MILLET, DRIED CHERRY, WITH CHERRY JUICE REDUCTION AND CHIA SEEDS

Ingredients (2 servings):

6 tablespoons of millet

2 tablespoons of chia seeds

80 ml of almond milk or coconut

a handful of dried cherries

a pinch of ground cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg *

1 orange

½ sour apple

2 tablespoons cherry juice reduced **

a handful of coconut or almond flakes

salt

Cook the millet. First roast it on a dry frying pan until lightly browned, being careful not to burn it. Then pour double amount of water, bring to boil and drain off. Pour a fresh batch of water, add 1/3 teaspoon salt and cook for approx. 8 minutes until almost cooked. It is important that at this stage it is not completely cooked. Drain in a sieve, leaving approx. 80 ml of water (1/3 cup).

In the meantime, pour the plant milk to the chia seeds and cook over low heat until the mixture thickens to the consistency of jelly.

Scrub the peel of a well washed orange. Then cut both “ends”, put the fruit firmly on the board and cut the skin with a sharp knife around, getting rid of the white albedo. Fillet individual segments between the membranes. Do it over a bowl, and finally squeeze the juice from the membrane remnants – nothing should be wasted here. Fillets put aside in a separate bowl.

Pour the resulting liquid into the pot along with the rest of the cooking water. Throw millet, dried cherries, season with gingerbread spices and cook over medium heat, stirring, until the fruit and millet absorbs most of the liquid and it is soft. If necessary add some water – millet, however, should not be too dense. At the end add the orange peel.

Wash the apples but don’t peel them (in the skin is the most valuable fiber). Cut in stripes.

Put the cooked millet into a bowl and sprinkle with coconut flakes, apple and oranges. Add a spoonful of chia seed “jelly”. Pour cherry juice reduction. Nutritious and refreshing breakfast is ready!

* In stores you can find a ready-mix of the spices – it is called quatre-epices; you can as well skip any of them and use e.g. only cinnamon and ginger – it will also be tasty

** Make the reduced juice on your own. It’s worth it to make more – it can be stored in the refrigerator for a long time, so you should think about it, for example while you prepare an autumn cherry jam when you don’t know what to do with the juice resulted from stoning the cherries. It can be evaporated to a viscous syrup. Meanwhile, to enjoy the concentrated taste of cherry – buy a package of frozen cherries, thrown into the pan, sprinkle with 2 tablespoons sugar over medium heat and bring to boil with a lid on. Take off the lid and reduce the amount of fluid. For this recipe use both fruits and the resulting sauce.

Recipe: Magdalena Święciaszek image: USTA Magazine