Do you ever wonder why humans switched from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to farming? I mean, gardening can be great fun, but few home gardeners bother with staple crops that can provide lots of calories to lots of people.
And there’s a good reason to avoid those crops: they take a long time to produce food. How long do staple grains take to grow? Around 100 days for rice, 105 days for wheat, and 125 days for maize (i.e. corn).
What self-respecting semi-nomadic forager or herder would spend that kind of time hanging around in one place, pulling weeds and scaring away predators — to harvest something smaller than a mouse’s midnight snack? Probably not very many.
That’s where millet comes in. A true grain like the others, millet takes just 45 days to grow — a month and a half — from planting to harvesting. Millet is much more tolerant of poor soils and harsh weather, which results in less time and energy pampering the plants for production (and a lot less crop loss due to sudden dry spells or torrential rain).
All of which means millet is probably one of the pivotal crops in our adoption of agriculture. It’s one of the oldest domesticated crops and has been garnering newfound attention and appreciation for its nutritional value and versatility. The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization declared 2023 as IYM (the International Year of Millets).
Millet is a traditional ingredient in many cultures, including Indian, Chinese, Nigerian, and Namibian societies. One of the most common dishes worldwide is millet porridge, and Chinese congee is sometimes made with millet instead of rice.
While millet rarely features in modern industrialized diets, you’re probably familiar with it if you ever put out birdseed. Juncos, doves, towhees, and sparrows are wild for the stuff and will do happy dances if you sprinkle the seeds liberally on the ground.
So why should you care about millet if you’re not a bird? And how do you cook with it so your family doesn’t have to peck around in the grass for raw seeds?
What Is Millet?
Millet is a small-seeded grass grown as a whole grain. It was first domesticated about 10,000 years ago in northern China and is mentioned in some of the oldest medicine texts from India and China.
Millet is still an important crop today in many regions of Africa and Asia. India is the top millet producer worldwide, with 11.8 million tons grown annually, and is followed by Nigeria, Niger, and China.
There are a bunch of different types of millet, categorized by the size of the grain. The major millets — which are also popular in India — are known as sorghum (Jowar in most Indian languages), pearl millet (Bajra in India), and finger millet (Ragi or Mandua).
There are also several minor millets, with fun names like foxtail millet, little millet, kodo millet, adlay millet (aka Job’s tears), proso millet, brown top millet, fonio, teff, and barnyard millet.
If you want to dive deeper into ancient millet grains like fonio or teff, we’ve got a couple of articles for you:
- What Is Fonio? Get to Know This Ancient Supergrain from Africa
- Teff: The Tiny but Mighty Grain Worth Knowing About
Nutritional Profile of Millet
Millet is a wonderfully productive grain crop that’s also a nutritional powerhouse rich in protein, including a variety of amino acids and minerals like magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, and manganese. It’s also no slouch when it comes to B vitamins and features a whole antioxidant parade of phenolic compounds like phytosterols, lignins, polyphenols, phytocyanins, and phytoestrogens.
And since millet contains no gluten, it’s suitable for people with celiac disease or gluten intolerance.
- In one cup of cooked millet, you’ll find:
- 207 calories
- 6.1 grams of protein
- 2.3 grams of fiber
- 41.2 grams of carbohydrates
- 15% of the Daily Value (DV) for thiamin
- 14% DV for vitamin B3
- 31% DV for copper
- 18% DV for magnesium
- 14% DV for phosphorus
- 21% DV for manganese
The Health Benefits of Millet
With that impressive nutritional profile, you might expect millet consumption to be an excellent tool for promoting health and preventing or treating disease. And you’d be right!
Millet and Heart Health
Millet is a powerhouse for heart health, offering many benefits that can help prevent cardiovascular diseases. Packed with heart-friendly nutrients like sterols and policosanols, these compounds can help lower cholesterol levels and improve lipid metabolism.
A 2021 meta-analysis reviewed 19 published studies in which people consumed millet for a period of time and had their blood lipids monitored. The research showed that eating millet led to significant reductions in total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol while increasing HDL (“good”) cholesterol.
Millet-eaters also lowered their blood pressure (possibly thanks to its high magnesium content) and lost excess fat, both of which are associated with better cardiovascular health.
Millet and Diabetes
Rich in fiber and antioxidants, millets can also enhance glycemic control, reducing insulin resistance — a key factor in type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
A 2024 literature review explored how pearl millet, compared to other grains like wheat and rice, can help people manage diabetes, especially type 2 diabetes.
The researchers found that pearl millet, with its low glycemic index (GI), can help stabilize blood sugar levels. They recommended that people trying to avoid blood sugar spikes add pearl millet to their meals.
A 2024 meta-analysis of 65 studies also found that the average GI of various millets was around 53, considerably lower than white rice and refined wheat. Certain millets, such as Job’s tears and fonio, have particularly low GI and were champs at reducing blood sugar levels after meals. (Fiber for the win!)
