Ragi - Health Benefits & Recipes

Life has its own ups and downs for everyone. A year ago I was diagnosed with diabetes. This came more as a shock. Hence my frantic search for a doctor who treats holistically became more aggressive.

Finally, I found a doctor, who advised me to modify my food habits such as reduce the intake of rice items and increasing the intake of finger millet. So, I started taking ragi twice a week, either idly, ragi malt, dosa, puttu or idiyappam with side dishes. The blood sugar level gradually got completely normal without taking medications.

Eating food as your medicine is such a simple but profound thought process. Hence I would like to share some Ragi Recipes like Ragi Idli, Ragi Dosa and Ragi puttu that I use regularly while planning our meals. These Ragi have a rich source of protein which is very beneficial for diabetic people. The benefits of ragi help in reducing the risk of blood pressure, heart disease, and cardiovascular diseases.

Ragi Idli Ingredients:

2. You have to grind it in the grinder to make a batter.

3. First put urad dhal in the grinder, grind it for 20 minutes and transfer it to a vessel.

4. Then put ragi in the grinder, let it grind for 10 minutes then add the rice to it, sprinkle some water for smooth grinding.

5. Add a little salt and allow it to grind until it gets proper batter.

6. Transfer the batter to the vessel where the urad dhal batter is transferred.

7. Finally mix the batter with the hand and keep it for fermentation overnight.

8. Then you can make idli in the idli pan. You will get soft and fluffy Idli.

Ragi Dosa Ingredients:

2.Wash the ragi in water several times and soak it in a vessel for 2 hours.

3.You have to grind it in the grinder to make ragi dosa batter.

4.First put ragi in the grinder, let it grind for 10 minutes.

5.Then add urad dhal and rice in the grinder, sprinkle some water for smooth grinding.

6.Add little salt and fenugreek and allow it to grind until it gets proper batter.

7.Finally mix the batter with the hand and keep it for fermentation for 5 hours.

8.Then you can make dosa in the dosa pan. You will get soft dosa. Generally, people think ragi dosa and idly are hard not like regular idli and dosa but this preparation of dosa batter gives soft Idli and dosa.

Ragi puttu : Buy one 1 kg of ragi, transfer the ragi to a big basin and keep it under the sun for a day and give it to the rice mill to make a ragi flour. You can use this ragi flour to make ragi puttu. Ready made packets are available but your preparation of flour has zero preservative.

• Put 1 cup of ragi flour in a basin, sprinkle some water and table salt, steam it for 15 minutes.
• Take a wok for seasoning and pour some oil, put little mustard, urad dhal, small onion and green chilly,  curry leaves(optional) then add the steamed ragi flour.
• Stir it for 5 minutes with lower flame.
• Finally transfer the ragi puttu to hot case.It can be served with sambar, vegetable kuruma or onion kosu.

Ragi contain so many health benefits ,it is must to include ragi in daily diet. so if your are lazy to make fancy food dishes. You can make many Easy Food from ragi grain like ragi roti , ragi mudde 

It's beneficial to include ragi weekly once in order to maintain a balanced diet from a young age as it helps to control the blood pressure and diabetic, the root cause of the major ailments. We must not get bogged down by an immediate health setback, rather look at it constructively from a food perspective and think about making healthy food choices by connecting more with native ingredients.

 Check out some more Yummylicious & Healthy Recipes.

Lakshmi Sakthi Alagappan lives in Thanjavur in Tamilnadu, India. She is an  administrative officer at Blossom Public School. She likes reading books, listening to music and surfing.

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