How often do millets feature in your meals? At the Millet Revival Project, we savour recipes that celebrate the versatility and heritage of different regions, communities, and millet varieties across the Indian subcontinent. Oh, and recipes that are paired with delicious stories — those are our favourite kinds!
The term “Bisi Bele Bath” translates to hot lentil rice dish. “Bisi” is a Kannada word meaning “hot” (temperature), “Bele” translates to lentils and “Bath” denotes a gooey dish cooked by immersing the ingredients in water. This is a very famous breakfast dish in Karnataka.
Traditionally made with ragi, mudde is a soft, steamed dough shaped into balls. Owing to its sticky consistency, it is swallowed without chewing, and calls for a soupy accompaniment. Here, it is served with a nandu (crab) rasam.
A deep-fried snack made during festivities in Tamil households, thattai is usually made using roasted rice flour. Here, Sharada uses kodo millet flour for a unique texture and aroma.
The Minapa or Dibba Rotti is an Andhra delicacy. A thick, savoury pancake with a crisp crust, it can be had for breakfast or as an accompaniment to a main dish. In this recipe, the traditional homemade rice rava (made from coarsely ground rice) is replaced with little millet rava.
This Tibetan comfort food—steamed, fried, or somewhere in between—can be stuffed with meat or vegetables, and is usually served with a fiery tomato chutney. Here, the conventional maida is swapped for ragi and rice flour to make the dough.
Appams, a traditional dish consumed in Kerala, are the perfect, fluffy accompaniment to any meal. Both light and nutritious, they are usually made with ground and fermented rice. Substituting the rice with fermented kodo in this recipe improves the absorption of nutrients present in the millet.
Muthiyas are a classic Gujarati dish made by steaming and frying dough into fist-shaped dumplings, from which they derive their name. They are usually eaten for breakfast, or as a snack. Here, they are made with jowar flour.
The dhokla is a Gujarati staple, usually made by steaming a fermented batter of gram flour, semolina, and spices. In the past, however, dhoklas were often made with a variety of lentils, grains—including millets—and even vegetables like spinach and green peas. While Shreya follows her mother’s instructions here, she adds her own twist by using proso millet in this hand-me-down family recipe.