Millet Pumpkin Porridge

Millet Pumpkin Porridge

This recipe was written by Xinyan Fan, a program assistant in the LFS Dietetics program. Thank you Xinyan for this lovely fall themed breakfast recipe! Millet is a nutritious grain alternative. Read more about its health benefits here.

I share this recipe with you and wish you have a lovely and warm morning breakfast. Porridge is a very common breakfast option for Chinese people, similar to cereal or oatmeal here. The half liquid texture will definitely fill your stomach without any burden. The yellow to orange color looks like the sunrise in the morning, to wake your body up. Choosing either milk or plant-based protein alternative to mix in lifts up the flavour and adds on a layer of your taste.

Ingredients:

• Millet – 2 cups
• 1/2 of a sugar pumpkin
• Rock sugar – 6 1/2 tbsp
• Water – variable, explanation below
• Milk, or plant-based alternative – To taste when serving

Tools: Instant pot and potato masher

Steps:

1. Soak the millet in a bowl at least 30 minutes before use.

2. Cut pumpkin to small pieces and steam them for 20 minutes. This step softens the pumpkin.

3. Cool the pumpkin to peel off the skin and transfer them into the pot. Use the potato masher to mash the pumpkin into a smoother texture.

4. Drain the millet and pour into the pot.

5. Pour cool water into the pot. The water level should not only cover all of the millet and pumpkin but double.

6. Pour in 6 1/2 tbsp of rock sugar before closing the lid.

7. Set the mode of the instant pot to “porridge” or “soup”. Once cooking finishes, pour in milk or other plant-based protein beverage as you like.

Notes:

• If you do not have an instant pot, you can use a regular soup pot. After the water boils, turn the heat to medium or medium-low level, and pour in the millet. Cooking millet needs quite a lot of water, and cooking it until it is soft will take a bit of time.
• Stir your pot constantly, since millet will be stuck at the bottom of any pan/pot (unfortunately, we cannot do this in instant pot; commonly, the bottom will have some burnt bits). Since we already steamed the pumpkin in the beginning, we can add it with the rock sugar when the millet starts to turn soft. After that, stir everything well and let the rock sugar evenly melt into the soup.
• Again, add milk or a plant-based alternative later when the porridge itself is complete. This is just a step for some flavor and extra nutrition.