International Year of Millets - Millet Revival Project

4 min

Stories

Reimagining the Future of Food, Comic-style

Quicksand and University of Dundee

Future of Food, a comic produced in English and Kannada, is set in 2035. An exercise in imagination, it asks what hopeful, localised futures look like for communities—especially rural and indigenous farmers in India—who are often excluded from these imaginations because of the nature of innovation and technology.

7 min

‘Even now, when I close my eyes, I feel like I can see the soul of jowar’

Mukta Patil

Farmer and filmmaker Laxminarayan Devda talks to Mukta Patil about his memories of eating jowar with his grandmother, the place language and comfort have in good filmmaking, and how popped jowar corn brings people together.

0 min

Breakfast

Jowar Poha

Tejaswi Rathod

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.

0 min

Kodo Millet and Mango Pancakes

Sharada Sriram

Mangoes, coconut milk, and kodo millet flour come together to create a perfectly flavoured summer breakfast in these fluffy pancakes.

0 min

Breakfast

Foxtail Ganji Annam with Fish Pickle

Sayani Sengupta

Ganji Annam is a rice porridge from Andhra Pradesh that is traditionally made by fermenting cooked rice overnight, with additions like yoghurt, carom seeds, and slit green chillies. Here, the rice is substituted with foxtail millet to make a filling breakfast that is as easy on the stomach and it is comforting.

0 min

Main Course

Kutki Rice and Hare Chane ka Saag

Fakir Chand Uikey

Kutki, if cooked carefully with enough water, turns out fluffy like rice. Its taste is nutty, with a deep, earthy flavour. During the short season when green chickpea shoots are still young, the rice is paired with a saag prepared from its tender shoots.

0 min

Foxtail Gola Moglai

Sayani Sengupta

A filling Bengali breakfast, these fluffy, savoury, pancake-esque snacks replace wheat flour with foxtail flour, making for a lighter, and more nourishing dish

0 min

Main Course

Foxtail Bamboo Chicken Biryani

Sayani Sengupta

In this rustic biryani recipe that can be made at home, a hollow bamboo is used for creating a uniquely flavoured dish; reminiscent of the charcoal ovens and sand pits traditionally used to cook the rice. Here, the rice is replaced with foxtail millet to create a delicious, gluten free version of this smoky delicacy.

0 min

Desserts and Mithai

Proso Phirni

Ankita Jain and Shreya Jain

A festive sweet made with milk and jaggery, this aromatic phirni replaces ground rice with proso millet, but retains the flavour and richness of this classic dessert.

14 min

Stories

What Can Charred Plant Remains Tell Us About the History of Millet Cultivation?

Mukta Patil

How do botany and archaeology come together to reveal mysteries of our past agrarian life? What role do millets play in this? Mukta Patil speaks to archaeobotanist Dr. Dorian Fuller to find out why he loves to sift through the daily rubbish of old settlement sites, and what we can unearth from the past to build the future.

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