I know, I thought the same thing. Why millet when you can arborio? Or even carnaroli? Won’t millet be less creamy than risotto rice? Well, yes and no. But the point is, it’s delicious. It’s even gluten-free, if that’s your thing. If you’re avoiding white rice, then let me assure you, it’s got a great risotto texture. I was both surprised and pleased, then I scarfed the lot.
Because I am a reprehensible human.
So why was I millet-ing? Well, I had a bag in the cupboard and I realised I could make risotto from it. I also made some pretty rad lemony millet muffins from it, but still, there was this almost whole bag staring at me every time I opened the damn pantry door. Challenge accepted.
While I won’t be abandoning my precious Italian rice anytime soon, it’s nice for a change. But then again, I’d eat probably anything with cheese on it.
I know, I still speak fondly of that sourdough. I almost hugged it once. I wish sourdough was something I didn’t fail at EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.
Anyhow, millet on, my risotto friends. Enjoy the change.
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Millet makes a lovely creamy risotto, and is a great option for those avoiding white rice.
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup organic salted butter (or oil, or a mixture of the two)
- Small onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 300g pumpkin, peeled and diced into 1-inch chunks
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 cup millet
- 1 cup dry white wine
- 5 cups vegetable stock
- 1 knob butter, extra
- 1 cup parmesan-style cheese, grated
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180C.
- Put the pumpkin and the rosemary in a roasting tray and toss to cover with 1tbsp oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper over, and roast for 20 minutes until softened.
- Put the vegetable stock in a pan and heat on the stove until simmering
- In a large pot, saute the onion and garlic in butter gently until softened.
- Add millet, the cup of white wine, and turn up the heat slightly to about medium.
- When the millet has absorbed the wine, add the stock, a ladleful at a time, until absorbed. You want to keep it reasonably liquidy, not stodgy, so add more water if you run out of stock. You only need to cook until the millet is soft.
- Check for seasoning, add salt and pepper. Stir through the pumpkin and as much of the rosemary as you can.
- Stir through the knob of butter and the grated parmesan style cheese. Serve hot with extra cheese and a good crack of fresh black pepper.
Keywords: millet risotto, pumpkin risotto, grain risotto
All the yums! I’m a huge fan of the earthier grains – millet, pearl barley, spel, all the medieval fayre. I reckon I’ll try this but the kids will laugh merrily when I serve it to them. Maybe I’ll cut the millet back with rice and we’ll all win? x
pearl barley makes me puke. PUKE. The sticky horrible texture of it. BLEURGH.
Yay!!
haha I think that’s what I said!
I used to feed millet to my pet birds when I was a kid and I haven’t really been able to eat it since. But risotto, now that’s a whole different story. And everyone knows birds might eat millet, but they don’t eat risotto. You might make a millet lover out of me yet!
Go on, give it a go! I was prepared to hate it (because seriously, how good is risotto rice?) but I actually really liked it and thought it made a nice change. Although watch out for birds!
Millet is an under rated whole grain. I used to cook it quite a bit but haven’t for a while because it is a bit tricky to make fluffly millet. I always used to dry roast the millet before cooking which gave a better flavour
That’s such a good idea! I don’t think I could do it as a side or on its own, but those muffins were rad. And this risotto was pleasing! It feels weird but good to branch out and experiment.
Yum! I have made a tomato oven baked risotto with a mix of arborio and millet. The texture is a fantastic mix of crunch and squidge. All for millet in risotto. This is going on the meal plan this week 🙂
Ooh now that’s clever!