Millet: The Grain You Didn't Know You Needed

"In traditional Chinese medicine, doctors often offer their patients something healing that is delicious to eat." - Thich Nhat Hanh

Millet Congee - Dall·e AI

It's easy to get stuck in ruts, especially with cooking. Short on time, need to cook something quick, jump to one of a handful of surefire, delicious recipes that reside in your back pocket. At what cost though? What else in the world might you be missing?

If you walk around the ruins of old roman cities you'll notices ruts in the roads. The literal paths of where the wagons once went, what the roads most traveled were, where the wheels rolled over the stone time and time again, wearing them down into ruts as time inevitably progressed. Those ruts are easy to take, that's the easy path. Much easier than breaking trail, going up a mountain in knee deep snow in white out conditions. The world holds many mysteries waiting to be discovered.

In a quest to get out of my own cooking ruts I've come across millet, which is quite simply the grain I never knew I needed. You may know it as something that people feed to birds. My how good those birds eat! What you may not know is that it has an enjoyable, slightly sweet, nutty flavor. It's gluten free and has a Glycemic Index (GI) of about 55 (it does vary depending on the type of millet you have, it seems to have a range of about 40 to 65). Meaning that it stays in your system for a little while and doesn't get broken down immediately, meaning it doesn't spike your blood sugar right away which can be very beneficial even if you don't necessarily need to keep your blood sugar low. The longer a grain like this stays in your system then it can help feed your gut microbiome and fuel beneficial bacteria. Millet is also loaded with fiber and all sorts of other beneficial nutrients, vitamins and minerals.

From a Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) standpoint, it's a cooling food so it'll help cool your body down if your body tends to run hot.

My favorite way of enjoying this has been congee style, which if you're not familiar is basically a type of porridge, the recipe for which is below (for the instant pot). If you have edible argan oil, that goes famously well with millet, since millet has a slight nutty flavor to it. Drizzle a small amount of the edible argan oil and add more olive oil (if you wish), add some seaweed, basil, Italian seasoning, top with two fried eggs and enjoy with either soy sauce or chili crisp (or both).

What You Need:

-1 Cup Millet

-2.5 Cups Water (this will result in minimal water content at the end, add more water if you want it to be more soup like)

-2 Eggs

-Roasted Seaweed Sheets

-Olive Oil

-Basil

-Italian Seasoning

-Salt

-Pepper

-Edible Argan Oil (optional)

-Soy Sauce (optional)

-Chili Crisp (optional)

What You Do:

0) Rinse Millet in a fine mesh strainer for a few minutes until the water out of the bottom runs clear.

1) Add millet and water to the instant pot. If you want the end product to be more soup-like then add an additional half cup to one cup of water (I prefer it less soupy).

2) Sprinkle in some salt, pepper, basil, and Italian seasoning to the instant pot.

3) Set instant pot to high pressure for 15 minutes then give it a 15 minute natural release.

4) Meanwhile, fry 2 eggs on the stove top.

5) Once the instant pot is done, release the rest of the pressure, stir and tear up the seaweed into small pieces and add. Add more basil and Italian seasoning, add some generous amounts of olive oil and stir.

6) Scoop into a bowl, top with 2 fried eggs.

7) If you want the eggs to have seasoning then sprinkle a little Fox Point seasoning on top of them (it's delicious).

8) Enjoy with soy sauce or chili crisp or olive oil or all three or none. It's great on its own, especially if you have some edible argan oil (drizzle a small amount of it on top).

9) Serve with a side of steamed or roasted vegetables.

This is very filling and I've very much been enjoying it for a while now. It's especially great during a snow storm. You can certainly get more creative and add some meat to it or tofu or who knows what else, there are a lot of possibilities.

The road less traveled can offer a lot of rewards that you never would've discovered had you stayed on your well worn path.

Get on out there and discover!

Side Notes: Enjoying this with chili crisp basically undoes the cooling effect of the millet as peppers heat your body up. Soy sauce adds a lot of salt to it which can also result in unwanted effects. Enjoying it with just the herbs and olive oil keeps it pretty beneficial. Tomato sauce with pumpkin puree is another great way to enjoy this, if you want to kick the flavor up a few notches. Adding in kimchi also kicks the flavor up a notch.