INTRODUCTION

Idlis and dosas for breakfast. Rice for lunch. Chappatis for dinner.

In spite of there being hundreds of different edible grains in India, we mostly eat just a few varieties of
white rice and wheat! And rarely, we include grains like ragi in our kanji (health) mixes. We reStorers
are exploring ways of including a whole range of forgotten grains like millets in our diets. We are
happy to share these with you..

Millets are a group of small-seeded species of grains, also referred to as coarse grains. They
are called as such because thousands of grains can be harvested from each grain sown! They grow fast,
with little rains and in poor soil conditions. Yes, just the way our farmers love it!

Millets used to be grown extensively all over the country, especially in the dryland / low-
rainfall areas until about a few decades ago. Some of the popular traditional millet foods are bajra roti,
ragi muddhe (ball), ragi koozh (porridge), kambu(n) koozh. A mixture of wild honey and thinai is
supposed to have been the favourite food of the hill tribes in Tamil Nadu. It is an especially ideal food
for people who do hard physical labour; i.e.the farmers themselves.

Over a period of time, unfortunately, these wonder grains came to be identified as ‘poor man's
food’. Rice, especially polished white rice, and wheat came to be identified as a status symbol. Around
the same time, the government started promoting rice and wheat to the exclusion of these grains
through the public distribution system (PDS). All this intensified with the onset of the Green
Revolution, which promoted just a few hybrid varieties of rice and wheat to the detriment of our rich,
traditional crops and food system!

But the good news is that there is a fresh and growing interest in including millets in our diets.
Here’s why!

Millets...

• are more filling and nutritious than rice and wheat.

• are much richer in fibre, proteins, vitamins and minerals.
• are alkaline, and are hence good for treating ulcers.
• contain complex carbohydrates, which break down slowly and hence release less sugar at a
slow rate. This makes millets an excellent food for diabetics. Since millets are versatile grains,
they can also easily be substituted for rice and wheat in many recipes.

Among many different millet grains, the following are the seven most important ones.

MILLET GRAINS

Ragi / Kelvaragu / Finger Millet

Hindi – Mandua, Maruya, Nagli, Koda; Telugu – Ragulu; Malayalam – Koovaragu

Ragi is the most popular millet in India and ranges from orange to dark brown in colour. It is called
finger millet since its earheads are made of a whorl of finger-like spikes. Karnataka accounts for 40%
of the total area under ragi in India, and 50% of the country's production. This millet is very rich in
calcium, and has traditionally been used as weaning food in South India. Ragi can be stored for many
years without any damage from pests, and is hence an excellent famine insurance food!

Thinai / Foxtail Millet

Telugu – Korralu; Kannada - Navane

This translucent yellow grain is rich in carotene and has heating properties. It is a traditional food of
hill tribes in South India. It is best had in combination with honey, and this particular combination has
long been a traditional offering for Muruga.

Varagu / Kodo Millet

Hindi – Kodra, Kodaka; Kannada – Harka; Telugu – Arikelu, Allu

The grains are brown, broadly oval and smooth, and have a nutty flavour. Varagu is very close to rice
in taste, and hence can be had instead of rice along with sambar, rasam and curries.

Kambu / Pearl Millet

Hindi – Bajra, Bajri, Lahra; Telugu – Gantilu

These yellow, grey or light blue grains are consumed after dehusking. Kambu or bajra rotis are very
popular in rural areas in North India. These are especially had in winter, since kambu has heating
properties. Kambu plants serve as very good fodder. The straw and stalk are used for bedding,
thatching, fencing and fuel.

Cholam / Sorghum / Great Millet / Proso Millet

Hindi – Jowar, Jowari, Jundri; Telugu – Jonna, Jonnalu; Kannada – Jola; Malayalam – Cholam

Cholam' is usually misunderstood as the more recently introduced maize, the yellow corn. The millet
called 'cholam' however, has grains that are white in colour, and the size of pepper.

