Thinai Urundai–Foxtail Millet Honey Balls –Thenum Thinai Maavum

Thenum Thinai Maavum is one of the most popular neivedyam recipes offered to Lord Muruga in Tamil nadu.Yesterday I made Thinai maavu urundai ( Foxtail millet flour in English)for the first time on account of Skanda shasti. You can offer this for Karthigai deepam festival too.  I should thank my neighbor for suggesting me to try this. Traditionally speaking, foxtail millet (Thinai arisi) is dehusked, roasted, ground to a fine powder and then mixed with honey. But nowadays we get readymade foxtail millet flour( Thinai maavu) in all the organic & popular departmental stores.As I had a pack of flour in hand, I made these balls/ urundai very quickly and easily.I referred Viji’s blog for the idea. For variations, thinai urundai can be made with jaggery instead of honey.It is called as thinai maavu laddu. Honey or jaggery, both make this dish more healthy when combined with Thinai flour.Do try this healthy Thinai urundai/ Foxtail millet balls with honey for a change. You may like it
Check out my detailed post on Health benefits of millets and my millet recipes too !

Thinai urundai recipe

How to make Foxtail millet honey balls - Neivedyam recipe for Lord Muruga!

Cuisine: South Indian

Category: Sweet

Serves: 4 nos

Prep time: 5 Minutes

Cook time: 5 Minutes

Total time: 10 Minutes

Chitra Ganapathy

INGREDIENTS

1 cup - 250ml Thinai maavu/ Foxtail millet flour - 1/2 cup Ghee - 1 tbsp Cashews - few Honey - 1.5 - 2 tbsp Cardamom powder - 1/4 tsp

METHOD

In a kadai, melt ghee and roast the cashew pieces.When it starts to turn golden brown, add the measured 1/2 cup of thinai maavu/Foxtail millet flour and roast in medium flame for few minutes. Let it cool down completely. Do not add honey when the flour is hot.The balls will become chewy to taste. After the flour is completely cooled down, add honey to the roasted flour. Mix well and make balls. Arrange in a plate and offer to Lord Muruga. Get his blessings! Enjoy !

Note

Do not add honey when the roasted flour is hot. It should be cooled down completely. Add more honey based on your liking. In place of honey, you can use powdered jaggery. If you don’t want to make as balls, you can just mix the flour with honey and eat as it is.

Healthy, Thinai urundai with honey. You can make this at least once in a while to reap its health benefits !

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Little Millet Biryani / Samai Biryani Recipe - Millet Recipes

As I promised in my previous post,here is the long time due Sunday Biryani from my blog almost after a month.Yeah,I couldn’t post any biryani recipe for the past few weeks as I was concentrating on Diwali recipes.So this week,I wanted to share a healthy,interesting yet easy biryani recipe using millets.Actually speaking,I got the idea of making this biryani after I got few requests from my readers.I used little millet/Samai to prepare this biryani.I made a easy,no grinding biryani adding mixed vegetables for our lunch today.As I din’t have peas in hand,I used sweet corn kernels.It came out very well and it was tummy filling too.You can follow the same recipe and replace samai with varagu or Kuthiravali.I have mentioned the quantity of water for other millets in the Notes section.Please have a look at it before you try them.Lets check how to make this healthy,easy millet biryani recipe ! This recipes goes into my Sunday Lunch Recipes series 34
Check out my other biryani recipes in this series .

Millet biryani/Little millet biryani recipe

Saamai biryani / Little millet biryani - Healthy Veg biryani using millets

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Lunch

Serves: Serves 4

Prep time: 10 Minutes

Cook time: 20 Minutes

Total time: 30 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

1 cup = 200ml Saamai/Little millet - 1 cup Mixed vegetables ( 1 carrot,1 big potato,a handful of peas) Water - 1.5 cups To saute Cooking oil or ghee - 2 tbsp Whole garam masala -1 cinnamon ,2 cloves ,1 cardamom,bayleaf,star anise Fennel seeds -1/2 tsp Big onion - 1 no G&G paste - 1/2 tsp Mint leaves - a handful Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp Red chilli powder - 1 tsp Garam masala powder - 1/2 tsp Salt - as needed Curd - 1 tsp

METHOD

Chop the vegetables and keep aside.Heat a cooker base with oil and temper cinnamon,cloves,cardamom,bayleaf and marati moggu. Add fennel seeds n immediately put the onions and saute until transparent. Add G&G paste.Saute until raw smell goes off.Add half of the mint leaves and mix well.Add the chopped vegetables,red chilli powder,Garam masala powder and salt.Saute for a minute. Add water,remaining mint leaves,curd and washed saamai/millet. Mix well and pressure cook in low flame for one whistle.Remove after the steam is released.Check if its cooked well else add 1/4 cup of water,mix well and cook for one whistle in high flame. Do not add more water for samai as it may become mushy quickly. So take care. Fluff the rice with a fork and enjoy with raita !

