This dish is what I like to think of as luxury-hippy food. Not in a fancy Whole Foods kind of way. More like, I’m-making-millet-but-this-ain’t-no-bird-food. With brown butter, sage, and toasted hazelnuts, millet and kale are transformed into a rich and deeply satisfying treat.
Millet is high in protein and B vitamins and is shaped like little beads, which I think are sort of cute. You can cook millet like you would rice. The problem with millet, though, is that it has a tendency to clump together in sticky, not so cute way. This recipe gets around that potentially sticky situation in two ways: brown butter coats and separates the grains and a good amount of chopped kale blocks the millet, keeping it from congregating in large crowds. Kale also balances out this dish nutritionally – you could eat this as a one-bowl meal.
Serves 4 as a side dish, 2-3 as a main course
Preparation time: 30 minutes
5 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
Kosher salt, to taste (about ¾ teaspoon total)
4 cups chopped kale
2/3 cup millet
1 ½ cups water
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup hazelnuts, roughly chopped and toasted
2 teaspoons chopped fresh sage
- Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and add shallots and a pinch of salt. Stir occasionally, cooking until shallots are softened, about 3 minutes. Add kale and continue to cook until kale is wilted, another 5 minutes.
- Stir in millet and add water. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low and cover. Cook until millet is cooked through and kale is tender, about 20 minutes. Transfer to a serving bowl.
- Melt remaining butter in a small skillet, over medium heat. When butter foams, add the sage. Cook the mixture another minute or two until it is fragrant and nutty, and the butter solids have begun to deepen in color. Remove from heat, stir in hazelnuts.
- Drizzle the sage-brown butter and hazelnuts over the millet and serve. Note: leftover millet is not so great, so clean your plates!
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