Samai / Little millet

These look very similar to foxtail millet but are white in colour.

Kudiraivaali / Barnyard Millet

Hindi: Jhangora; Telugu: Odalu

There are many more traditional varieties of each of these millets that are still grown across
India. For instance, there are about 15-20 varieties of ragi in South India, ranging from light red to
black colour, each with its own set of properties. While landraces like Kari mudugga ragi (compact
black) and Dundakaya koda (closed fist) have compact earhead, Kaddi ragi (woody culms) and
Pankhadia koda (spread out like wings) have earheads that are spread outwards. These characteristics
give each of the varieties a distinct advantage: for instance, the outspread earheads can withstand
heavy rainfall during the formation of the grain , although this does have the disadvantage of lower
yields; the compact earhead types cannot withstand heavy rainfall but are of shorter duration and so on.
Hybrid varieties of millets developed a few decades ago have been found to be less nutritious and less
tasty.

RECIPES

The great thing about millets is that we don't need to significantly change our diet to use them. They
can simply replace rice and wheat in almost all of our recipes! Those undertaking Ayurveda / Siddha
treatment for skin diseases like eczema and psoriasis, should consult their doctor before consuming
millets.

Samai, varagu and thinai can be used in the same way we use rice. Mixed rices like tomato rice,
coconut rice, methi rice, puliyodarai, curd rice, lemon rice are all delicious with samai and varagu.
Thinai and samai can be made into payasam and kichidi. Ragi, cholam and kambu can be made into
dosas and adais. Cholam and kambu can be made into rotis.

Thinai or Samai ‘Rice’

Clean 1 cup of samai / thinai grains in water to remove residual sand particles. Bring 2.5 cups of water
to boil. Add the cleaned grains to the water and let it boil for another 3 minutes. Turn off the stove and
keep the container covered for 10 minutes. Samai and Thinai rices cooked in the above manner can be
used in all food preparations which use paddy (ordinary) rice.

Idli

Ingredients: 3 cups kambu (or) ragi (or) cholam, ½ cup Bengal Gram (Ulunthu-Urad Dhal), 2
teaspoons fenugreek seed (methi seed-venthayam), Salt to taste.

Method: Soak pearl millet, bengal gram and fenugreek seed together for at least 12-15 hours. Grind in
a mixer or a grinder to a consistency little coarser than normal idly batter. Add salt to taste. Keep in the
fridge for at least 8 hours. Cook idlis as you do normally but for 5 extra minutes. It tastes great if you
make idly upma with these idlis by adding spices and chopped onions.

Dosa

Ingredients: 3 cups ragi (or) kambu (or) cholam, 1/4 cup urad dal), 1 tsp methi seed, salt to taste

Method: Soak finger millet, bengal gram and fenugreek seeds together for at least 12-15 hours. Grind
in a mixer or a grinder to a consistency that is a little coarser than normal dosa batter. Add salt to taste.
Make dosas on the pan.

Thinai Adai
Ingredients: 1 cup thinai, ½ cup tu dal, ½ cup channa dal, 2 tsp urad dal, ½ tsp asafetida, ½ cup grated
cabbage, ½ cup grated coconut, 3 dry chilies, salt to taste.

Method: Mix the different grains together, and soak for 2 hours. Grind the mixture along with
asafetida, coconut, chillies and salt. Mix in the grated cabbage and prepare adai on the pan. This is
made similar to dosa but the batter is typically of a thicker consistency and so may not spread so thin.
You may use gingelly oil (cold pressed is best!) for cooking this just as you would for dosa.

Ragi Keerai Adai

Ingredients: 1 cup (approx.150 g) ragi flour (dry roasted and ground into fine flour), a few drumstick
leaves removed from stalk, 2 onions, 1 green chilly, a piece of ginger, mustard seeds, oil, ghee, salt.
Curds or buttermilk can be substituted for water for making the dough. If keerai (greens) is not
available coriander and curry leaves can be substituted.

