Quinoa moar kanji

I usually pack the breakfast for my husband as he leaves early to work and he would send the driver to collect his lunch later. Few days that he would need the car at his disposal he would suggest that I pack his lunch too however light that may be, sometimes an extra helping of what was packed for breakfast goes into the box. Many of our dishes are quite filling and thus an extra quantity will suffice for the lunch too.
On such days I cook for myself some millet kanji and a bowl of vegetable or some salad. Recently having tried quinoa and liking it very much, my salads have become a complete meal with it. Yesterday there was an emergency at work and he had a call at 5 in the morning. I had just enough rawa dosai batter to make him two dosais before he left to inspect the accident in the port. I had to think of an option for my breakfast and was wondering if I might use the millet flour. Then I checked the pantry to find powdered quinoa and that I wanted to try.

For the Janmashtami having made the staple aval neivedhyam with the aval laddoo, I had made quinoa and badam payasam. I decided to try a salted version for the breakfast and made the kanji with buttermilk and quinoa. For extra flavour I used the fresh green chillis and aome caraway seeds. Tempering with mustard seeds and curry leaves made it perfect. I patted myself on the back and reserved some of the kanji for my husband to taste. He liked it too, but would have wanted less of the caraway flavour.
Kanji is a semi solid soup like dish which can be had either sweetened or with salt. It is almost the equivalent of porridge. Many grains can be used to make this. Most of the households make this as breakfast substitutes or when a heavy meal is not an option.


Ingredients:
2 tablespoons powdered quinoa
1/2 cup butter milk (beaten yoghurt)
2 fresh green chillis chopped
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/4 teaspoon ghee
1 sprig of curry leaves
Salt to taste

Method:
I used pre-washed quinoa. Hence I run it a few minutes in the small jar of my mixer and powdered it to a fine consistency.
To 2 tablespoons of thick yoghurt add 1/2 cup of water and whisk to a butter milk consistency.
Add water to the powdered quinoa and salt and mix to a lump free batter.
Heat the ghee in a pan; to this add the mustard and caraway seeds. When the mustard crackles, add the chillis and the curry leaves. Sauté for a few seconds and then add the quinoa batter to it.
Cook the quinoa on a low flame stirring constantly until it thickens. Add sufficient water to cook the quinoa.
Finally add the buttermilk and stir very well. Allow to thicken to desired consistency.
Remove from the heat. And transfer to serving bowls.

I drink it up in a tumbler, but also like to sip with a spoon and enjoy it.

Now you may wonder what is with the photographs that there is a full white theme. I am sending this post to New photography and styling challenge -All White Theme happening in  Junglefrog Cooking.


Both of us at home love quinoa in our dishes and I try to add it in many recipes. I am sure I will bring many more recipes with the grain.