Note

You can replace Samai with Varagu/kudo millet.The water quantity is the same. For Kuthiravali,water quantity would be 1:2. Instead of red chilli powder,u can use chopped green chillies too. For more flavor,u can add black stone flower/Kalpasi.

Try this healthy millet biryani for your lunch and Enjoy !I had it with raita and potato kurma I made for breakfast,thenkuzhal.It was yum !

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Very good recipes Tags: Millet recipes, little millet biryani, samai biryani, samai biryani recipe, little millet recipes, biryani recipes.lunch ideas, rice varieties

Kuthiraivali Upma Recipe/Barnyard Millet Upma-Millet Recipes

Its been few weeks i posted a millet recipe in my blog.Last month i posted varagu idli,dosa recipe.After that,i couldn’t try any interesting recipes using millets.Nowadays i started trying some instant upma,kichadi recipes using millets.I will try to share them one by one here.Today i am sharing a simple and easy one pot upma recipe using Kuthiraivali/Barnyard millet.Kuthiraivali is called as barnyard millet in English,Jhangora in Hindi,Odalu in Telugu,Kavadapullu in Malayalam,Oodalu in Kannada.It has 6 times high fiber content when compared with wheat.Its a gluten free millet with high calcium,phosporous & fiber.It is high in carbohydrates & fat too.It improves metabolism.It helps to maintain the body temperature.It acts as a good anti oxidant too.I usually make puli upma with kuthiravali.Recently i tried a plain upma recipe just like my noi arisi upma/broken rice upma.It came out very well.I served it with moong dal sambar and we loved that combo.Its a healthy replacement for our regular rice upma and tastewise there is no compromise at all.You can add finely chopped onions & vegetables to make it colorful and healthy.As it is an easy one pot meal,its an ideal recipe for working women & bachelors to prepare breakfast & dinner during busy morning hours or lazy & tired night hours.If u like the taste of this upma,u can experiment the same with other millets like samai,varagu and thinai too.Procedure,quantity of water and ingredients are one and the same.Ok,Lets see how to make this healthy barnyard millet upma recipe in detail!
Check out my moong dal sambar here.It is the best side dish for this upma i feel .You can also have it with coconut chutney or thogayals.

Kuthiravali upma recipe

Barnyard millet upma-Healthy breakfast/dinner recipe using millets

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Millet recipes

Serves: Serves2

Prep time: 5 Minutes

Cook time: 15 Minutes

Total time: 20 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

Barnyard millet/Kuthiravali - 1 cup Water - 2.5 cups Salt - as needed To temper Coconut oil - 2 tbsp Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp Urad dal - 2 tsp Chana dal - 1 tbsp Red chillies - 1 no ( pinched) Green chillies - 2 nos ( slitted) Curry leaves - few Hing/Asafetida - 1/4 tsp Ginger - 1 inch piece( chop finely) Big onion - 1 no ( chop finely) optional Mixed vegetables - 1/2 cup ( carrot,beans,potato and peas) Optional.

METHOD

Wash the millet and drain the water.Keep it aside.Chop the onions & vegetables finely if using. Heat oil in a cooker base and add the coconut oil or any cooking oil.Coconut oil gives a nice flavor.After the oil is heated,splutter mustard seeds,urad dal and chana dal.Add the chillies,hing and few torn curry leaves.Saute well.( If using onions & vegetables,add in this stage and saute them for a minute)Now add the required water and salt.Add the finely chopped ginger pieces and few more curry leaves & 2 pinches of hing in the water.Adding raw ginger,curry leaves & hing will give a nice flavor to the upma.Now when the water starts to roll boil,check for taste and add more salt if needed. Simmer the flame and add the washed millet.Mix well and close the cooker.Cook it for one whistle in low flame.Usually it takes 7-9 minutes in my cooker.Timings may vary though.Switch off after one whistle and open the lid after steam is released.Fluff the upma with a fork.Do not mix it vigorously when the upma is hot because,upma will turn out mushy.So mix it gently.As the upma cools down,it will become separate and grainy.Enjoy with sambar/chutney or coriander leaves thogayal.My personal choice is sambar than chutney : )) Enjoy !

