ACCORDING TO SOUS CHEF TEEKARAM SINGH IN NETHERLANDS, MILLETS WILL BECOME THE BIGGEST MARKET IN INDIA, LET’S READ HOW?
After pandemic has taken crores and crores of lives with deadly Covid-19 virus, people have become more conscious and scared at the same time about their health and have started taking immunity boosting foods. So, they decided to go back and peep into the past where they enquired about those foods which our ancestors used to eat. Today, people are thinking wisely over their revised diet plans. Drastically, they have switched from fast food to opting the nutritious diet. If we speak about Sous Chef Teekaram Singh an Indian, based in Netherlands says, ‘that time is not far where coarse grains will capture not just Indian markets but it will rule the globe.’
Sous Chef Teekaram Singh in Netherlands.
Coarse grains are commonly known as Millets. The whole grains such as Barley, Finger Millets, Tide and many more. They are called ‘Khada-dana’ in Hindi language and are extremely nutritious, easy to digest and on the other hand it’s very easily grown on the fields. The best part about wholegrains or Millets is that if they are used in absolutely correct manner then they work as immunity boosting elements and prevents one from catching several types of diseases. These grains used to be grown highly on Indian fields many years back, before green revolution hit our nation. And we were suppressed badly under Wheat and Rice, which were the rare food grains of our diet plan. Else, before that we were solely dependent upon Millets as it used to be our main food.
After green revolution came into being, consumption of wheat and rice rose than normal. Most of the Indian population began to get dependent upon all this, which resulted in, millets began to disappear from the markets as well as from our plates. Now, after so many years looking towards the nutritional and medicinal values of millets, government have started promoting these wholegrains once again, so that people may boost up their immune system and get themselves ready to fight with the deadly viruses which keep on hitting the nation. Not just India but, many other countries are doing the same thing to get out of this massive disaster. This will even resolve the hunger and malnutrition issues from the world.
So many dishes could be prepared by millets.
Year 2018 was marked as the National Year of Millets. Whereas, year 2023 will be celebrated as the International Year of Millets. For so long we are talking about millets, millets and millets and not coming to a conclusion that what all dishes could be made out of it apart from simple roti? Well, for all gourmets there is a good news that they can make porridge, kheer, cookies, casserole, dosa, pasta, chaat, shake, cake and many more. If we speak about their benefits then wholegrains contains much more amount of nutrients, vitamins, minerals, etc. as compared to wheat and rice. Growing so many wholegrains/millets can very easily resolve the problem of hunger and malnutrition from the world. Not only this, the high amount of fiber found in millets helps in reducing weight, controls the high blood sugar and is equally beneficial for the heart. It gives good amount of protein and helps in easy digestion.
INTERVIEWED AND PICTURE COURTESY: SOUS CHEF TEEKARAM SINGH.
INTERVIEW TAKEN BY: KHATIBAH REHMAT.
