Ragi, Karnataka's everyday grain

A small grain with deep roots

Ragi is finger millet, a hardy cereal whose seed heads spread out like the fingers of a hand. It grows well in dry conditions and on poorer soils, which made it a dependable crop across southern Karnataka for centuries. The state is India's largest grower of ragi, and in many villages of the Old Mysore region it has long been the daily grain rather than rice.

Ground into flour, it has an earthy, slightly nutty flavour and a deep colour that darkens whatever it touches. That flour is the starting point for almost every ragi dish you will meet in Karnataka.

Ragi mudde and saaru

The most iconic of those dishes is ragi mudde, also called ragi ball. Ragi flour is stirred into boiling water and worked with a stick or a heavy spoon until it becomes a smooth, firm dough, then shaped by hand into balls. It is eaten with a thin, spicy curry: soppu saaru made with greens, or bassaru, made from the water strained off cooked lentils and greens.

There is a technique to eating it. A small piece is pinched off, rolled in the saaru and swallowed rather than chewed, which takes a little practice for anyone who grew up elsewhere. In rural Karnataka, mudde is the food of hard work, and in Bengaluru it has become a dish people seek out with real affection.

Rotti, dosa and malt

Ragi rotti is a flatbread of ragi flour mixed with onion, green chilli, coriander and sometimes grated vegetables, patted out by hand and cooked on a hot pan. It is a filling breakfast, best eaten hot with chutney. Ragi also finds its way into dosa batter, idlis and even sweets, and ragi malt, a warm drink of ragi flour cooked with milk or water and sweetened with jaggery, is a morning ritual in many homes.

• Ragi mudde: firm balls of ragi dough, eaten with saaru.
• Ragi rotti: a hand patted flatbread for breakfast.
• Ragi dosa and idli: familiar shapes, deeper flavour.
• Ragi malt: a warm, comforting drink.

The millet revival

For a while, ragi was seen in cities as old fashioned, the food of the village rather than the restaurant. That has changed. Interest in millets has grown across India, and the United Nations declared 2023 the International Year of Millets after India proposed it. Ragi now appears on Bengaluru menus, in bakeries and in breakfast bowls, often alongside the traditional dishes rather than replacing them.

Ragi is proof that the most everyday food is often the most beloved.

Everyday grains like this one are where Annara's idea of food begins: a staple that carries generations of cooking. Explore more of the food that inspires us on our Food page, or read about bisi bele bath, another dish that tastes of home.