Note

For variations,u can add finely chopped onions & some vegetables like carrot,beans,peas etc.It makes the upma colorful n healthy too. Adding 3 cups of water gives a mushy look to the upma when it is hot.But it will turn separate and grainy as it cools down.So if u want to reduce the water,add 2.75 cups of water instead of 3 cups and not less than that.

Check out my easy,one pot moong dal sambar here !

Enjoy making this easy,healthy one pot millet upma for your breakfast/dinner !

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Varagu Idli Recipe/Kodo Millet Idli Dosa-Millet Recipes

Each and every millet has its own taste & health benefits.But i love varagu/Kodo millet(Kodra/Koden in Hindi,Harka in Kannada,Koovaragu in Malayalam & Arikelu in Telugu) among all because it helps to lose weight,controls diabetes,reduces joint pains and much more.So i keep trying one or the other varagu recipes in my kitchen at least once in a week.After making thinai idli & Ragi idli successfully,i wanted to try some more idli,dosa recipes using millets.I tried kuthiravali idli but it was an utter flop.Idli was flat,sticky and too soft.I should make some improvements in the recipe and try again.So this time i prepared Varagu idli following my mixie idli recipe.It came out very well.I did not use rice here.Still my idlis were firm,soft,spongy and dosas were crispy as well.So this is completely a rice-free idli.The flavor of dosas were awesome.I just loved it.My in-laws are here with me.They too liked this varagarisi idli,dosa very much and my MIL told that she will be making it very often after going to salem.I was very happy to hear this feedback from them.Friends,try this healthy millet idli and include it in your routine breakfast/dinner.Its sure a very healthy replacement for our regular rice idli.Very soon,i will share easy varagu upma recipe.
Check out my collection of 12 idli recipes and enjoy making varieties of idli for breakfast/dinner !

Varagu arisi idli,dosa recipe

Idli,dosa recipe using varagu/Kodo millet- Healthy breakfast/dinner recipe

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Millet recipes

Serves: 15-20 nos

Prep time: 4 Hours

Cook time: 10 Minutes

Total time: 4H10Min

INGREDIENTS

Varagu/Kodo millet - 1.25 cups Round urad dal - 1/4 cup Aval/thick Poha - 3 tbsp Methi seeds/Venthayam - 1/2 tsp Salt & water - as needed

METHOD

Take all the ingredients given above except salt and wash them twice in water to remove the debris.Soak it together for 4 hours. Take a big mixie jar and grind them in two batches adding enough salt & water.Please do not add more water because they can be easily ground in less water.So use water only when needed.The consistency of batter should be like our regular idli batter.If the batter is too watery,u cannot make idlis.Idli will be flat n sticky.If u add very less water,idli will be hard.So take care while adding water. Ferment it overnight or minimum 16 hours ( if it is winter).The next morning,batter would have raised in volume but not doubled. Stir the batter well with a ladle and make idlis.Steam it in an idli pot for 10 minutes.Check with a back of spoon or using fingers dipped in water.If it comes out clean,idli is cooked.Remove with a spoon and serve hot with chutney ! Enjoy !

Note

No need to add rice in this recipe. Do not add more water while grinding. Idlis come out soft for varagu and dal in 5 :1 ratio.If u want even more softness,use 4:1 ratio based on the quality of dal. Adding methi seeds & aval is for softness.Don’t skip it. Ferment the batter for minimum 12 hours.During summer 8 hours is enough.

Steaming hot Varagu Idli

Enjoy this varagarisi idli.dosa with your favourite chutney or sambar.Stay healthy !

