Sorghum (Jowar, Jonna) Recipes

Pop-Jowar Cereal

Popped Jowar
Milk / Almond Milk / Soy Milk
Sweetener if required (Powdered Jaggery, Honey, Sugar)
Soak popped jowar in milk of your choice for a few minutes to soften. Add sweetener. That’s it.  A delicious  option for breakfast.

Jowar, Ragi, Rice Dosa

Whole or Polished Urad Dal – 1 cup
Rice – 1.5 cups
Whole Jowar – 0.75 cup
Ragi Powder – 0.75 cup
Fenugreek seeds – 1 tsp

Note – Experiment with the above proportions for the type of dosa texture you like.

Soak all the above ingredients, except the ragi powder overnight. Grind. Add ragi powder and let the batter ferment. Add salt to taste and pour out dosas.  Serve with chutney.

Pop Jowar Snack

Jowar Pops – 4 cups
Groundnuts, fried or roasted – 2 tbsp
Curry leaves
Red chillies
Oil for seasoning
Salt to taste
Saute curry leaves and red chillies in oil. Mix the popped jowar, groundnuts and salt well. A delicious snack is ready.

Popped Jowar Laddu

Popped Jowar  6 cups
Almonds  1 cup
Jaggery  1.5 – 2 cups according to taste
Bring the jaggery to boil in just sufficient quantity of water to turn it into a thick syrup. Powder the almonds fine. Powder the popped jowar coarsely. Mix the powdered almonds and jowar with the jaggery syrup and shape into laddus.

Pearl Millet Recipies

Kambu Adai

Kambu (Pearl Millet) flour – 2 cups
Drumstick leaves
Chopped Onion – 1
Water to make dough
Salt to taste
Oil
Mix the flour, leaves, onion, salt and water to form a stiff dough. Pat out the adais directly onto the tava with your hand. These adais are much thicker than wheat rotis. Let the side on the tava cook well before you flip it. Cook well on the other side too. Serve with chutney.

Savory Millet Puttu

Any millet flour (saamai, thinai, cholam, ragi, kambu) – 1.5 cups

Grated Coconut – 1/2 – 3/4 cup

Warm water – just enough to mix the flour into a powdery consistency

Carrots/Capsicum/Beans/Onions/Any other vegetables – Quantity according to taste

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Red/Green Chillies – to taste

Salt – to taste

Warm water. Mix the water slowly with the millet flour (add a little bit of salt), kneading the flour gently. Add only so much water so that the flour can be held together into into a small ball, but with some pressure will crumple into a powdery form.

Use a puttu maker and put layers of the millet dough and coconut. Steam for 4-5 mins. Take out the cooked puttu and steam the next batch. Do this till the millet flour is over.

In a skillet heat oil, add mustard seeds, let them splutter, add curry leaves, onions, red/green chillies, according to taste. Add the other vegetables and saute till cooked. Add salt as desired. Turn off the stove. Add the puttu to this vegetable mixture and mix well, until everything is blended well. Add coriander leaves to garnish. You can also add lemon or peanut powder as garnish.

Enjoy!

Bajra Sprouts

Bajra grains
Soak the bajra grains overnight. Tie them in a cheese cloth for a day or as long as you want the sprouts to mature. You can eat them raw or leave them in boiling water for a minute or two and then eat.

Bajra Roti

2 cups of bajra floor
2 cups of water
1. Take 2 cups of water and bring it to boil. The moment the water starts to simmer pour the the 2 cups of Bajra in the boiling water.
2. Adjust the stove to “sim”  and do not mix the Bajra with the water. Just leave it like that.

Add Bajra flour to hot water

3. Now After 2 minutes turn off your gas and get then mix the floor thoroughly. (If you feel you need to add some more Bajra floor you can add it. But if you want to add more water then you need add hot water.)

Mixing the flour and water

4. Now allow the dough to cool down (10 minutes)
5. Then roll them into small balls
6. When rolling them out into circular shapes puff/dust them with try Bajra floor
7. Now place it on the hot pan.

Bajra roti getting made

8. Use a cloth to press it on all sides and then keep changing the sides of the chapati. (You can use your hand, but cloth is a better option)
9. Optionally you can also add/spread some oil on the chapti to get the Paratha effect.

Broken Bajra Rice

Bajra rice can be made from Bajra rava, ie, broken Bajra.
Broken Bajra – 1 cup
Water – 2 cups
Pressure cook the broken Bajra just like you cook paddy rice. It makes a very delicious rice.

