Kaulige Foods is one of the Bengaluru’s Millet Store that is involved in distributing, catering and innovations around Millets.  Their main mission is to be spread millet awareness and put millets on every plate in Bengaluru.  To accomplish the task – they have been conducting various awareness workshops.  One of the means of doing that is by opening an outlet in Brigade where they have millet based products for purchases as well as service food to guests that contain millets.  I got an opportunity to visit the outlet – hear from the people behind Kaulige Foods, participated in cook-off event and enjoy delicious millet based meals.

About Millets
Millets are small-seeded grasses that are hardy and grow well in dry zones as rain-fed crops, under marginal conditions of soil fertility and moisture.

These grains are more sustainable compared to rice and wheat that heavily depend on irrigation.  If we go back in history, people believe that it is the oldest cereal grains used for domestic purpose.

There are 7 varieties of millets known to us, which includes – Foxtail (Navane), Kodo (Haarka), Proso (Baragu), Pearl (Sajje), Sorghum (Jowar), Little (Samei) and Barnyard (Oodhalu).

Nutrition Value
Millets are highly nutritious, non-glutinous and not acid forming foods. They are easy to digest and least allergenic.  In comparison to polished ice, it has the least glucose and reduced risk of diabetes.  Millets are particularly high in minerals like iron, magnesium, phosphorous and potassium. Finger millet (Ragi) is the richest in calcium content, about 10 times that of rice or wheat.

Cook Out Activity
We use rice in preparing most of the South Indian snacks like – Idli, Dosa, Paddu and others.  Knowing the advantage of millet, the right thing to do would be use millets instead of rice.  It might be difficult to replace it completely.  The proportion of millet in the dishes can be slowly increased until the usage becomes 100%.

For cook-out, we had the batter for preparing Dosa and Paddu, with that we prepare couple of items.

Plain Dosa – The look and feel of the dosa was very similar to the normal rice based dosa.  There is no significant difference in the taste as well.  I think the taste was better than the normal dosa.

Onion Dosa – A smiple preparation with after pouring the dosa on the tawa, we added onion pieces on top of the dosa.  It tasted very good along with the chutney.

Paddu / Gunpangla – Another dish which is prepared with rice and with a special container.  The millet based paddu took similar time and tasted really good.

Knowing the health benefits, it is best to use Millets in all the dishes like the ones mentioned above.

Millet Meals
I had initially apprehensions about the taste of the meal as it had some traditional favourite dishes.

Paaysa (Sweet) – Traditional sweet usually made at home for festivity.  Usually they make Hesru Bele, Hesaru Kaal, Rave, Godi/Wheat paaysa (sweet).  Millets was used instead of other cereals along with Jaggery and it tasted yummy.

Gobi Manchurian – The gobi is dipped in a flour made of millet.  The taste was quite good or may be  a little better than what we get outside.

Bisi Bele Baath – Undoubtedly the best Bisi Bele Baath I have eaten in a long time.  It had the perfection portion of lenthils, spices and most importantly millets.  Along with the boondi which was spread on top, the taste was really good.

Curd Rice – One of the most preferred dish by a South Indian meal, at the end of the meals.  The curds seemed to get along well with rice and give good taste.

Salads – This is another item served along with the rest of millet based items.  Combination of millet based rice-item and salad was good.

Everyday Millet Recipes
Kaulige Food is also trying to come up with new recipe for the everyday items.  As part of this initiative they shared recipe for 3 items including – Little Millet Pongal, Foxtail Millet Payasam and Kodo Millet Pulao.

The info regarding multiple recipes is available online.
www.CookingWithMillets.com

People interested can also join the FB group.
fb.com/groups/CookingWithMillets

Overall Experience
It was a great time visiting the Kaulige Millet Corner outlet at Brigade road, talking to the founder Arun Kumar and getting more knowledge about this new found wonder cereal.  This company is doing great service to mankind by sharing info and helping people gain knowledge.  I think when more and more people become aware, dependency on the rice will be reduce significantly.  The cook-out event was fun and we all enjoy making the millet based South Indian dishes.  Millet based meals served for lunch was quite filling and satisfying.  I recommend that people go to this outlet to get knowledge and also enjoy the Millet based meals. I rate my current experience at 4.0/5.

Other details about the Kaulige Foods.

Facebook – fb.com/kaulige
Website – kaulige.com
Phone – 9845490382
Address – 1^st Floor, St. Patrick’s Complex, Bridge Road, Bengaluru

Pictures taken with food enthusiasts who were present at Kaulige Foods.