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Very good recipes Tags: Varagu idli, Varagu idli recipe, Kodo millet idli, kodo millet dosa, Millet recipes, varagu recipes, Kodo millet recipes, Healthy food

Thinai Payasam Recipe/Foxtail Millet Kheer With Jaggery-Millet Recipes

Thinai arisi/Foxtail millet payasam in one of the easiest yet delicious recipe using millets.It tastes very similar to rice payasam/Arisi payasam.But one thing i should tell you is the yield.Just 1/4 cup of thinai/foxtail millet is enough to make payasam for 3 persons.Without knowing this,i made payasam with 1/2 cup of thinai and i got sooooo much i.e. nearly half of my big sized cooker.Now i am blinking how to empty it.So i just halved my quantity and shared the recipe here.This would be sufficient for 2-3 people.Ok,lets see how to prepare thinai arisi payasam recipe.
Check out my other millet recipes in this page.

Thinai arisi payasam/Foxtail millet kheer

Thinai arisi payasam/Foxtail millet kheer

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Sweet

Serves: Serves 2-3

Prep time: 5 Minutes

Cook time: 15 Minutes

Total time: 20 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

Thinai/Foxtail millet - 1/4 cup Grated jaggery - 1/2 cup Water - 1.5 cups Boiled milk - 1/2 cup Cardamom seeds - 2 nos Cloves - 1 no Mace - a small piece Edible camphor - a small pinch ( optional) Ghee – 1 tbsp + 1 tsp

METHOD

In a pressure cooker base,add a tsp of ghee.After its heated,add the thinai arisi and roast it well till u get a nice aroma & as u roast,thinai becomes non-sticky.Add the mentioned water and pressure cook in low flame for one or two whistles.Open the cooker & mash it well. In the mean time,grate the jaggery and add 1/4 cup of water to cover it. Let it melt.Strain the syrup and add it to the cooked & mashed thinai.Allow it to boil.Add some water if needed. After the raw smell of jaggery goes off,switch off the flame & add the crushed cardamom powder.Roast clove,cashews & mace.Powder the mace and add everything to the payasam.Mix well.Now add the boiled milk.Finally add a small pinch of edible camphor if needed.Garnish with roasted cashews and serve ! Enjoy !

Note

Generally 3 cups of water is enough to cook 1 cup of thinai.i.e ratio is 1:3.Here i used 1:6 ratio of thinai & water as i wanted the payasam to be thin. This payasam will tend to thicken as time proceeds.So keep some milk reserved. As i mentioned in my write-up,the yield of the payasam will be more.So adjust accordingly.

Make this thinai arisi payasam,offer God & enjoy.It tastes awesome !

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Millet Flour Onion Pakoda Recipe-Millet Snacks Recipes

Onion pakoda must be one of the favourite evening snacks for most of us.We generally make it using gram flour & rice flour.For a change,i tried it adding our homemade mixed millet flour/Millet sathu maavu powder.It came out really crispy and flavourful.Raksha & Sendhil liked it very much.I was also happy that i could give them a healthy deep fried snack using millets.And now i am typing this post munching these crispy pakoras,its yumm.Friends,Try this snack recipe for your family & enjoy with evening coffee or Tea.
Check out my other millet recipes here !

Millet flour onion pakoda recipe

Onion pakoda recipe using millet flour

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Snacks

Serves: 15 nos

Prep time: 10 Minutes

Cook time: 5 Minutes

Total time: 15 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

To make the batter Mixed millet flour - 1/3 cup Gram flour - 1/4 cup Rice flour – 1 tbsp Big onion - 2 nos ( medium ) Red chilli powder - 1/2 tsp Hing/Asafetida - 2 pinches Finely chopped green chillies - 1 no Curry leaves - few Coriander leaves – few Mint leaves – few  Ginger - 1/2 inch piece Hot oil - 1 tbsp Ghee – 1/2 tsp ( I used frozen ghee) Water – Very little ( say 1.5 tbsp) Salt – as needed Cooking oil - to deep fry

METHOD

Wash and slice big onions thinly.Wash and chop ginger,green chillies,mint,curry leaves,coriander leaves & set aside. In a wide bowl,take all the ingredients except cooking oil and ghee.Mix all the ingredients well without adding water.Onions will leave water while u mix.So mix everything together. Heat oil to deep fry.Take a tbsp of hot oil  and add to the flour.Add ghee.Mix well.Then sprinkle few drops of water and make a dough. Put a drop of batter & check the heat of oil.If  the batter comes up immediately,oil is ready.Reduce the flame to medium high & pinch in a portion of batter and drop in the oil in a sprinkled manner. Cook till onions turn golden brown.Remove in a tissue and enjoy eating hot with tea !

