Varagarisi sadham / Varagu sadham / Kodo millet rice

Today I want to share a nutrition packed millet. There are several millets and it become very hard for me to find its right name in Tamil and English. Millets such as Jowar (Cholam in Tamil), Pearl millet (kambu), Finger millet (kezhvaragu), Kodo millet (varagu), Foxtail millet (Tinai), Proso millet (panivaragu), Barnyard millet (kudraivali) and Little millet (samai). All these millets are having great nutritional values. These are forgotten over the years and finding them in even in rural areas is very difficult these days. During my recent visit I saw my mom was preserving varagu (Kodo millet) at home. When I saw it I asked her to pack a small quantity for me to give a try. Thanks to THE HINDU daily for the millet names.

I am using Quinoa since last few years but I was little confused with Quinoa and these millets. There are several blogs referring Quinoa and Varagu(Kodo millet) are same. So I took a pack of Quinoa to India during my trip to compare and confirm with people at my place that these two are different. You can too see the difference in the picture.

We can simply replace rice with these millets if they are available easy in the market. You don’t find any significant taste difference with regular rice. I bet you will fall in love if you get a chance to taste this Varagu. We can prepare many variety rice using this varagu. Soon I will post few recipes using this varagu. Here is the recipe which helps you to cook simple white rice using varagu with perfect texture.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup – Varagarisi / Varagu / Kodo millet
• 2 cups – Water
• Salt as needed

Preparation method:

1. Wash and pressure cook varagu rice with 2 cups of water and required salt for upto 3 whistles. Keep flame over medium flame because varagu rice takes very less time to cook.
2. Tasty and healthy varagu arisi sadham is ready. Serve with dhal, rasam and vadagam.

Notes:

• Varagu arisi takes very less time to cook. So strictly follow 3 whistles.
• Though varagu rice has lots of nutritional values but it also induce body heat. So take it in less frequency especially during summer.
• We had varagarisi with dhal and ghee. The combo was perfect and tasted awesome.