Millet Porridge
Should your most important meal of the day not only be healthy but also delicious? Would you like something sweet for breakfast, but preferably without sugar? Easy to prepare? Possibly without milk, but still neither watery nor dry? Warm and creamy sound good? Then I have a perfect recipe for you β¦
This vegan millet porridge with coconut milk is packed with nutrients and tastes wonderful! A delicious, sweet breakfast porridge that is also suitable for your baby – should you have one. The millet moved into our kitchen with ours.
Bird food
Actually (β¦) I prefer a savory breakfast. Nevertheless, grains in all variations have always accompanied me in the morning since my childhood. Usually I would eat any muesli mixtures or pure oatmeal, both supplemented with other grains, seeds or nuts as desired.
In any case, I would rather eat a lot of sandwiches, wraps and stuff like that, I admit it. But they are too expensive if I buy them ready-made (at least it gets expensive until I’m full and stay full), vegan ones are too rare anyway, making it yourself is often too time consuming for me, preparing it the day before doesn’t necessarily make it tastier, etc.
That’s why I keep going back to grains because they are healthy (unless it is crunchy muesli drenched in sugar), quick to make, and easy to prep. I often just soak muesli overnight and add coconut milk or vegan yogurt and fruit the next morning – done.
My birdseed, as I have heard before, is also cheap and keeps you full for a long time. A few years ago, I discovered oat porridge for myself. And since my baby can eat solid food, there is also millet porridge on our menu. If you ask yourself what millet porridge tastes like, then let me tell you: If you like rice pudding like I do, you will also fall for this vegan millet porridge!
Millet
I don’t know about you, but with terms like light food, gluten-free, lactose-free, sugar-free, weight loss, Ayurvedic, alkaline, β¦ you don’t make food sound tasty to me. Overall, I imagine something tasteless and/or dry (stupid prejudices, I know. I used to have this idea of ββvegan food tooβ¦). Millet covers all of these characteristics and more.
What makes millet so healthy are all its vitamins, especially those from the B group. Millet also contains minerals such as iron. It is also a good supplier of silica. You may know silica from capsules for beautiful hair, nails and skin. Millet is therefore also a “beauty food”.
So that your body can absorb as much of the vitamins and minerals as possible, you should ideally soak the millet. See my comment on the questions below. I also always drink a little juice with vitamin C, such as orange juice, with the porridge, as vitamin C promotes the absorption of iron.
And let me tell you: millet is neither dry nor does it taste bland. Why would I voluntarily eat something like that and post about it? If a healthy and tasty diet is important to you, you should also give millet porridge a chance.
If you want to read more about the advantages of millet than have a look at this scientific paper with the title “Millets Can Have a Major Impact on Improving Iron Status, Hemoglobin Level, and in Reducing Iron Deficiency Anemia”
Mom-Baby Breakfast
Before my baby was born, I didn’t eat millet five times. At some point, I cooked it as a side dish and realized that millet tasted musty and boring. I also ate teff pancakes as a side dish in an Ethiopian restaurant (which I really liked, by the way). Teff is a millet variant.
When Karla was finally ready to eat solid food, I eagerly researched what I could (not) give her to eat. I came across these vegan millet potato balls (German recipe) relatively early on. Since they were actually quite good, I looked for other vegan millet recipes and came across millet as porridge. After a few versions, I finally ended up with this one and stayed. This breakfast porridge is not only suitable for babies or children, but also tastes great for adults. Due to its nutrients, millet is good for babies but also for pregnant women! But not only during pregnancy, it’s also great while you are breast feeding!
From when you can give your baby millet porridge: I offered Karla, when she was six months old, steamed or boiled vegetables (parsnips, carrots, potatoes and pumpkin) during the first few weeks. Millet was then one of the first other foods. In the meantime, this carbs loaded sugar-free breakfast has become a fixed part of our menu.