Bajra porridge – Unfermented Kambu Koozh

Bajra rava / Broken Bajra- 1 cup
Water – 5 cups
Chopped Carrots and Beans
Ajwain – 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Bring the water to boil. Add salt, ajwain, vegetables and bajra rava. Cook on an open flame till you can see the bajra becoming soft and the water turning starchy. After the first time, you will know whether you like the porridge with more or less water. Serve hot with whole daal sundal.

Boiling water with Ajwain, salt and vegetables

Add Bajra Rava

Varagu Recipies

Varagu Coconut Rice

Varagu Rice – 1 cup
Water – 2 cups
1/2 grated coconut
Carrot – 1, chopped and steamed (optional)
Onion – 1, chopped
Seasoning – Curry leaves, Channa Dal, Mustard Seeds, Oil

Cook the varagu in water. Let it cool down completely, so it does not become mushy when you prepare the coconut rice. Add seasoning to oil. Then saute onions and add the steamed carrots. Add grated coconut and let it cook for a minute. Then add the rice and mix everything well. Viola!

Varagu Mango Rice

Varagu – 1 cup (or 1/2 cup varagu, 1/2 cup paddy rice)
Water – 2 cups
Raw mango, grated – 1 or per taste
Groundnuts – 2 tbsp
Seasoning – curry leaves, chillies. mustard seeds, urad dal, turmeric, asafoetida, oil
Salt to taste
Cool the varagu in water and let it cool before mixing the rest of the ingredients. Fry groundnuts in oil, keep aside. Prepare the seasoning. Add grated mango and saute for a minute. Add the rice and groundnuts. Tangy mango rice is ready.

Little Millet (Sama, Samai) Recipes

Little Millet (Sama, Samai) Recipes

The staunchest no-millet people find themselves warming to this grain. Its colour being closest to paddy rice could be one big reason, not to mention its simple flavor.

Sama and Whole Wheat Bread

Measures are based off a cupe measure of 8 oz. This recipe has been adapted from Peter Reinhart’s book. The Sama makes the bread moist.
Overnight starter:
Whole Wheat flour – 1 3/4 cup
Yeast (active dry) – 1/3 tsp. Use twice as much if you are using fresh yeast.
Water – 1 cup
Mix all and leave overnight. You don’t have to knead this mixture at all. The gluten strings will develop overnight.

Dough:
Overnight Starter – all
WW flour – 1 cup
Salt – 1 tsp
Honey – 1 1/2 tbsp
Cooked sama – 6 tbsp. Mash it up a bit.
Oil or butter – 2 tbsp (optional)
No more water is needed for the dough. You might need some to just wet your hands while kneading.
The overnight starter should have bubbled and fallen. Mix all ingredients well. Rest the dough for 5 mins, so it relaxes and helps you knead better. Knead for about 300 strokes or till you find the dough stretchy and silky. Rest for a min or two. Knead for another minute. Leave in a bowl for 1-1.5 hr for the first rise. You know this rise is done when you poke a wet finger gently into the dough. If it makes an impression that just stays and does not get filled up. its ready for shaping. If it fills up, then leave it for some more time.
Gently shape the dough and place in tin/basket and leave for 45min – 1 hr. In the mean time, heat your oven to 250C.
Slash the top of the dough just before you put it into the oven. Bake
at 250 for 10 minutes. Then reduce heat to 220 and bake till done.1

Let the bread cool before you slice it.


 

Saama Dosa

Saama rice – 2 cups or 3 cups. Follow your usual dosa ratio
Urad Dal – 1 cup
Methi Seeds – 1 tsp
Salt to taste
Soak the saama rice, urad dal and methi seeds for 8-10 hours. Grind to a fine paste and allow it to ferment overnight or however long it takes to ferment.
Add salt and pour out dosas on a hot pan. Serve with your favorite chutney and sambar.

Sama rice

1 cup korra (foxtail millet) or sama (little millet)
2 cups water
Cook the millet in water just as you would cook rice. Serve with vegetables, dal etc

Same Rotti

Sama Khichdi

2 cups sama (little millet)
1 cup sprouted mung dal
6 cups water
carrots, beans (can add peas also)
1″ ginger chopped small
4-6 cloves
2-3 1″ cinnamon sticks
turmeric
salt
Seasoning: jeera, 1 onion chopped, oil

Chop the carrots and beans. Pressure cook the veggies with sama, spouted mung, ginger pieces, cloves, cinnamon, turmeric, salt and water. Saute jeera and onion in oil. Add the seasoning to the khichdi. Its ready to eat!