The benefits of millet on blood sugars extended far beyond the period right after eating. Long-term millet consumption also significantly lowered fasting blood glucose and HbA1c levels (a marker for long-term blood sugar control) in people with diabetes.
Millet for Digestion
All that fiber in millet does more than lower the grain’s glycemic index. It also supports healthy digestion and can help prevent constipation.
A 2022 study explored how foxtail millet porridge might help relieve constipation and improve gut health in mice. (Our view on the use of animals in medical research is here.)
Researchers found that the mice given a drug to induce constipation had far fewer symptoms of constipation when they consumed millet porridge. They pooped more rapidly after eating and had more water in their feces than the control mice, who had not consumed millet.
What’s more, the millet porridge helped boost good bacteria like Bifidobacterium and Lactobacillus while reducing bad bacteria such as E. coli. This suggests that foxtail millet porridge could help with digestion and support a healthier gut microbiome.
In a 2024 study, researchers explored whether a natural extract from foxtail millet bran, with the exciting name of “bound polyphenol of the inner shell” (BPIS), could help relieve symptoms of inflammatory bowel disease, specifically colitis. They induced colitis in mice and then treated them with BPIS.
They found that BPIS helped reduce inflammation, improved the gut’s mucosal barrier, and increased the diversity of healthy gut bacteria.
Millet and Bone Health
Our bones need calcium to be healthy, and millet can be a good source. While calcium levels in millet vary by type and cooking method, some varieties have a lot. Finger millet, in particular, contains about three times more calcium per gram than milk. A 2021 meta-analysis explored whether eating finger millet could help increase calcium levels in children. They found that kids who ate finger millet retained significantly more calcium — almost 25% more — than those who consumed rice-based diets.
We also know that millet has anti-inflammatory properties, which may promote bone growth.
Antioxidant Support from Millet
Millet is also a good source of polyphenols and other antioxidants that protect against oxidative stress. A 2016 study compared the levels of these nutrients in different types of millet grown in Sri Lanka, specifically finger millet, foxtail millet, and proso millet. Interestingly, researchers found that millets grown in the dry zones of Sri Lanka had more beneficial compounds than those grown in wetter areas.
A follow-up study published in 2021 explored the potential health benefits of three Sri Lankan finger millet varieties. Researchers tested extracts from these millets to see how well they could inhibit certain enzymes and reduce harmful reactions that produce free radicals in the body. They found that all three millet varieties were rich in antioxidants, which in turn helped to combat oxidative stress.
Potential Concerns With Millet
Antinutrients
Millet contains several compounds, sometimes called “antinutrients,” because they can decrease your body’s ability to absorb certain nutrients from food. However, each of the so-called “antinutrients” also brings potential health benefits. For more on the pros and cons of “antinutrients,” see our article here.
For one, millet contains goitrogens, which can reduce iodine intake and impact the activity of your thyroid gland. Not all millets are equal in this regard; yellow pearl millet has less impact on iodine absorption than brown or gray millet.
To learn more about goitrogens, check out our in-depth article: Goitrogens: Should You Worry About Their Effect on Your Thyroid?
Millet also contains a modest amount of oxalates, which can inhibit calcium absorption. But oxalate levels are pretty low in most varieties of millet.
Finally, millet also contains tannins, which can impact your body’s ability to digest protein and absorb iron. And it contains phytates, which can bind to minerals in food like zinc, iron, and calcium.
If you want to learn more about these compounds, check out the articles below:
What Are Tannins? The Good and Bad of These Misunderstood Compounds
What Are Phytates? And Do You Need to Avoid Them?
Reducing Antinutrients in Millet
While this list may sound troubling, you can take steps that will significantly reduce the concentrations of all these so-called antinutrients (all of which also offer health benefits, by the way). The number one step to lower antinutrients is to cook the millet. Steaming and boiling, in particular, have been shown to reduce the most antinutrients in food.
Unless you’re a canary, you probably don’t eat raw millet, so that should take care of most people’s antinutrient concerns. But if you want to take extra steps to reduce antinutrient concentrations in millet, you can also rinse and even sprout the grains before cooking.
In our family, we soak millet overnight before cooking it, pouring off the water in the morning, and giving it a rinse. This starts the seed germinating and increases nutrient bioavailability. You can also combine millet with vitamin C-rich foods and alliums to help counteract any absorption concerns.
Millet Allergy
Allergy to millet has been recorded but is rare. Here’s a case report from 2008, in which a man had an asthma attack while cleaning out his budgerigar’s cage. The allergist ruled out sensitivity to budgie feathers or feces and eventually pinpointed the inhalation of millet dust as the culprit.
Millet and Sustainability
Remember that study that showed that millet grown in drier regions in Sri Lanka was more nutritious? That’s great news because millet’s hardiness makes it an ideal crop for future food security and adapting to climate change.
Compared to other tropical cereal crops, millet can adapt more successfully to growing challenges like drought, soil salinity, soil acidity, and high temperatures. We’ve already seen that its short growing season (45 days) reduces its requirements, especially water.
