago and I love it. I use it in places I used to use rice and I seem to have much better luck cooking it than I do rice.
I’ve never tried mullet and I’m quite curious…
Heh..I mean millet 🙂
Have you ever had smoked millet? That’s the way they eat mullet in the South 🙂
I like the idea of the broccoli and soya sauce, it sounds very comforting and wholesome!
Let’s see… my favourite grain has got to be spelt. I like the nutty aroma and the well-rounded flavours. I also like how soft and fluffy is makes baked goods. I have read it is very nutritious and provides a lot of the amino-acids towards a full protein. Nothing wrong with that!
Thanks for the giveaway Sagan!!!!
Ooh yes, spelt is glorious. I never bake with all-purpose white flour – I use spelt flour instead and it always turns out beautifully!
ooh, i made some banana chip muffins and threw millet in there, they provided this awesome little crunch i need to make them again 🙂
Really? I never thought of adding millet to muffins! Did you cook the millet first or just add it as is? How much did you use? I’d love to give it a try.
Hmmm… my only opinion on millet is that I’ve never tried it and am definitely curious. 🙂
I have recently rediscovered barley. I say rediscovered because my mom used to make a vegetable/barley soup that was out of this world when I was growing up. Recently, I had heard of barley as a substitute for rice, tried it, and loved it! Cook it in some veg broth, yum! I am from the south, so it goes great under etoufee, gumbo, etc. Perhaps some of your all-knowing readers can compare/contrast it to other whole grains, I really don’t know how it fits nutrition wise. We just get tired of brown rice as a side and this is a great alternative.
I’ve never heard of etoufee before – and I must admit that I’ve never really known exactly what “gumbo” is. Clearly I need to take a trip down south 😀
I don’t know too much about barley but I’m pretty sure that it’s a good source of nutrients. I like that idea of comparing and contrasting whole grains – whee research!
So sorry. Etoufee is basically smothered anything, such as chicken, shellfish, fish, etc. but most often crawfish. Make a roux, cook down the “trinity” (onions, peppers, celery) add liquid (tomato based usually) and whatever protein, cook, and eat over rice. Gumbo is similar, but with a darker roux, usually either seafood or chicken and sausage, add okra and eat over rice. Gumbo is typically thinner, more soup like, and you add file (ground sassafras leaves) at the end. Now, get cooking!
Yum! Those sound fantastic. Definitely gotta give those a try.
Millet rocks! Would love to try Tropical Traditions Millet, as most everything they come up with is super!
They really do have a great line of products.
gosh i forgot about millet! gotta pick me up some tomorrow i think (if i’m not snowed in!)
thanks for the reminder sagan.
I actually love millet flour. I have to cook gluten free for my son, and millet is such a nice light flour. Personally my favorite whole grain to eat is quinoa but I would love to try millet!
I’ve never tried millet. My favorite recipe using grains is sourdough pancakes with lots of butter and real maple syrup.
I’m rather partial to Sorghum and buckwheat myself. I sure would love to give Millet a try though!
~Robin
I have never tried millet before but would like to. We grew buckwheat for the first time this year but haven’t done anything with it yet.
Okay, so instead we’d say at our yoga retreat we see clients get a real benefit when combining muscle endurance with branched chain amino acids.