HYDERABAD : Millets had traditionally been the favoured food of millions in this country. Varieties of millets were among the preferred cultivated crop for our farmers, till the green revolution brought advances in the cultivation of rice and wheat leading to better yield. Food habits of people also changed from millets to polished rice and refined wheat-based cereals. With the recent trends of health consciousness, there is a change to this, many consumers are back on the millet bandwagon and the governments of various states have been promoting this range of super food too.
Gluten-free millets have many benefits over other staples. They are rich in proteins, vitamins, fibre and minerals making them ideal healthy food. Regular consumption of millets even has a beneficial influence on lifestyle diseases such as heart trouble, diabetes, and cholesterol. The food habits of the Telugu states have traditionally relied on many popular millet based dishes, ragi sangati and jonna roti being a few examples. And conscious consumers are increasingly looking for dishes made from millets like jowar, bajra, ragi, and korra.
The comeback of millets is also due to social entrepreneurs who have actively promoted products based on millets. In the city, quite a few food and beverages organisations have taken a lead regarding this. Ahobilam Food Millet Caves is one such place that serves a range of millet-based dishes in its restaurant at Hi-Tec City. Started as a small store four years ago, the encouraging responses they received resulted in expansion into the eatery which serves dishes like ragi dosa and ragi idli for breakfast, as well as a very popular Millet Thali (`120) for lunch and dinner.
The thali has dishes such as flavoured foxtail millet Rice, multi-millet rotis, ragi and jowar sangati as well as a dessert such as semiya or payasam made from ragi. The healthy items are quite delicious, for example, the multi-millet roti tastes much better than the usual wheat rotis. According to Vatsav Varma, one of the owners, the demand the dishes have encouraged them to continuously innovate and introduce new items based on all eight varieties of millets. As a step in this direction, they have recently started a bakery selling millet based burgers, biscuits and packed sweets such as millet laddu. They have also taken upon themselves on educating the consumers regarding benefits of the super food. Their restaurant has informational boards which speak about varieties of millet crops.
Inner Being Wellness is another organisation which has come up with millet based products. Their products include ready to eat jowar based popcorns and bhujia, as well as ragi and bajra cookies. They also have idli and upma rawa based on jowar, which can be used to prepare these delicious snacks at home. People can easily plan to shift to these healthy alternatives.Sabyasachi is a food enthusiast and blogs at www.foodaholix.in