Millets: India’s Ancient Grains and How to Cook With Them

Long before rice and wheat dominated Indian plates, much of the country ate bajra, jowar, ragi and a family of small grains that many city kitchens have since forgotten. This guide covers cooking millets one grain at a time: what each is called, what India’s official food composition data says about it, and sensible starting points for soaking, water and texture.

Millets had a burst of attention when the United Nations declared 2023 the International Year of Millets, but in many Indian homes they never went away. A bajra rotla in Gujarat, ragi mudde in Karnataka and a jowar bhakri in Maharashtra are everyday food, not health trends. What has been lost in many urban kitchens is the know-how: which grain to soak, how much water to use and how to stop a pot of millet turning into porridge when you wanted something fluffy.

What counts as a millet

Millets are small-seeded cereal grasses. A NITI Aayog report on millets in Indian diets lists them as sorghum (jowar), pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi or mandua) and the minor millets: foxtail (kangani or kakun), proso (cheena), kodo, barnyard (sawa, sanwa or jhangora) and little millet (kutki). The same report notes that the Government of India notified millets as “nutri-cereals” in 2018.

Pearl millet is by far the largest crop. A Press Information Bureau explainer gives the shares of India’s millet output as pearl millet 60%, sorghum 27%, finger millet 11% and small millets 2% (2021–22 advance estimates). That explains why bajra and jowar are easy to find in most markets while kodo or sanwa may need a search.

The International Year of Millets

According to the same PIB explainer, India proposed the resolution and it was supported by 72 countries, after which the UN General Assembly declared 2023 the International Year of Millets in March 2021. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations led the year’s activities and describes millets as crops that can grow on arid land with minimal inputs and are resilient to climate change.

What the official nutrition data says

The most authoritative source for Indian foods is the Indian Food Composition Tables 2017 (IFCT), published by the ICMR’s National Institute of Nutrition in Hyderabad. Its values are measured per 100 g of edible portion of the raw grain, using samples from several regions of India. The table below gives selected values for the millets IFCT includes, with whole-wheat atta and milled white rice from the same tables for comparison. Energy is converted from the kilojoule values in the tables and rounded.

Source: IFCT 2017, ICMR-NIN, Tables 1 and 5 (proximate principles and dietary fibre; minerals and trace elements). Values are means; the tables also give the variation between samples.

Three things stand out. Ragi’s calcium is more than ten times that of any other grain listed. Bajra has the most iron of the group. And compared with milled white rice, every millet in the table has far more fibre and iron, but compared with whole-wheat atta the gap is much smaller, and the two small millets IFCT covers are actually lower in fibre and iron than atta.

A warning about millet nutrition figures

IFCT 2017 does not include foxtail, barnyard or proso millet. Figures for those grains come from other compilations, and they often disagree. A 2022 review in Frontiers in Plant Science, for example, gives foxtail millet 11.7 g protein and 2.8 mg iron per 100 g and barnyard millet 6.2 g protein and 18.6 mg iron, on a dry-weight basis and with crude rather than total dietary fibre. The same table lists little millet at 9.3 mg iron, against 1.26 mg in IFCT 2017. Differences in variety, method and basis (dry weight or as sold) explain much of this, so treat any single iron figure for the small millets with caution, and be wary of articles that mix numbers from different tables.

Millets are not one food. Ragi, bajra and kodo differ from each other as much as they differ from wheat.

A grain-by-grain guide

Names below are those used in the NITI Aayog report, with Tamil names where the same report uses them; regional names vary widely, and the same word can mean different grains in different states.

Bajra (pearl millet)

The most widely grown millet and the base of Gujarat’s and Rajasthan’s bajra rotla and many winter dishes. It is usually ground into flour. Bajra flour has no gluten, so rotlas are traditionally patted out by hand rather than rolled thin like wheat rotis, and many cooks mix the flour with warm water just before cooking. Bajra is high in fat for a cereal (5.43 g per 100 g in IFCT 2017), which is one reason the flour is best bought in small quantities and used fresh. NITI Aayog lists the lower shelf life of milled grains among the reasons millet use has declined.

