Little Millet Rice (Samai Sadam)

- Submitted by Dahlia

(Samai Rice Recipe, Saamai Rice, How to cook little millet?)

We all are very well aware of the goodness of millets. People are scared of having millets thinking that it may not taste very good. I had that fear in my mind for many years. After many requests from friends and readers to share millet recipes, I decided to try them. My trials were good and I actually started enjoying millets. I did not grow up eating millets. So if I can have them, I am sure you guys can. I have been sharing many ways of including millets as part of your regular meals. These recipes are tried and tested at my home. I would recommend you to start with using millet once in a week and then increase gradually.

Today I am sharing the recipe of cooked little millet rice (Samai sadam). The best thing about this little millet is that it very closely resembles our regular rice. Its taste, texture and appearance are not very different. So it is very easy to adapt. Those who are new to millets can confidently start by trying this millet.

This millet is very versatile and can be used in pretty much all the recipes that are made with rice. You can make samai upma, lemon samai, coconut samai, curd samai, samai pongal, samai payasam etc. More than all this, you can just cook it as a substitute for rice and eat with some curry. You will feel so good about eating healthy food without compromising on the taste. So here is the recipe to cook the perfect samai rice. You can follow the same procedure and cook other millets too.

Recipe for Little Millet Rice

Preparation time : 5 minutes
Cooking time : 20 minutes
Serves - 3-4

Ingredients

• Little millet (Samai) - 1 cup
• Water - 3 cups

Method

1. Wash the millets in running water. I take the millet in a big strainer and show it under tap water.
2. Take the exact measure of water in a pot and bring to boil. Most millet usually requires water in the ratio 1:3.
3. When the water starts to boil, add 1/4 tsp of salt and the washed samai.
4. After it boils again, cover with a lid and reduce the flame to low.
5. Cook for 10-15 minutes till all the liquid is absorbed by the samai. Little millet cooks really fast.
6. Switch off and let it rest for another 10 minutes. The steam will complete the cooking process. Fluff up with a fork to separate the grains and serve.

Cooking Little Millet Rice (Samai Sadam) in Pressure Cooker Method

1. Take 1 cup samai (little millet), required salt and 2.5 cups of water in a pressure cooker and cook for 2 whistles.
2. Let the pressure go down by itself.

Serving Little Millet Rice

• You can serve samai sadam with any curry and side dish. I love to have it with sambhar or kaara kuzhambu or meen kuzhambu and some vegetable side dish. It tastes so good.
• You can also use this to make upma, kitchadi or any variety rice.

More Millet Recipes

Kambu Choru (Boiled Pearl Millet)	Ragi Sevai(Noodles)	Ragi Idli/ Dosai	Jawar Ka Uttapa
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