African Millet Salad With Corn and Peppers

FLKeysJen's Note:

Millet is an ancient African staple food, always served soft enough to eat with the fingers. In this recipe from "The New Whole Grains Cookbook", you infuse the grains with spices and aromatics before cooking for maximum flavor, and the sauteing step helps keep the grains separate. The brilliant golden millet can be replaced with quicker-cooking whole wheat couscous or even rice. The cooking time doesn't include chilling time.

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 20 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 4

• 1 cup millet
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, divided
• 1 medium onion, julienned (about 1 1/2 cups)
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons minced ginger
• 1 tablespoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne (to taste)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1 (8 ounce) can extra crunchy corn, drained
• 1 small green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 whole roma tomato, chopped
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 1/4 cup roasted peanuts, chopped

Directions:

1. In a two quart saucepan with tight-fitting lid, heat one tablespoon of the olive oil, then saute the onion over medium heat until very golden and soft. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a minute, then add the paprika, black pepper, allspice and cayenne and cook for a minute more.
2. Wash the millet quickly and drain.
3. Add the millet to the pan and stir, coating the grains and cooking until hot to the touch.
4. Add the water and salt and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and cover.
5. Simmer on low for 20 minutes before checking for doneness. When all the liquid is absorbed and the grain is tender, cover and take the pan off the heat for 10 minutes to steam.
6. Scrape the cooked millet into a bowl and cover, then let cool.
7. Whisk the remaining two tablespoons olive oil with the lemon juice and brown sugar in a small bowl.
8. Stir the corn, bell pepper, tomato and parsley into the cooled millet mixture, then drizzle the dressing over it and stir to coat.
9. Serve topped with the peanuts.

Reviews

[Blavril]

This recipe didn't really do it for me. The millet took a really long time to cook and I had to add a lot more water. The flavours don't really seem to go together.

[midnightsun1143]

Yum! What a great mix of flavors for a healthy dish! My only complaint is that, seeing that the dish was supposed to make 8 servings, I cut the recipe in half and found I really had only 2-3 servings. I suppose we just liked the dish so much that we were piggies, but it really did make small servings!

[Delboy]

We've had a bag of Millet sitting in the larder for ages, so decided to look for a recipe to use it. Can honestly say this is the best dish i've tasted with Millet. And is a great accompaniment to any meat fish dish, or just with a salad!