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Savoury Ragi Churma
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Savoury Ragi Churma

Ragi (finger millet)ModernPan-IndiaSnackFlour (atta)VegetarianContains dairy

Prep 10 min · Cook 15 min · Servings not given in the source

Make

Ingredients

  • ragi (finger millet) flour — 100 g
  • ghee — 2 tbsp (1 tbsp in the dough, 1 tbsp to finish)
  • warm water — 120 ml
  • salt (to taste (a pinch goes into the dough))
  • red chilli powder (to taste)
  • spring onion — 2 tbsp (chopped)
  • coriander leaves — 1 tbsp (chopped)

Method

  1. Rub 1 tbsp of the ghee and a pinch of salt into the ragi flour.
  2. Add the warm water bit by bit, kneading, until the flour comes together as a dough. Stop before it turns sticky.
  3. Cover with a damp cloth and leave for 15 minutes.
  4. Divide into small balls and press each one out with your fingers on a warm cloth into a flatbread, as thick as you like.
  5. Cook the flatbreads on a hot griddle until cooked through and lightly charred on both sides.
  6. While they are still warm, tear and crumble them in a bowl by hand to the texture you want.
  7. Add the remaining ghee, the chilli powder, spring onion and coriander, salt to taste, toss well and eat warm.

Tips

  • General practice: crumble the flatbreads while warm; they are harder to break once cold.

Fresh atta: grind small, use soon

  • Millets keep for months as whole grain; flour is best ground as it is needed, because it turns rancid. (FAO, Sorghum and millets in human nutrition (1995))
  • Bajra changes fastest: its grain stores for months, but its milled flour has a very short shelf life. (ICAR-IIMR scientists, Food Chemistry Advances (2023) (DOI 10.1016/j.focha.2023.100190))
  • In an Indian study, untreated bajra flour stayed within the quality limit only about 2 days at room temperature. (ICAR-IARI, Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences (2016))
  • Ragi flour keeps better than foxtail, barnyard or bajra flour (it carries less fat). (Planta (2024), review)
  • Keep atta closed and cool: bajra flour kept best in polythene and worst in gunny sacks; grains should be dry and in airtight containers. (Chaudhary & Kapoor, J Sci Food Agric (1984); ICMR-NIN Dietary Guidelines (2024) (DOI 10.1002/jsfa.2740351113))
  • Going off shows first as smell and taste — sour, musty or dusty, then bitter. (Lai & Varriano-Marston, Cereal Chemistry (1980))

So: buy the grain, grind a week’s worth at a time — less for bajra in summer.

Recipe from FAO, Millets Recipe Book (2023), PDF pp. 54-55 (printed pp. 38-39), written in our own words.