about millets

ABOUT MILLETS

Millets are a group of highly variable small seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for both human food and fodder. They do not form a taxonomic group, but rather a functional or agronomic one. Millets are important crops in the semi-arid tropics of Asia and Africa (especially in India, Nigeria and Niger), with 97 percent of millet production in developing countries. The crop is favored due to its productivity and short growing season under dry, high temperature conditions.

The most widely grown millet is pearl millet, which is an important sized crop in India and parts of Africa. Finger millet, proso millet, and foxtail millet are also important crop species. In the developed world, millets are less important. For example, in the United States the only significant crop is proso millet, which is mostly grown for bird seed.

While millets are indigenous to many parts of the world, millets most likely had an evolutionary origin in tropical western Africa, as that is where the greatest number of both wild and cultivated forms exist. Millets have been important food staples in human history. Particularly in Asia and Africa, and they have been in cultivation in East Asia for the last 10,000 years.

Organic proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) is also known as common millet, hog millet or white millet. Naturally gluten free, both the wild ancestor and the location of domestication of proso millet are unknown, but it first appears as a crop in both Transcaucasia and China about 7,000 years ago, suggesting that it may have been domesticated independently in each area. It is still extensively cultivated in India, Russia, Ukraine, the Middle East, Turkey and Romania. In the United States, proso is mainly grown for birdseed. It is sold as health food and due to its lack of gluten it can be included in the diets of people who cannot tolerate wheat.

Millet is a gluten free grain and is the only grain that retains its alkaline properties after being cooked, which is ideal for people with wheat allergies.  With a texture much like brown rice, millet can be used in pilafs, casseroles or most oriental dishes that call for rice, quinoa or buckwheat.  It can be ground into flour and used in flat breads or mixed up to 25% with wheat flour for use in yeast breads.  After it has been soaked for a couple of hours, millet in its whole grain form cooks like rice in about 20 minutes.  Millet cooks well into vegetable loaves and adds body to soups and stews.  Millet added dry to your biscuit, brad and roll doughs adds a crunchy texture and brings variety to your baked goods.

The millet seed is a small round, ivory colored seed, very small in diameter.  Millet is thought to be one of the first grains cultivated by man.  The first recorded comments regarding millet date back to 5,500 BC in China.  Millet could have been domesticated hundred or even thousands of years before this in Africa where is still grows wild throughout the continent.  Found in ancient pottery and ancient writings alike throughout China, millet was an extremely important grain.   Much of millets success has been its ability to produce well in hot, arid, drought prone areas where nothing else grows well.  Millet can also be harvested only 45-65 days after planting.  Through the centuries Millet spread its way through Europe and was most often eaten boiled whole as porridge but was sometimes made into a flat bread which the Egyptians first developed.

recipe in millets

How to make Millet Veggie Burger 

1/2 cup dry millet (soak in water overnight, and rinse well)
1 1/2 cups water
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cups arugula (or dark green of choice)
2 stalks celery, minced
2 carrots, minced
2 tsp. sea salt
1 T. cumin
1/2 tsp. chili powder
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 1/2 cups millet flour (or gluten-free flour of choice)

Add the 1 1/2 cups of water to a saucepan, and bring it to a boil. Add the (soaked and drained) millet, reduce heat to a simmer, and cover  for 15-20 minutes until tender.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 400F and chop your veggies! I chopped the onions by hand, but got tired of chopping by the time I got to the celery. So I threw the roughly chopped carrots, celery and arugula into my food processor, instead Sure, it’s one more bowl to clean– but the resulting mixture was so uniform!! Perfect texture for veggie burgers.