Like rice, ragi is also a cereal crop but it is a small seeded variety. Ragi is a millet (like sorghum ,bajra etc). It is a very nutritious and healthy food. Especially it is a very healthy food for infants. It contains more calcium which is required for the bone growth in infants.
Ragi malt preparation for infants : Ragi should first be washed and soaked in water for a night . Then dry them so that sprouts come out and now grind them into fine flour and store it in a air tight container.Everyday take 2 spoons of this fine powder add required water and cook it.Add jaggery to it and feed the baby with this . Many children love the sweet taste so they eat it happily and moreover jaggery is rich in iron so it is tasty as well as healthy for them.
According to the tastes of the baby just add salt some times ( not jaggery since they may get bored of it ) .
Studies show that 100gm of ragi provides ;
370kcals of energy
88gm of carbohydrates.
7.6gm of protein.
1.5gm of fat.
Ragi preparation For Adult: First the ingredients required in this preparation are :
Coconut milk
Ragi powder
Sugar
Add water to the Ragi powder and place it on the stove. After it gets cooked add the coconut milk to it and add required amount of sugar .Later you can consume this preparation either hot or cool .Its according to your tastes.
The reason why i gave the recipe with coconut milk is that coconut milk is very nutritious.
Ragi is also consumed by adding buttermilk and salt to the ragi powder.People who dont like sweets can have ragi in this way.
The above preparation was made using coconut milk. If you dont have the coconut milk you can prepare this using normal milk.It tastes like payasam(kheer) and is even very much nutritious than normal kheer.
Ragi can also be consumed in several other ways like preparing ragi rounds(ragi undalu) and adding ragi flour in chapati flour and in many other dosa batters.
You can even prepare ragi laddu using either jaggery or sugar and ghee.This will be a very healthy food for snacks .