Sama Sprouted Mung Khichdi

Foxtail Millet (Korra, Thinai) Recipes

Thinai/Korra Rice

1 cup Thinai (foxtail millet)
2 cups water
Cook the millet in water just as you would cook rice. Serve with vegetables, dal etc

Thinai/Korra Pesarattu

Whole Mung Dal – 1 cup
Thinai Rice – 1 cup or less
Salt to taste


Soak the dal and rice overnight. Grind them together, add salt and the batter is ready to make hot pesarattus.

Thinai/Korra Upittu

Thinai rice or rava – 1 cup
Water – 2 cups
Onion – 1, chopped
Chopped Vegetables – 1 cup or as you desire. Use carrots, peas, beans, corn, capsicum.
Seasoning – mustard seeds, oil, curry leaves, green chilles
Heat oil. Add mustard seeds and let them splutter. Then add onions, curry leaves and green chillies. Next add the vegetables in the order of how much time they take to cook. Add some salt, cover and let vegetables cook. Heat water separately. Add millet to the vegetable mix and let it mix well. Once it feels slightly roasted, add the boiling water. Simmer till the millet gets cooked. You can top it off with some ghee before serving.

 

Navane Rotti

Idiyappam

Any millet flour (saamai, thinai, cholam, ragi, kambu, varagu) – 1.5 cups

Warm water – just enough to mix the flour into a dough consistency. It must be a little bit looser than chappati so that we can press it through the idiyappam maker.

Carrots/Capsicum/Beans/Onions/Any other vegetables – Quantity according to taste

Mustard seeds – 1 tsp

Red/Green Chillies – to taste

Salt – to taste

Warm water. Mix the water slowly with the millet flour (add a little bit of salt), kneading the flour gently. Get to a soft consistency. It should not be as hard as a chappati dough at the same time not watery. If you make murruku then this dough should be the same consistency as murruku dough.

Use a idiyappam or murrku press to make idiyappam on an idli plate. Steam for 4-5 mins. Take out the cooked idiyappam and steam the next batch. Do this till the dough is over.

In a skillet heat oil, add mustard seeds, let them splutter, add curry leaves, onions, red/green chillies, according to taste. Add the other vegetables and saute till cooked. Add salt as desired. Turn off the stove. Add the idiyappam to this vegetable mixture and mix well, until everything is blended well. Add coriander leaves to garnish. You can also add lemon or peanut powder as garnish.

Alternatively you can also have this idiyappam with chutney or kootu, or fresh coconut milk.

Thinai/Korra Dosa

Urad dal – 1 cup
Thinai – 3 cups
Methi seeds – 1 tbsp
Salt
Soak the urad dal, korra and methi seeds over night or for 8 hours. Grind it to a soft paste, add salt and let it ferment for 8-10 hours. Once the batter has fermented, pour out the dosas.

Thinai/Korra Lime Rice

Foxtail Millet (Korra) – 1 measure
Water – 2 measures
Lemon juice
Curry Leaves
Green Chillies
Mustard, Jeera, Urad dal etc for seasoning
Peanuts
Oil
Salt to taste

Cook foxtail millet in water (open or in cooker) till the millet turns soft. Prepare the seasoning with mustard seeds, jeera, curry leaves, green chillies and anything else you use. Saute the peanuts till they turn brown. Add all this to the cooked millet. Add lemon juice and salt. Mix well and serve.

Thinai/Korra Idli

Thinai/Korra (Foxtail Millet) – 3 cups
Whole Urad Dal – 1 cup
Methi (Fenugreek) seeds – 1 tbsp
Salt to taste

Soak the millet and dal separately for 8-10 hours / overnight. Soad the methi seeds with the dal. Grind them separately – the dal to a fine batter and the millet batter should be slightly coarse. Add salt and let the batter ferment for 8-10 hours.
Grease idli plates, pour out the batter and let it steam for 10 minutes.

Finger Millet (Ragi) Recipes

The rich, dark hue of Ragi on the plate is divine. A good source of dietary calcium, fibre, this grain is very cooling on a hot day.
In most of the recipes calling for ragi flour, you could also use the sprouted and roasted ragi flour, Ragi Huri Hittu as it is called in Kannada.

