Chatting grains on ABC Afternoons – Dani Valent

I love dropping into ABC Radio Melbourne to chat to Clare Bowditch about food. This time it was especially fun because she told me about her millet porridge. Goodness me, I have never milleted in the morning, but now I shall! Listen in as we discuss all things grain, and I learn the difference between grains and pseudo-grains (her listeners are so smart).

grains millet dani valent

I want to put two things on the record so I can say I was waaaayyy ahead of the curve ;)

  • Firstly, more people are going to realise the marvels of millet. It is nourishing and gluten-free, it grows in poor soil and it can be used in so many ways. Clare enjoys it in her morning millet porridge, it’s used in Ethiopian injera (flatbread) and Indian dosa (pancakes). I just can’t stop making my Millet and mushroom soup  recipe here
  • Secondly, the next hero grain is going to be sorghum. We grow heaps of it in Australia, around 2 million tonnes, which makes it the third largest crop after wheat and barley. It can be turned to gluten-free flour, boiled and eaten like rice, or even popped like corn. However, it’s used mostly for animal feed here, served up by the sackload to cattle, pigs and poultry, as well as being mixed into pet food and used in ethanol production. If it’s eaten by humans at all it’s probably in the form of gluten-free flour, not as a grain. However, we should eat it, as they do in Africa and India. It grows in poor soil and tolerates heat and moisture stress, making it climate-change friendly. Sorghum = so good.
  • Fun fact! Heard of Zizania? It’s the genus of grasses which we tend to know as wild rice.
2017-10-25T16:32:40+11:00

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