Millet porridge variations
Eating the same thing every day for a long period of time is probably not fun for anyone. The good news: Millet porridge is extremely diverse! What goes well with this vegan porridge:
Plant-based milk: I prepare the basic recipe with coconut milk (and with water), namely with the fatty coconut milk *), which is also suitable for making curries. But you could even change the basic recipe and prepare your porridge with almond milk or oat milk. In this case, I would only use milk and no water (i.e. 2 cups of milk to 1/2 cup of millet). Incidentally, yogurt is also very good on and in millet porridge (but not as a milk substitute for cooking).
Spices: cardamom, turmeric, cinnamon – golden milk style. Or with grated tonka bean, or vanilla.
Fruit: Whatever fruit you like. Following ones are some I like to use: Bananas (on the one hand crushed directly in the porridge, as well as caramelized as a topping), apples and pears (raw, diced, grated, as a compote, caramelized, β¦), plums, which I sprinkle with a little cinnamon and a dash of water and blend them, so to speak a kind of fruit purΓ©e, all kind of berries (raspberry, blueberry, strawberry β¦) or something more exotic with figs or mango – and coconut, of course, which is always included in this basic recipe. A little grated zest of an organic lemon also tastes good in porridge.
If you want to caramelize fruit you simply need to heat a bit of vegan butter or oil in a pan, add the desired fruit, fry a bit, then add a splash of maple syrup (or another sweetener), leave a few seconds longer, maybe sprinkle a little cinnamon on them, that’s it. This seriously brings your porridge to the next level.
Dates are another great addition, especially if you have a sweet tooth. The ones linked here are the very best out there in my opinion, assuming you like the taste of creamy caramel β¦ Instead of mashed banana for sweetening, you could also add maple syrup or xylitol or whatever you like to you. Be aware that too much xylitol can have a laxative effect, especially on babies.
Grains: You can substitute a small portion of the millet with another grain like oats, buckwheat, amaranth, or quinoa for an even more diverse nutrient profile.
Nuts & Seeds: We absolutely have to have nuts! Usually we eat nut butter, because Karla could choke on all the nuts. Plus, nut butters are so incredibly good! And healthy. Almond butter and pistachio butter are our favorites as they are another source of iron alongside millet. Seeds such as chia or linseed also go very well with porridge. I also like to stir in ground poppy seeds. Or may it be a touch less healthy? Then you could add a piece of chocolate (or twoβ¦) to the bowl when serving, perhaps for a porridge to which you also add cocoa.
Protein powder: I’ve only been using protein powder for a short time because the taste has always been too artificial for me and the ingredients are sometimes dubious. I recently came across the protein powder from “Sunday Naturals” via a sample and absolutely fell in love. It covers the full spectrum of amino acids and vital substances from brown rice, mung beans, peas, pumpkin seeds, sunflowers, hemp, and brown flaxseed, supplemented by valuable plant substances from red berries, super greens, nuts, and many more.
There’s no crap in there at all. I think that the protein powder tastes fairly neutral. I use it solely because of its excellent composition and health benefits. It’s not the cheapest, but probably one of the best ones.
Grind millet: Another version, which does not concern the toppings but the millet itself, is to grind the millet a little before cooking it. Not all of the millet has to be finely ground, one part is sufficient. I’ve never done this, only heard about it and googled, that people even make porridge out of millet flour. Then your porridge will be finer, more like porridge than rice pudding. By the way, you can also buy millet flakes, which would probably reduce the preparation time even more. Unfortunately, I can’t say anything about that, because I’ve only used millet flakes in my overnight muesli so far.
Good to know
I only ever buy golden millet *) and have never discovered any other variety on the supermarket shelves. Brown millet tells me something else from hearsay and sight, that’s the unpeeled version, and teff. If the packaging doesn’t particularly say that it is golden millet, then look for hulled millet. If someone wants to confirm or correct this paragraph about how to call the right millet for porridge in English, please do so in a comment, thank you.
Let the millet porridge cook for about 10 minutes and then let it soak on the switched-off but still hot stove top. If you have a gas stove, cook the millet a few minutes longer.
Don’t turn the heat too high and stir the porridge in between. That is usually sufficient.
Can yes, but not sure if you want to eat: millet porridge becomes a solid lump after cooling. Better to add a dash of liquid and reheat.