Mixed Grain Khichdi

You can prepare this mixture and keep it ready to make khichdi.
Sama – 1 cup
Thinai – 1 cup
Broken Ragi / Ragi Rava – 1 cup
Broken Jowar / Jowar Rava- 1 cup
Broken Bajra / Pearl Millet Rava – 1 cup
Varagu – 1 cup
Broken wheat – 1 cup
Rice – 1 cup
Split green mung – 3 cups
Ajwain – 3 tsps or per taste
Sesame Seeds / Til – 4 tsps or as desired
Salt to taste

It is as delicious as it is attractive!
Khichdi:
Multi Grain mix – 1 cup
Water – 3 cups
salt to taste
chopped onions (optional)
Cook the multi grain mix in water. If using onions, saute them and then add the cooked mixture and serve with chutney or buttermilk.

 

Ragi Dosa (with Urad Dal)

Urad dal, whole or otherwise – 1 cup
Methi Seeds – 1 tsp
Ragi flour – 2 cups
Salt to taste
Soak the urad dal and methi seeds in water for 8 hrs. Grind, add salt and let ferment overnight or till the batter starts to ferment. Add 2 cups of ragi flour and water for the required consistency. Your dosa batter is ready.

Ragi Buttermilk drink

Ragi flour- 1 tbsp
Water – 1 cup
Buttermilk – 1/2 cup or as desired
Salt to taste
Bring the water to a boil. Mix the ragi flour in some cool water and add this to the boiling water. Stir well to ensure there are no lumps. Simmer till the mixture thickens. Let it cool down completely. Add salt and buttermilk. Mix thoroughly and enjoy a refreshing drink, especially on a hot day.

Orange Cake – Ragi and Whole Wheat

This is an intensely orange, refreshing cake. And vegan too.
Whole wheat flour – 1 cup
Ragi flour – 1/2 cup
Jaggery powder or sugar – 3/4 cup
Baking soda – 1 tsp
Baking powder – 1/2 tsp
Fresh squeezed orange juice (with pulp, no problem) – 1 cup
Refined oil – 1/3 cup
2 tbsp grated orange peel/zest. Make sure to remove the bitter pith before chopping the orange peel into fine slices.

1. Grease a cake pan. Heat oven to 180C.
2. Stir together the flours, jaggery/sugar, baking soda and baking powder until well mixed
3. Add the oil and orange zest.
4. Then pour in the orange juice.
5. Stir just enough to combine the ingredients without beating – don’t
overstir – and immediately pour into the prepared baking pan.
6. Bake for 40-45 minutes or till the cake tests done.
You can experiment using jowar and bajra flour as well.

 

Ragi Aloo Paratha

Ragi flour – 2 cups
Rice flour – 2 tbsp
Potatoes, boiled and mashed – 3 medium
Green chillies – chopped fine, per taste
Coriander leaves – chopped fine
Salt and red chili powder per taste
Mix the ragi flour, rice flour & boiled and mashed potatoes. Add salt and chopped green chili, red chili powder and chopped coriander leaves. Knead the flour and you have the paratha dough ready.

Ragi Roti

Ragi flour 3 cups
Water  1.5 cups
This is a recipe from Northern Karnataka. Water is used while making the rotis. The rotis puff up and the end product is soft rotis.
Bring 1 cup of water to boil. In parallel, mix 1 cup of ragi flour in about 1/2 cup or less water till it blends in and looks like a slightly flowing mix.

Pour the mix into the boiling water, stirring continuously. Allow the ragi to cook.

Then pour about a cup of ragi flour on top of the cooked mix and allow it to steam up till the entire mix cools down.

When the cooked ragi has cooled down completely, proceed to knead the dough. You are looking to make a dough of a consistency like whole wheat dough. Use ragi flour as needed to get the right consistency. You will be rolling out this dough with a rolling pin.


Next make balls of dough and roll out the rotis. The flour will be easier to roll out since a part of it has been cooked and it has a rollable texture. However, you will need to use dry ragi flour liberally to ensure the rotis don’t break while you roll them.


Place the roti on the pan and as you sense that the side on the pan is slightly cooked, apply water on the other side using a piece of cloth. This helps in not allowing the roti to dry up. It also helps assimilate all the extra flour used while rolling out the roti.

Then flip the roti and water the other side as well. Cook on both sides till the water is gone. Then start pressing gently with a spatula and your roti will start to puff up.


