Ragi Rotti (Finger Millet Pancakes)

Today I was in a great mood to have these yummilicious Ragi Rotti. Ragi rotti (in Karnataka) also known as Nachani chi Bhakri in Maharashtra: is a very staple and savory breakfast dish. Ragi(finger millet) is hailed as a very nutritious millet/grain with a naturally nutty flavor. Lots of recipes are churned out using this ancient grain and Rotti (flat bread) is one of them. Feel free to take a look at few more interesting recipes on my blog that use Ragi as the main ingredient. In the past few years Ragi has taken a permanent place in my pantry :)

Ragi Rotti is nothing but a finger millet pancake made with mixing ragi flour, hot water, onions, chilies and few other ingredients to make a semi-soft dough. It makes a power packed breakfast or meal for that matter. It is usually served with spicy chutney, yogurt and dollops of ghee/butter.
Most authentic way of making it is by patting a rotti on a banana leaf and then frying the rotti on both the sides on a griddle till it's cooked. The flavors are amazing. As banana leaves are not easily available in the USA,  I use wax paper to roll it 🙂 . Many a times I directly pat the rotti on the griddle/tava itself. I wouldn't recommend it for the beginners though.

Ragi digests slowly and hence keeps you full for a longer period of time, just like protein. That's the reason why it is very loved and common amongst hard working class of people like farmers, construction workers etc. Ragi Mudde is another such example. Ragi flour porridge is given to babies once they start on solid food. A very staple grain found in almost every household in India. I highly recommend to incorporate this grain in your lifestyle.

Let us take a look at this recipe of Ragi Rotti.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup ragi flour (finger millet flour)
• 3/4 cup hot water (approx)
• 1 small onion chopped
• 1 green chili chopped
• 1 inch ginger minced
• couple sprigs of cilantro chopped
• salt as per taste
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• oil to fry
• 2 tbsp grated coconut (optional)*

Semi Soft Dough

Spread the ball of dough on a wax paper with your greased fingers,

Fry on both sides.

Preparation:

• In a mixing bowl add all the ingredients except water.
• Nicely mix everything with your hands or use a wooden ladle. Pour hot water slowly little by little as you keep mixing the mixture in circular motion. Keep doing it till you get a nice soft dough. Not too hard. Keep aside closed for 5-10 minutes.
• Now heat a griddle/tava till smoking hot and then reduce the heat to med. Add 1 tsp of oil.
• Take a square piece of wax paper to roll out rotti's. Take a portion of the dough about the size of a tennis ball and keep it on the wax paper. Grease your palms with oil and flatten it nicely using your fingers slowly and gently making a round rotti about 5 inch in diameter. (You can also use a rolling pin to make rotti).
• If the edges are cracking, do not worry, just dip your finger with some water and gather it and seal the crack. Make some holes in between to make sure the oil gets absorbed uniformly well.
• Lift the rotti along with the wax paper and invert it on the hot tava carefully and peel the wax paper out leaving the rotti on it.
• Add oil or ghee gingerly around the rotti and over it. Cover with a lid and cook for couple of minutes. Flip the rotti and add more oil if you want and let it cook for another 2 minutes or till its done.
• Take it out and serve hot with ghee/butter/yogurt/chutney etc.

njoY!! happY cookinG!!

Note:* Usually the ragi rotti turns out little on the crispier side.
If you want it more on the softer side then add coconut.
If you think that dough is too soft to make rottis, add a tsp (or more) of rice flour to make it semi-soft.
You can also add veggies in it to make it more nutritious like grated carrot, cucumber etc.

You may also like:

Ragi Mudde
Ragi Iddiyapam
Ragi Poori
Potato Stew

Health Benefits: 
Finger Millet(Ragi) is a power packed grain! It is high in protein and minerals. Helpful in controlling diabetes, keeps one younger for a long period(cross-linking of collagen), reduces bad cholesterol, also has anti-microbial properties and has been found to act against a number of bacteria including Bacillus cereus, which causes food poisoning, Salmonella sp., which causes a typhoid-like fever etc. Try and include this healthy food in your diet when you can.

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