Jowar (sorghum)

Milder and slightly sweet, jowar is the flour behind Maharashtra’s and northern Karnataka’s bhakri, and is also sold as rava (semolina-like grits) and flakes. Whole jowar grains can be cooked like a chewy rice substitute, but they are large and hard, so a long soak is common practice before cooking.

Ragi (finger millet)

Ragi’s tiny reddish-brown grains are almost always used as flour: in ragi mudde (stiff balls cooked from flour and water), rotis, dosa and idli batters, and porridges. It is the calcium standout in the table above, at 364 mg per 100 g. Sprouted and dried ragi flour (ragi malt) is another traditional form.

Kodo millet (kodo, varagu)

Kodo is cooked whole and makes a good everyday substitute for rice in khichdi, pongal and pulao-style dishes. NITI Aayog’s report describes state schemes in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh serving kodo–kutki khichdi in children’s meals. Some sellers and recipe sites say “varagu” for kodo; check the botanical name (Paspalum scrobiculatum) if a packet is unclear.

Little millet (kutki, samai)

Very small grains that cook quickly and suit upma, lemon “rice”, curd “rice” and khichdi. Because the grain is small, it can turn mushy at higher water ratios.

Foxtail millet (kangni, kakun, thinai)

Pale yellow, mild and one of the easiest small millets to find in packaged form. It is used whole for pulao, khichdi and upma, and ground into idli and dosa mixes.

Barnyard millet (sanwa, sawa, jhangora, kuthiraivali)

In much of northern and western India, sanwa is best known as a fasting (vrat) food, cooked as khichdi or kheer. It cooks quickly and swells considerably.

How to cook millets: soaking, water and texture

The FAO’s millets recipe book gives the basic method for whole grains: rinse until the water runs clear, soak for a few hours or overnight, then drain and rinse again before cooking. For texture, it suggests a 1:2 millet-to-water ratio for a fluffy result and 1:3 for a softer one, simmered covered for about 15 to 30 minutes depending on the variety. Treat the table below as a set of starting points: the FAO ratios are sourced, while the rest are common home practice to test against your own grain, pan and stove.

Practical tips

• Rinse well. Small millets can carry dust and husk fragments; rinsing until the water runs clear is the FAO’s first step.
• Measure the water the first time. Write down what you used and adjust by a few spoonfuls next time.
• Rest after cooking. Leaving the covered pot off the heat for a few minutes, then fluffing with a fork, gives more separate grains (common practice).
• Mix grains gradually. Replacing part of the rice in a familiar dish is an easy way to get used to the flavour and texture.
• Buy flour in small batches and store it airtight, somewhere cool, because milled millets keep less well than whole grain.

Anti-nutrients: what soaking actually changes

Millets, like other wholegrains and pulses, contain phytic acid (phytate), tannins and other compounds. A 2017 review in Frontiers in Plant Science explains that these can reduce mineral bioavailability by chelating multivalent cations such as iron, zinc and calcium. In plain terms, some of the iron and zinc in the table above is not absorbed.

Traditional processing helps. A study by ICMR-NIN researchers found that a traditional process of cooking, fermenting overnight in water and adding curd reduced phytic acid by 62.9% in sorghum, 34.1% in finger millet and 29.35% in pearl millet. The same paper is careful about what that means: the phytate-to-zinc ratio fell below the level associated with good absorption, but no sample reached the threshold for iron, and the authors stress that bioavailability was predicted rather than measured in people.

So the nuance is this:

• Phytate is not a toxin to fear in normal diets. Its relevance is mainly to how much iron and zinc you absorb, which matters most to people who rely heavily on grains for those minerals.
• Soaking (and throwing away the soaking water), sprouting and fermentation all lower phytate; combining them helps more than any one alone.
• The headline iron and zinc figures for any grain overstate what the body takes up.

