PHOTOGRAPHY, FOOD, LIFE EXPERIENCE
Bagging Hearts for Spinach-Millet Parantha Served with Love
February Six Word Photo Story Challenge: “Love & Hearts”
When goodness and taste are uncompromised
I could finally prepare palak-mota anaz parantha (spinach-millet Indian flat bread). And the best part is that everyone who has it says that it does taste yummy.
Mixing equal portions of ragi (finger millet), jowar (sorghum), bajra (pearl millet), atta (whole wheat); a pinch of salt; 2 teaspoons of oil; 1 teaspoon of baking powder; a teaspoon of roasted (white sesame seeds, coarse coriander and whole cumin) to make the dough, I let it undisturbed for 30 minutes. And then I prepare the spinach-lentil stuffing.
In goes the stuffing, I roll the paranthas and fry one by one simply brushing a dash of oil. If you wish, you can use ghee (clarfied butter) or unsalted butter too.
You can serve these with varieties of dips and pickles. Try out. You won’t regret. Thank me later (wink…wink…)!
India is the largest producer of coarse cereals in the world.
The United Nations has been declared 2023 as the International Year of the Millet, following a proposal by India that wants to position herself as a global hub for millets.
In order to help consumers understand the benefits better, Indian government has changed the nomenclature of coarse grains (mota anaz) to Nutricereals.
Millets can play an important role and contribute to our collective efforts to empower smallholder farmers, achieve sustainable development, eliminate hunger, adapt to climate change, promote biodiversity, and transform agrifood systems- Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN Director-General QU Dongyu.
Like rice or wheat, millets are cereal, but used to be referred to as mota anaz (coarse cereals) — an obvious reference to the external texture which is not smooth.
All cereals are rich in carbohydrate but millets come with more protein, fat, mineral content, fiber, carbohydrate, energy calorie, calcium, phosphorus, iron, carotene, folic acid, zinc and amino acid than rice or wheat.
Researches have shown millets have a low glycemic index, use 70% less water than rice; grow in half the time of wheat; and need 40% less energy in processing. They are hardy crops that can withstand extreme heat conditions.
Therefore, it has a great potential to contribute to the nutritional security of the country and climate change as well.
With coarse grain to eat, with water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow: I still have joy in the midst of these thing- Confucius
Love and hearts to Mary Chang Story Writer for the beautiful pub and Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles for the amazing monthly prompt.