Read full artile By Ruchi Garg @ The HIndustan Times Photo Credit: Ranveer Brar
The nutrient-rich cereal is taking centre stage in the culinary world, replacing rice and refined flour
Millets, a popular superfood, had its Cinderella moment recently. In her Union Budget speech, Nirmala Sitharaman, the Finance Minister of India, announced 2022-23 as the ‘International Year of Millets.’ She said, “Support will be provided for post-harvest value addition, enhancing domestic consumption, and for branding millet products nationally and internationally.” Earlier, the country had termed 2018 the ‘National Year of Millets’ to boost the production of the nutrient-rich cereal.
Millet revolution is slowly taking the centre stage, and all new-age health cafes and healthy FMCG products are introducing millets in their menus with products like millet crackers, chaklis and even cookies. There are several varieties of millets. “Pearl millet (bajra), sorghum millet (jowar), buckwheat (kuttu), amaranth (rajgira), finger millet (nachni /ragi), foxtail millet (kangni), little millet (samai), kodo millet (kodon), barnyard millet (sanwa) and proso millet (chena) are some of the types. Being extremely versatile, millets have gone global from being just traditional,” says chef Reetu Uday Kugaji.