The roti is ready. And it is soft. Serve with a vegetable in gravy or a dal.

Ragi Puttu

Ragi flour, sprouted and roasted flour tastes even better – 1 cup
Jaggery – 0.5-1 cup, depending on your taste
Grated Coconut – 1 cup or according to taste
Cardamom, camphor, clove, saffron powder – 1 pinch (optional)
Water – 1/2 cup
Steamer or Puttu maker.
Add small amounts of water to the ragi flour to make the flour slightly moist. Do not make it too wet. You should be able to run your fingers through the mixture comfortably. Then place the ragi mixture, grated coconut and add the cardamom spice mix in a cheese/khadi cloth. Put the cloth in a steamer and allow the mixture to steam for 5-10 minutes. Check to see if the mixture looks wet and done. Remove from the flame, add jaggery and enjoy!

Ragi dosa – Instant

Ragi flour – 2 cups
Buttermilk – 1/2 – 1 cup
Jeera – 1 tb sp
Chopped green chillies
Water
Salt to taste
Mix the above ingredients till you have a rava dosa kind of pouring consistency. Leave aside for 1/2 hour to an hour. The key is to pour out dosas on a very hot pan. A couple of attempts and you get the hang of it.

Ragi dosa for lazy ‘uns

ID Special Dosa Mix or whatever ready-made mix you use – 1kg
Ragi flour – 1 cup (experiment with this quantity based on your taste and preference of texture).
Water as required.
Add the ragi flour to the ID dosa mix. Let the mixture ferment overnight. Add salt, pour our dosas.

Ragi Mudde / Kali / Ball

Ragi flour – 1 cup
Water – 2 cups
Wooden buttermilk churner for mixing
Put 1 cup of water to boil. While the water is getting heated, mix 1 cup of ragi flour in 1 cup of water so that there are no lumps. When the water is boiling, add the ragi -water mix to it and stir well on low flame with the wooden churner. Keep stirring till the mixture thickens and there is an aroma of cooked flour. While the mixture is still hot, shape it into balls. In Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, ragi mudde / ragi kali is served with a sambar made with different greens. 

Ragi roti for lazy ‘uns

For folks who don’t want to work on a non-glutinous dough (the dough is not elastic), mix ragi flour and whole wheat flour to make rotis.
Rotis made using proportions of 1/2 ragi, 1/2 whole wheat or 1/3 ragi, 2/3 whole wheat come out quite well.
Mix the flours with warm water and leave aside for 1/2 hour or so. Roll out rotis. Done.

Ragi Laddu

Ragi flour, sprouted and roasted (Ragi Huri Hittu)- 1/2 kg
Jaggery powder – 1/2 kg
Water to make thick jaggery syrup
Cashews (optional)
Cardamon seasoning (optional)
Ghee – 1 tsp (optional)
Grated coconut (optional)
Take 1/2 cup water and dissolve the jaggery powder in it. Make sure you use less water else the syrup will be too runny and it will be hard to make laddus. Boil the water-jaggery mixture till you get a thick syrup. Let it cool and add the ragi flour 1/2 cup at a time incorporating it into the syrup. Add more flour if required to get the right consistency. You can at this time also add cashews, ghee, coconut and cardamom seasoning per your taste. Shape into laddu balls.
These will keep for at least a week if you do not add fresh grated coconut.
Th reason for using Sprouted and roasted ragi is that it is ready to eat and does not have to be sauted again. If using ragi flour, try dry roasting the flour till you get a nice aroma.

Ragi Chocolate Brownies (Gluten-free, Vegan, Oil-free)

Ragi Huri Hittu flour (sprouted and roasted ragi flour) – 3/4 cup
Almond meal / pulp left over from extracting almond milk – 2 tablespoons (optional)
Unsweetened Cocoa Powder – 1/3 cup
Baking Soda – 1 teaspoon
Salt – 1/4 teaspoon
Jaggery Powder – 1/2 to 3/4 cup according to  your taste
Applesauce – from 1 apple (optional)
Vanilla – 1 teaspoon
Cashew butter made from 20-25 cashews (pulse cashews in mixie till you get a thick paste)
Coconut milk to mix the dough – extracted using 1/4 coconut
Flaxseed egg – use 2 teaspoons of flax seeds. Powder it in a mixie and then pulse with 2-3 spoons of water. Set aside for 5 minutes
Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly. Add the remaining ingredients. Mix well. Pour into a baking tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 150 – 175 C.