Method: Masala mix for adai: Pick, wash and dry keerai and chop fine. Also chop onions, ginger,
green chilly fine. Use a little oil and pop the mustard seeds, and then sauté the onion mixture till it
turns brownish. Then add the chopped keerai and sauté till it appears slightly cooked. Add salt to taste.
(The keerai tends to be slightly salty so add less salt than normal.) Take off from heat and cool.

Making the dough: Add the masala mix to the ragi flour and stir in evenly. Add a little salt if preferred.
Make a stiff dough with this mixture adding very little water at a time. It should not become very
sticky.

Preparing the adai: Use a thick-bottomed tava or non-stick pan. Take small portions of the flour and
roll into balls as for making chappatis. Place on a plantain leaf on which some oil has been spread. Pat
with the palm or fingers of the hand and spread the dough into rounds as thin as chapattis. Transfer
carefully onto a hot tava after spreading a little oil or ghee on it. Maintain a medium/low flame and
cook slowly. Turn over to cook evenly on both sides using ghee or oil as required. Serve hot.

Ragi Koozh / Porridge

Koozhu is very cooling for the body and is apt for the hot summer. It's filling and healthful too!

Ingredients: Ragi flour – 1 cup, boiled rice – 2 tbsp, buttermilk – ½ cup, salt to taste, raw chopped
onions, sun-dried and roasted chilli (“more molagaa”)

Method: Mix ragi flour with water (1:2) and leave it overnight to let it ferment. Cook the ragi on
medium-low heat, continuously stirring to avoid lumps. To confirm that it is cooked, wet your hands
and slightly, touch your finger to the boiling solution. If the ragi + rice sticks to your finger it is not yet
cooked. Continue to cook a while longer. When the mixture doesn't stick, this indicates that it is
cooked. Now, add a tablespoon of cooked rice and switch off. When it cools, mix well with the
buttermilk and salt. Traditionally, this drink is had with raw chopped onions and “more molagaa”.

Cholam – Kambu Roti

Ingredients: 2 cups cholam flour, 2 cups kambu, 1 teaspoon oil, salt.

Method: Boil water and add salt and oil to it. Now slowly pour in the flour mixture and stir
continuously until it forms a solid mass. Now, remove from flame, close the lid for 10-15 minutes and
let it cook in the steam. After about 10 - 15 minutes, the dough is kneaded and divided into lemon-
sized balls. These are rolled out like normal rotis and cooked on the tava.

Ragi Milk and Manne

Ingredients: Ragi – 2 cups, grated coconut - 1, cardamom, jaggery

Method: Soak cleaned ragi for an hour. Grind the ragi along with grated coconut. Pass through a fine
sieve or muslin cloth to separate the milk. Add more water, grind and repeat the process until you have
extracted all the milk. Add jaggery and cardamom to taste. This is a very good summer drink. If you
keep stirring this on the stove, it will be fully cooked. Now, pour the thick liquid into a shallow plate
and let it cool. This forms a thick jelly-like pudding called manne. This is cut into cakes and eaten as a
dessert.

Thinai Upma Kozhukkattai

Ingredients: thinai – 1 cup, grated coconut – 1 cup, green chillies (chopped fine) – 3, curry leaves,
water – 3 cups, salt / For seasoning: mustard seeds – 1 tsp, jeera – 1 tsp, black pepper – 1 tsp, channa
dal – 1 tsp, urad dal 1 tsp, hing – a pinch, oil – 2 tbsp

Method: Wash and soak the thinai for 3 hours. Coarsely pound the jeera and black pepper. Heat oil and
add mustard seeds. When they splutter add the other ingredients for the seasoning. When the dals are
browned, add the green chillies and curry leaves and saute them for a minute. Add the water and let it
boil. Now add the salt and the coconut. After a minute, add the thinai, slowly stirring it in. Cook on a
low flame and keep stirring till the water is absorbed. Leave closed for a few minutes. Switch off the
gas and allow to cool. When cool enough to handle, make lime-sized balls and steam them till done.
Serve hot with spicy chutney, gothsu or sambhar

Visit www.millets.wordpress.com for more detailed information about millets and their recipes.

