Navane/ Foxtail millet Bisibele bhath

Millets are used by human from ancient times.  Though usage was less so far, people are attracted towards millets due to their high nutritional values. Being referred as ‘Siri dhanyagalu’ in kannada they are real rich cereals (food grains) for human consumption. They are good sources of dietary fibre, Vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids. To specify, these are ‘gluten’ free.

Navane (Kannada)/ Foxtail millet is known as first domesticated millet. It is the annual grass crop grown for human food. It’s an easy to cook cereal, which can be used in preparing upma, payasa or kheer, rice bhath.

Here you read recipe for preparing bisibele bhath. You can follow your regular bisibele bhath replacing Rice by Navane.

Type: Main course/ Lunch

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

Tur Dal – 1 cup

Foxtail millet/ Navane – 3/4cup

Rice - 1/4cup

Carrot – 1 – 2 medium

Beans – 10 – 12

Green peas – ¼ cup (soaked overnight/ fresh/ frozen)

Onions – 1 medium

Capsicum – 1 small (optional)

Tamarind pulp/ extract – 1 spoon

Bisibele bath mix – 2 –spoons

Ghee/ Butter – 2 spoons

Oil – 1 spoon

Peanuts/ Cashews – 2 spoons

Curry leaves – 1 strand

Turmeric powder – a pinch

Salt – to taste

Method:

Wash clean vegetables (carrot, beans) and cut them into small pieces, keep aside. Peel onions, wash and make thin long slices. Slice capsicum too. Wash Dal, rice, millet and put them in a cooker. Add vegetables – carrot, beans, and green peas to the same. Add pinch of turmeric powder and pressure cook with 6 cups of water and a spoon of oil.

Soak tamarind in water and get the extract. When the pressure cooking is done with 3-4 whistles, leave it until lid opens. Once done, add salt, bisibele bath powder, tamarind extract and bring to boil. Add water to make the mixture to the consistency of gravy. Switch off the stove when it boiled well.

In a pan, take a spoon of ghee, fry peanuts. Add cashews & curry leaves, toss and add fried peanuts, cashews to the bisibele bath. Similarly fry sliced onions and capsicum separately in little ghee until turns brown and add to the bisibele bhath. Mix well, serve hot with your choice of raita/ curds and sev/ mixture.