Yes, millet porridge can be pre-cooked. It is best to cook more of the basic recipe, and over the next few days heat some of it with a dash of liquid and add the toppings (see paragraph “Millet porridge variations”) of your choice.
Theoretically, it is possible. When reheating, I would add a dash of liquid (water or milk). I have never done this in practice, however, as our freezer is quite small.
According to this recipe, the millet porridge does not have a uniform consistency, but is rather grainy, like rice pudding. However, you can grind the grains a little before cooking if you want a smoother result.
With this millet porridge recipe, you will notice immediately after cooking that there is still a lot of liquid left. Be patient for a moment, because the millet will continue to swell after cooking. After five to ten minutes everything looks completely different. I often have to add a little more liquid at the end.
The millet should be washed before cooking to minimize or eliminate the bitter taste – it is said. Honestly, I’ve never washed it and it has never tasted bitter. But maybe that is different from millet variety to millet variety.
If you prefer to wash your millet as a precaution, make sure that you use a very fine-mesh sieve *) so that there is still millet left after washing. Alternatively, you could put the millet in a tall container, fill with water, stir and drain off the water.
Millet does not only contain vitamins and minerals but unfortunately also the somewhat problematic phytic acid, which prevents the absorption of minerals. So that you can really benefit from the health advantages of millet porridge, you should soak the millet in water before cooking for at least an hour, preferably overnight.
I confess that I didn’t know anything about it until I did the research for this post. I will now handle it differently in the future – in case I know the night before that I want to eat millet porridge the next day.
Heat coconut milk (and water), add millet and let it boil a bit, reduce heat, when it’s done add a mashed banana to sweeten it and add cinnamon to season it and let it swell a bit – done. That’s more or less the plain basic recipe. I will describe it to you in a little more detail below.
I usually eat it like this with almond butter on top. Below I will show you some variations in an overview.
See how creamy this porridge is …
You might also like to eat …
Vegan Millet Porridge - Simple, Creamy and Sugar-Free
Simple, creamy, and sugar-free (but sweet) vegan millet porridge with coconut milk & banana. Basis recipe with millet breakfast porridge variations.
Ingredients
- Β½ cup millet *) (have a look at the last paragraph, question "which millet for porridge")
- 1 ΒΌ cup water
- ΒΎ cup coconut milk
- ΒΌ tsp cinnamon
- 1 banana
Instructions
- Ideally, rinse the millet and soak it in water overnight before processing, see questions "Should you rinse millet before cooking?" and "Why should we soak millet before cooking?" in the post above.
- Put the water and coconut milk in a saucepan, add the millet and cinnamon and bring to the boil.
- Let simmer uncovered on low to medium heat for about 10 minutes. Stir in between so that nothing burns.
- Then switch off the stove, but leave the millet to swell for another 10 minutes. Now the excess liquid is sucked up, and you will soon have a creamy result. If you have a gas stove where the stove doesn't stay hot forever, let the millet cook a few minutes longer.
- Mash a banana with a fork and stir it into your porridge.
Came across this while looking for alternatives to oats; my 9 month old is unfortunately intolerant to them along with a myriad of other foods. I used to love overnight oats. Can these be soaked overnight with plant milk and eaten the same way? Or does millet need to be cooked?
Hello Maggie, thank you for stopping by! No, unfortunately, you have to cook millet. I am not a nutritionist, but it is said to be quite unhealthy when it’s raw. You should even soak it before cooking. I describe it in the post. But when it’s cooked, it’s very healthy. You can pre-cook it for several days and reheat only a bit when needed with a dash of liquid (plant-based milk or water). My girl was crazy for it in your baby’s age.
Thank you so much! I’m looking forward to making these!
Wow, what a comprehensive informative article to accompany a nutritious recipe! Your photos are amazing. Excited to add millet into my breakfast routine! Thank you.
Wow wow wow and thank you – for your kind and sweet comment! You don’t know how much that means to me, especially as I always struggle with photos. And as these times need especially more kindness. Thank you.