Millets and sustainability: the honest version

The environmental case for millets is strong, but it is often overstated. NITI Aayog describes millets as traditionally grown for their low water requirement, low input requirement and climate resilience, hardy enough for hot, drought-prone conditions. The same report notes that the area harvested for jowar, bajra and ragi in India has almost halved since 1966.

The most careful evidence comes from a 2018 study in Science Advances that modelled crop choices across Indian districts. Davis and colleagues found that replacing rice with the alternative cereal that has the lowest irrigation water footprint could reduce irrigation water demand by 33% while increasing iron supply by 27% and zinc by 13%, with only a modest reduction in calories. They also identified rice as the least water-efficient cereal for iron, zinc and fibre.

The same study is clear about the trade-offs. Sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet generally yield less per hectare than rice, so they showed potential trade-offs between water productivity and land-use efficiency. Millets are a better use of scarce water, not a free win. For the home cook, the practical point is simpler: buying millets, ideally from farmers and sellers close to you, supports crops that are well suited to much of India’s dryland farming.

If you enjoy treating the kitchen as a place for experiments, our guide to sourdough bread chemistry explains how fermentation shapes flavour and structure, the same process that makes fermented millet batters and porridges work.

The bottom line

Start with the millet that fits food you already cook: bajra or jowar flour for rotis and bhakri, ragi for porridge or dosa, and a small millet in place of rice in khichdi or upma. Rinse and soak whole grains, begin with a 1:2 water ratio and adjust from there. Expect real differences between grains, read nutrition claims against official data, and remember that soaking, sprouting and fermenting are traditional for good reason.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to soak millets before cooking?

It is not essential, but the FAO recommends soaking whole grains for a few hours or overnight, then draining and rinsing. Soaking shortens cooking and helps lower phytic acid, which can otherwise reduce mineral absorption.

Which millet has the most calcium?

Ragi (finger millet), by a wide margin. IFCT 2017 gives 364 mg per 100 g of raw grain, compared with under 31 mg for the other millets and atta in the same tables.

Which millet has the most iron?

Among the millets in IFCT 2017, bajra has the most, at 6.42 mg per 100 g. Some other datasets list very high figures for barnyard or little millet, but those values vary widely between sources and are not directly comparable.

Are millets better than wheat?

Not across the board. Compared with milled white rice, millets in IFCT 2017 have much more fibre and iron. Compared with whole-wheat atta, the differences are smaller and depend on the grain: ragi is far higher in calcium and bajra in iron, while kodo and little millet are lower in fibre and iron than atta.

What water ratio should I use for little millet or foxtail millet?

The FAO suggests 1:2 for a fluffy texture and 1:3 for a softer one. Small grains such as little millet can go mushy, so start at the lower end and adjust.

Sources

1. Indian Food Composition Tables 2017, T. Longvah, R. Ananthan, K. Bhaskarachary and K. Venkaiah, National Institute of Nutrition (ICMR), 2017.
2. Promoting Millets in Diets: Best Practices across States/UTs of India, NITI Aayog, 2023.
3. International Year of Millets: India Leading the Way, Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, 2023.
4. International Year of Millets 2023, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2023.
5. Millets Recipe Book, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2023.
6. Alternative cereals can improve water use and nutrient supply in India, K. F. Davis et al., Science Advances, 2018.
7. Insights of Nutritional and Anti-nutritional Retention in Traditionally Processed Millets, H. V. Sheethal et al., Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, 2022.
8. Biofortification in Millets: A Sustainable Approach for Nutritional Security, A. Vinoth and R. Ravindhran, Frontiers in Plant Science, 2017.
9. Mainstreaming orphan millets for advancing climate smart agriculture to secure nutrition and health, P. K. Babele et al., Frontiers in Plant Science, 2022.