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!
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.
Poha is a breakfast dish eaten across large parts of central and western India. Traditionally made with flattened rice flakes, poha is usually cooked with onions, green chillies, and peanuts. Regional variations ensure that it tastes just a little different if you have it in say, Indore, Pune, or Ahmedabad. This version, which replaces the rice with jowar flakes, is just as satisfying.
Traditionally, a pantheras (a savoury crepe), is made with a mix of refined flour and eggs, and filled with minced meat. A deep-fried, tea-time snack popularised in colonial era Bengal, Swati has reimagined it for our times as a healthier, just as delicious appetiser using barnyard millet.
Raab is a famed Marwadi drink, made with millets like jowar or bajra. The millet flour, mixed with yoghurt, is cooked to a kadhi-like consistency for a refreshingly cool drink in the summer, or a warming soup in the cold Rajasthani winters.
Pithas are a festive delicacy in Odisha—a kind of pancake usually made with rice, and stuffed with fillings like jaggery, lentils, and grated coconut, just to name a few. It is a versatile food, lending itself to different styles of preparation (steamed, fried, pan roasted), different shapes and sizes, and different fillings. Here, the pitha is made using foxtail millet flour, stuffed with mutton, and slow-cooked in banana leaves to create a hearty lunch.