Multigrain Porridge (Kanji)

Kanji is a humble South-Indian breakfast porridge. Although it is made fun of as a poor-man’s breakfast, it is highly rich in proteins, fibre, and other useful nutrients such as essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals  to fire up enough energy to conquer the morning (and the day). Two glasses worth of Kanji used to be my breakfast every single day for 20 years. Since I’m not a morning person and I am such a snail when it comes to eating (and everything else), my mother decided this was the best way to get breakfast into me within 2 minutes. But as nutritious and pleasant-tasting as this grub is, 20 years of ingesting the same breakfast made me a little tired of Kanji. So, being away from home, I never bothered to make it - until recently.

Well, you start turning slightly wise as you age. You learn not to skip breakfast, for one. You also learn that being a vegetarian, you need to consciously think about ways of incorporating protein into your diet. You also learn that in this era of processed foods and too much awareness (or half-baked knowledge), every preservative, every synthetic derivative appears to cause or increase the risk of cancer and developmental disorders. And that rattles you. So, you hunt for the “organic” tags at the grocery store and realize that even a simple bag of “multigrain cereal” from a highbrow company is twice (if not more) the cost of the regular bag of cereal. Even the regular bag of cereal shows a steep increase in price if it has a handful of almonds thrown in. If it has almonds + another grain, it is even more expensive - and so, the geometric progression in prices bewilder you. You then think about the plain old Kanji. You ask your mom what goes into it, and you’re pleasantly impressed. So many grains and nuts? And so little cost?

Being an “organic” buff is now a cool lifestyle statement to advertise and flaunt. But, if I really wanted to eat “organic” food, then rather than make a statement with fancy-looking cereal boxes stacked in my kitchen, I decided I should just make the Kanji. It can’t get any more fresher, organic, healthier, and inexpensive. And it is not too labor intensive either.

So, here is my mother’s Kanji recipe.

Ingredients for the Kanji powder (results in perhaps 8-10 servings of porridge... I think)

1. Ragi (Finger millet) - 1 cup (if you can’t find the grains, you can use the powder; I could only find the powdered version in our Indian store, but I recommend using the grains - it will result in a fresher, healthier Kanji)
2. Samba Wheat grains, or regular cracked wheat grains, or whole wheat flour - 1 cup (I couldn’t find Samba wheat, so I settled for cracked wheat)
3. Par-boiled rice - ½ cup
4. Pottu Kadalai / Split roasted gram dhal - ½ cup
5. Peanuts - ¼ cup (100 grams)
6. Almonds (with the husk) - ½ cup
7. Cardamom (the whole pods with the husk) - about 14 (for flavor)

This is the basic mix. You can also add ½ cup of flax seeds or wheat germ (or both), ½ cup oats, different kinds of other nuts, etc.

Preparing the Kanji powder: 

1. Separately dry roast each grain, lentil, and nut until slightly brown.
2. Grind together (or separately) to a fine powder. Mix well. This is the Kanji powder. Store it in an air-tight container for almost 3 months.

Ingredients for the Porridge (for 2-3 cups)

1. 1 cup of the prepared Kanji powder
2. 2 cups of water
3. 1 cup of milk
4. some raisins (optional)
5. Sugar/brown sugar/jaggery/honey/agave nectar - as needed to sweeten the porridge to your liking

Preparing the porridge:

1. To prepare the porridge, mix 1 cup of the kanji powder with 2 cups of water until there are no lumps. Heat/cook it on medium heat, constantly stirring.
2. When the mixture starts to bubble and thicken (in 5-7 minutes), add the milk and stir continuously to incorporate everything and to avoid lumps. If you would like to add some sugar/jaggery/honey, add it now. Stir for about 7-10 minutes on medium heat.

 Remove from heat and serve with some raisins. You can adjust the consistency of the porridge by adding more milk or water. Some like to gulp it down, so would prefer a thinner consistency, while some may like it thicker. This proportion results in a porridge that is slightly thick and is better had in a bowl. 

 

Don't let the grey-brown color turn you away ;)

I also avoided adding any sugar to keep it healthy. But, truth be told, the porridge is much tastier when sweetened. Both of us are so used to having sweetened Kanji that it’s a little hard for us to have it unsweetened, but we are trying to habituate our taste-buds with the unsweetened version. I would recommend adding honey or even agave nectar instead of white sugar, if you would really much prefer it sweetened.

The only minor disadvantage is that as the porridge cools, it thickens, so it cannot be made ahead of time and stored. It needs to be reheated and diluted with water or milk.