Note

Gram flour is used for binding and rice flour for crispiness. You can follow the above recipe and make pakodas with kambu maavu or thinai too. Hot oil is added to give crispy pakoda.Don’t skip it.Ghee is for softness.

Enjoy this crispy millet onion pakoda with tea/coffee ! Tastes yum !!

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Millet Flour Porridge Recipe/Millet Sathu Maavu Kanji-Millet Recipes

Last month i shared our homemade mixed millet flour/energy mix powder/sathu maavu recipe here.Using that flour,i have shared an instant sathu maavu dosa recipe too.Recently i tried sweet & savoury porridge/kanji using my millet energy mix powder for our Sunday breakfast.It came out really well and it was flavourful too.Making this millet porridge is just a 10 minutes job.You can try sweet or savory version based on your liking.If u have less time in hand to prepare your breakfast,this millet porridge is an easy & healthy option with health benefits of all the millets in one dish.Its one of the ideal recipes for weight loss too.It keeps u energetic and full.Do try it n let me know your feedback.If u don’t want to make millet powder on your own,u can also buy the organic millet powders available in stores and prepare this porridge.But homemade millet powder is economical always ! You can try this porridge for one year old babies too.But keep in mind,u should add just 1 tsp of this powder for 2 cups of water,make it really watery and give them for the first time.If it suits them,u can increase the quantity of powder gradually.Check out my millet flour ladoo/Sathu maavu urundai recipe using jaggery if interested !

Millet flour porridge recipe

Millet flour porridge recipe/Millet sathu maavu kanji recipe for breakfast

Cuisine: Indian

Category: Breakfast

Serves: Serves 2-3

Prep time: 5 Minutes

Cook time: 10 Minutes

Total time: 15 Minutes

INGREDIENTS

Millet flour - 3 tbsp Water - 5 cups For sweet porridge Grated jaggery - 1/3 cup Cardamom seeds - 2nos ( crushed) Boiled milk - 1/4 cup ( as needed) For spicy version Thick curd - 3 tbsp Salt - as needed To temper Cooking oil - 1 tsp Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp Urad dal - 1/4 tsp Hing/asafetida - 1/8 tsp Red chilli or mor milagai - 1 no ( pinched) Curry leaves - few Coriander leaves - little

METHOD

Take 5 cups of water in a big bowl and mix the millet powder without any lumps.Use a wire whisk.Add a pinch of salt and let it boil well for 10minutes in medium high flame.Stir it once or twice in the middle because it may overflow.The porridge will thicken slightly and its color changes with a shine.It shows that the millet flour is cooked well. Now remove half of the porridge to another bowl for making savory version.Let it cool.In the mean time,add grated jaggery to the remaining half of the porridge and boil well in low flame.Jaggery melts and mixes with porridge.Color of porridge changes to golden yellow based on the color of jaggery.After the jaggery is melted,allow the porridge to boil for 2 minutes to remove the raw smell of jaggery.Lastly add the crushed cardamom seeds.Mix well and add little milk before serving.Mix well n serve ! ( Do not add milk when the porridge is boiling.It will curdle the mixture.So add boiled milk only after u switch off the flame) Take the porridge reserved for savory version. To this,add 3 tbsp of lightly sour curd.Mix well with a wire whisk or beater.Add the required salt and temper all the above said ingredients. You can also add finely chopped raw mango pieces & green chillies,ginger to this porridge to make it more flavourful! Add the tempered items to the porridge.Mix well and serve ! Enjoy !

Note

If u are trying this porridge for the first time,just follow the above measurements.This would give u medium thick consistency porridge. If u want thicker porridge,add 1 tbsp more millet powder Or if u want thinner porridge,add 1 cup of more water.Adjust as per ur liking. You can also add sugar in place of jaggery.In that case,add 2-3 tbsp.Check for sweetness and add more. Adjust the quantity of jaggery as per your taste. You can also add finely chopped raw mango pieces & green chillies,ginger to this porridge to make it more flavorful!

Try this quick n easy millet flour porridge for your breakfast and have a healthy start of the day !

 

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Very good recipes Tags: Millet porridge recipe, Millet recipes, Millet flour porridge recipe, Millet porridge for breakfast, millet powder porrdige recipe, Millet kanji recipe, Sathu maavu kanji