RESTORING NATURE & LIVELIHOODS

Millets restore not only our health, but also degraded lands and the livelihoods of marginalised
farmers! Here’s how.

They grow requiring very little water. There are many different ways to use water wisely in these
times of water scarcity. One of them is to grow millets and dryland paddy! They don't need irrigation,
and many times can grow using just a few showers of rain.

They do not need fertilizers or pesticides. These crops grow in relatively poorer soils and are highly
resistant to diseases and pests. Hence, they are usually grown using no chemical pesticides or
fertilizers. They are largely organic by default.
They use less energy. No irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides means no electricity is needed for
pumping water or for manufacturing these chemicals.

More biodiversity and crop-rotation leads to healthy soils. Growing different crops in the same soil
(crop-rotation) and different crops side by side (mixed-cropping) helps keep the soil healthy thereby
drawing and restoring different nutrients. Mixing crops also reduces the instance of pest attack.

Millet cultivation encourages the cultivation of pulses. Much of millet cultivation is bio-diversity
based and hence offers a large base for the cultivation of pulses as an intercrop in the millet fields.
Therefore this can really help plug the current fall in pulse production and consumption, which is a
disturbing food trend in the country.

They can help set our farmers free! Many hybrid varieties of grains like paddy cannot yield seeds to
be sown a second time. This means that the farmer has to buy the seeds year after year, paying the
large corporations which have patented them. But, our traditional millet seeds belong to the farmers
and can be used for generations without any cost.

Millets have a shorter growing season. They can develop from planted seeds to mature, ready to
harvest plants in as little as 65 days. This is important in heavily populated areas.

Millets have a long storage life. When properly stored, whole millets will keep for two or more
years.

Cultivated in over 100 million hectares of the country, millet growing can potentially produce more
than 100 million tones of food, or almost 50% of the country's food production. Therefore they have
the ability to ensure not only the food security of the country but also multiple securities such as fodder
security, health and nutritional security, livelihood security and ecological security.

For these reasons, there is a growing movement in India to revive the cultivation of millets among
the farming community, as well as its consumption in both rural and urban markets. There are several
organisations and networks committed to this cause.

Millet network of India (MINI) is a network of several organisations and individuals.

www.milletindia.org. Some of the important ones are:

Deccan Development Society www.ddsindia.com

Timbaktu Collective www.timbaktu.org

Tribal Health Initiative www.tribalhealth.org

Green Foundation www.greenconserve.org

Sahaja Samrudha www.sahajasamrudha.org

Keystone Foundation www.keystone-foundation.net

reStore is a not-for-profit venture that aims to

• help connect individuals and communities with the source of their food,
• promote holistic and sustainable ways of living,
• promote a sense of volunteerism, cooperation and participation and
• promote practices and processes that are fair and transparent to all stakeholders.

reStore's approach to realize its vision is primarily by building a community of people who care,
who are interested in collectively finding ways out of the complex crisis we are in.

reStore runs a daily shop where organic provisions, natural household cleaners, personal care products
and organic garden inputs are sold. Besides this, bazaars are run twice a week, where fresh vegetables
and fruits are sold in addition. reStore organizes farm visits for city folk, as well as film screenings,
workshops and discussions on social and environmental issues that concern us.

Shop Address

27/10, 2nd Main Road, Kasturba Nagar, Adyar, Chennai 600020 (turning opposite the Niligiris shop
on the main road)

Shop Hours

Monday – Saturday: 4 – 8 pm

(Fresh vegetables and fruits on Tuesdays and Saturdays)

Contact

98844-09566 / 94441-66779

www.restore.org.in restorechennai@gmail.com

Regd. Office Address:

5, 1st Cross Street, Karpagam Gardens, Adyar, Chennai 600020