Although holiday feasts may boast a vast array of food, many festive dishes contain varying forms and quantities of just a few ingredients, namely dairy products, sugar and wheat flour.
We’ve all heard by now that this combination composes far too much of the American diet and has conspired to make us overweight, diabetic and generally unhealthy. But the question is what do we do about it? Dietary diversity is the answer.
After a weekend of indulging in the unholy trinity, I returned home with a craving for something my body hadn’t processed in a while. From my pantry store of whole grains, I chose millet to add heft to my meal.
Grown for millennia to stave off famine, millet is an ideal pantry staple. There’s no single grain known as millet, but rather a family of cereal grains. (It’s also called sorghum and teff.) Cultivated in India, China, Africa and parts of Europe and North America, millet can thrive in inhospitable environments where little other food can be produced.
If you can’t envision what millet looks like, think birdseed. That’s right, a food that nourishes millions of people worldwide is consumed in this country mostly by birds. But millet is rich in protein, minerals and fiber that benefit people, too.
The simplest way to cook millet or just about any other cereal grain is as a porridge. But visually, millet can almost pass for couscous in Middle Eastern dishes like tabbouleh. Yet millet offers the chewiness characteristic of whole grains rather than the fluffiness of couscous, which is refined from wheat.
I use millet in place of couscous or rice in pilafs and even had luck treating it like faux risotto, that is, stirring vegetables and cheese into millet that hadn’t absorbed all its cooking water.
Although relatively quick-cooking, millet does take longer than rice, couscous and quinoa. The ratio of liquid to grain is also more like 3 to 1, but you’ll have to experiment based on how tender you want millet. The grain’s nutty flavor comes out with a little dry-toasting in a skillet before cooking in water or stock.
Millet can be purchased in grocery stores’ bulk-foods sections. I usually buy it at Shop ‘N’ Kart in Ashland. Try the following recipe for millet to diversify your table.
Marvelous Millet and Fig Salad
1 cup millet, washed and dry-toasted in a skillet
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons raspberry vinegar
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup finely chopped red onion
2 medium to small celery stalks, diced
1/2 cup dried black figs (about 14), chopped
1/3 cup fresh dill or tarragon, chopped
1/2 cup coarsely chopped, toasted walnuts
Bring about 8 cups of water to boil in a large pot. Add the toasted millet and cook, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. Strain off water and let millet drain and cool.
Combine the oil, vinegar and salt in a large salad bowl. Whisk well. To bowl, add millet, vegetables, figs and herbs. Toss well. Add the walnuts and toss again.
— Recipe courtesy of Ashland Food Co-op.