Compared to those “mainstream” cultivated cereals (wheat, rice, and corn), millet can thrive with fewer fertilizers and pesticides.
How to Cook Millet
Millet is a whole grain and can be prepared much like other whole grains.
In general, you will want to cook millet before eating. A good rule of thumb is one cup of dry millet to two cups of water, then boil for 20 minutes. You can also soak the millet for 6–12 hours and then rinse before cooking (which reduces antinutrient content and increases bioavailability). After draining the soaked millet, add one and a half cups of water for every cup of dry millet you started with (the grains will swell as they soak) and boil for 10–15 minutes.
You can also toast millet on a stovetop and add the crunchy roasted grains to sweet and savory dishes. And you can add raw millet to the dough or batter of baked goods before baking them.
Millet flour can be used in gluten-free baked goods. Most bakers recommend having no more than one-third of the flour in any recipe be millet flour.
Puffed millet can also be used in baked goods and granola. You can buy it pre-puffed (think Rice Krispies, but millet) or puff millet yourself by giving it too many compliments. Just kidding — here are the actual instructions on how to pop or puff millet:
- Heat a dry stovetop pan over medium heat. (Note: Make sure it has a lid!)
- Add the desired amount of millet to the hot pan and cover with the lid.
- Shake the pan often to move the millet around and avoid burning while popping for 1–2 minutes. You’ll hear the popping and can remove it from the heat once most of the popping is complete.
You can also sprout millet seeds and add them to salads and other dishes like other sprouts.
How to Use Millet in Recipes
Millet tastes a bit like corn, with a slightly sweet, grassy, or nutty flavor. If you want to incorporate millet into your diet, here’s a short list of ways to get you started and spark your culinary creativity.
- As a base for grain bowls and warm salads
- Cooked in chili, curries, and stews
- In baked goods like bread, muffins, pancakes, and desserts
- As a side dish, just about anywhere you’d use rice or quinoa — for example, with vegetables for the holidays
- In Indian recipes like upma (porridge), roti (flat bread), and dosa (thin fried crepes)
- Sprouted and used in sandwiches and other lunch foods
Millet Recipes
Get ready to enjoy millet like never before with these three tasty, plant-based recipes! Millet’s mild, nutty flavor and fiber-rich benefits make it the perfect base for everything from cozy casseroles to fresh, colorful salads. These recipes show off millet’s versatility and make adding this nourishing grain to your meals easy. Whether you’re new to millet or already a fan, these dishes are a fun, wholesome way to mix up your plant-based menu!
1. Banana Chocolate Chip Millet Muffins
These Banana Chocolate Chip Millet Muffins are a delicious way to enjoy the goodness of millet, a nutrient-rich grain packed with fiber and a natural, nutty crunch. Millet gives these muffins a unique texture, adding heartiness to each bite. Combined with sweet bananas and dark chocolate, they’re moist and flavorful, adding a wholesome start to your day.
Enjoy this healthy millet muffin that’s tasty and packed with health benefits!
2. African Millet Salad With Coconut Berbere Dressing
This African Millet Salad With Coconut Berbere Dressing brings together the wholesome goodness of millet — a fiber-rich, mineral-packed grain that adds a satisfying texture to every bite.
Tossed with roasted sweet potatoes, green peas, and kale, it’s a colorful and nutritious mix. The creamy coconut dressing, infused with a warm, homemade berbere spice blend, adds a unique depth that’s both spicy and aromatic. Perfect for a refreshing meal, this salad showcases millet’s natural flavor while celebrating the richness of African-inspired spices.
3. Millet Jalapeño Corn Casserole
Meet the Millet Jalapeño Corn Casserole — a nutritious, flavor-packed dish in which millet shines as the star ingredient! This fiber-rich grain pairs beautifully with sweet corn, creating a hearty, satisfying base with anti-inflammatory benefits. Creamy coconut milk and nutritional yeast add a deliciously savory layer, while garlic, onion powder, and fresh jalapeño bring a burst of flavor and a hint of heat.
Perfect for weeknight dinners, this plant-based casserole offers a wholesome twist on classic comfort food, highlighting millet’s unique taste and texture.
Enjoy Millet!
Incorporating millet into your diet offers more than just dietary variety. It’s a step toward a healthier, more sustainable way of eating.
As a naturally gluten-free grain with an impressive nutritional profile, millet is a powerhouse ingredient for balanced diets and special dietary needs. The versatility of millet means you can use it in dishes across various cuisines, from Indian to African to Chinese and more.
Millet’s ability to thrive in challenging climates, requiring less water and fewer resources than other staple grains, also makes it an eco-friendly choice. By choosing millet, you’re supporting food security and environmental resilience — a wise choice in today’s world.
Whether you’re new to millet or revisiting it, experimenting with this ancient grain can elevate your meals with nutty flavors and textures. Embrace the possibilities with millet, and enjoy knowing each bite supports your health and the health of the planet.
Tell us in the comments:
- Have you tried millet? What did you think?
- Which millet recipe will you try next?
Featured Image: iStock.com/Oksana Osypenko
