7 Millet Mania: Pancake To Pizza, Prepare Delicious Dishes For Kids

Millets have played a significant role in traditional diets across various cultures, offering a range of health benefits and serving as staple foods for millions of people globally. These grains come in several varieties, and some of the most widely consumed millets include pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi), sorghum (jowar), foxtail millet, and proso millet.

These grains are gluten-free, and are rich in dietary fibre, protein, essential minerals like iron, magnesium, and phosphorus, as well as vitamins such as niacin, thiamine, and riboflavin. With so many nutritional and health benefits, why not try including millets in your diet and serve your family and children delicious dishes prepared from millets.

1. Millet banana pancake
If you are wondering what to prepare for breakfast or what to pack for your kid’s tiffin box. Ragi can be a great ingredient for pancakes when combined with mashed bananas and served with maple syrup or honey. To prepare the dish, combine ragi flour, whole wheat flour, ripe bananas, baking powder, salt and egg and prepare a batter that should be of pouring consistency. Heat a skillet greased with a little oil on medium heat. Once heated, pour a ladle of pancake batter on to the skillet and allow the pancake to cook on medium heat. Cook the pancake well and flip on both sides. Once done, serve hot with butter and maple syrup.

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2. Millet banana muffins

Muffins are something that every kid loves. If your kid also loves muffin, then it is time to feed them some healthy millet banana muffins. To prepare the muffin, preheat the oven and line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Peel and mash the bananas. Set aside. In a large bowl, combine the coconut sugar, avocado oil, vanilla and applesauce. Add the millet and sorghum flour, guar gum, baking soda, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix them well. Now, add the mashed banana and beat on medium speed. Use an ice cream scoop to divide the batter into the wells of the muffin tin and bake for 30 minutes. Your homemade millet banana muffin is ready!

3. Millet biscuits
Biscuits or cookies are something that children love to have with their morning or evening glass of milk! If you want your kids to consume some healthy biscuits, then prepare millet biscuits by preheating the oven. In a mixing bowl, mix pearl millet flour, powdered sugar, cardamom powder, salt, and baking powder well. Add some ghee to this mixture and prepare a dough. Divide into equal sized balls, and flatten slightly. Arrange in a tray lined with butter paper and dust it with flour. Flatten the divided balls to biscuits. Bake for 15-20 minutes and once done, cool it down to room temperature.

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4. Millet upma
Upma, one of the healthiest breakfast foods for kids, can be made more healthy by making it with barnyard millet. To prepare this nutritious and delicious upma, heat a kadai with oil, and temper mustard seeds, urad dal dal, chana dal, and curry leaves. Once done, add onion, green chilli and ginger. Fry until the onion turns transparent. Next, add vegetables of your choice like carrots and beans and fry for 2 minutes on low flame. After that, add water and salt. Bring to a boil and add the barnyard millet and mix well. Cook covered in low flame for 10 minutes. Once done, garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot.

5. Millet cheese balls
Who doesn’t love cheese balls? And kids are big fans of cheese balls. So why not make it more healthy by preparing some millet cheese balls. To prepare this, soak raw rice, kodo millet and urad dal for two hours, and grind to a smooth paste. To this paste, add capsicum, curry leaves, green chillies, grated ginger, cumin powder, black pepper powder, salt, and grated processed cheese and prepare a batter and mix well. Now, heat oil in a pan and make round balls from the batter and deep fry it until it turns golden in colour. Once done, take them out on a plate and serve with tomato ketchup.

6. Millet and corn dosa

Dosa is another perfect option for breakfast or dinner and is a healthy choice. To prepare this dosa, mix sooji, ragi flour, and wheat flour together in a bowl and add salt, coriander leaves and corn into it. Add a cup full of water and leave the batter for about 5 mins aside. Now take a dosa pan and gently add the batter on the pan with a spoon and smoothen the thickened part to form the shape you want. Apply oil to the edges of the batter and wait for some time and flip it to the other side to roast nicely. Once done, enjoy this crispy millet and corn dosa with sambhar or any chutney of your choice.

7. Millet pizza
Pizza is definitely one of the most favourite dishes of kids. Although, we try to restrict them from savouring but what if these pizzas can be turned into healthy delights. To prepare millet pizza, add pearl millet flour, hot water, and salt in a bowl and mix them well and knead them into dough. Roll them into a thin crust base using a rolling pin. In a hot pan brush it with oil, place the pizza base, and cook them well. Now remove them from heat. Apply pizza sauce evenly on the pizza base. Add sliced onion, capsicum, and tomatoes and any other vegetables of your choice. Add some grated cheese on top of them and cook them for about 5 minutes in a closed pan. Remove it from the heat and add seasonings like chilli flakes and oregano.