If you’ve read this post, you may know that I’ve been intrigued by locally produced food—and sorghum in particular—for a while now. In fact, I’ve posted a recipe using sorghum flour before—which I loved and made frequently—but, despite the fact that I bought whole grain sorghum in 2020, I’ve never cooked it before…until now.
You know, this year I was determined to be more intentional with the food that I eat and try as much as I can to choose local produce over imported goods—probably even cutting down on my rice and wheat consumption, for better biodiversity in my palate. Sorghum, in particular, piqued my interest since it looks so much like rice, but more resilient and packed with extra health benefits: it’s gluten-free, low in sugar level (which makes it diabetes-friendly) and requires very little water to grow—which makes it better for the environment for the current climate.
Since I already had a firsthand taste on sorghum as delicious cookies—which I absolutely obsess over—I thought I’d try cooking it like rice this time. And what better way to test this than with a good ol’ risotto dish? Well, you know how much I love Italian food. A fair warning: my first trial of this recipe didn’t go so well. But I did tweak the recipe to fix my errors and add some notes for you to pay attention to. Please don’t be alarmed! This dish is fairly easy to make with the right measurements and I hope you’ll love it.
2 servings (original recipe via Zestful Kitchen)
Prep time: 5 minutes + overnight soaking
Cooking time: ± 1 hour
Ingredients
- 1 cup soaked white whole sorghum grain (100 gr before soaked)
- 2 cloves of shallots, minced
- 5-7 champignon mushrooms, sliced
- 1/4 tbsp. broth powder
- 3 cups of water
- 1/8 cup vinegar
- 1 tbsp. fresh rosemary, minced
- 2 slices of mozzarella cheese (or to taste)
- salt and pepper, to taste
- grated fresh nutmeg, to taste
Instructions
- Before you start, remember to soak the whole sorghum grain the night before.
- Dilute the broth powder in water in a saucepan, bring to a simmer over medium heat, covered, then reduce to medium-low and maintain a simmer.
- Heat butter in a stock pot over medium. Add shallot and cook until softened and translucent (1-2 minutes). Add sorghum and cook, stirring constantly, until edges start to become translucent (2-3 minutes).
- Stir 1 cup warm broth mixture into sorghum and cook, stirring constantly until liquid has nearly absorbed (7-10 minutes). Stir in 1½ cups warm broth mixture, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring once.
- Uncover pot and cook, stirring constantly ½-1 minute, then stir in the rest of the broth mixture, cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring once.
- Once the sorghum is tender and creamy (around 20-30 minutes more), stir in the vinegar and cook, stirring constantly, until creamy (about 4 minutes).
- Stir in rosemary and mushroom; season with salt and pepper, nutmeg and additional rosemary, if desired.
- Transfer the risotto to a dish and serve while it’s hot!
Things to Note
As mentioned above, please start the process the night before by soaking the sorghum. The amount of water doesn’t really matter, so long as all of the sorghum is submerged in water. But, if you are planning to cook this for dinner, per se, set aside around 8 hours to soak the sorghum beforehand. When you are heating the butter and sautée-ing the shallot, please keep watch of it to keep it from burning—shallots burn rather easily.
Make sure to add the vinegar gradually and taste it each time, just to see whether it would be too much. Personally, I added too much in mine and nothing could save it—except maybe another batch of sorghum. The original recipe, however, uses wine—but I don’t consume alcohol, so I swapped it with vinegar.
Lastly, for vegetarian or vegan option, feel free to substitute the mozzarella with vegan cheese or skip it altogether. For the broth, I personally used an instant chicken broth powder—not the healthiest, I know—but you can use dashi or make it yourself. For the vegan-friendly option, you can use shiitake broth powder or make one yourself using konbu or other vegetables.
If you’ve read this post, you may know that I’ve been intrigued by locally produced food—and sorghum in particular—for a while now. In fact, I’ve posted a recipe using sorghum flour before—which I loved and made frequently—but, despite the fact that I bought whole grain sorghum in 2020, I’ve never cooked it before…until now.
You know, this year I was determined to be more intentional with the food that I eat and try as much as I can to choose local produce over imported goods—probably even cutting down on my rice and wheat consumption, for better biodiversity in my palate. Sorghum, in particular, piqued my interest since it looks so much like rice, but more resilient and packed with extra health benefits: it’s gluten-free, low in sugar level (which makes it diabetes-friendly) and requires very little water to grow—which makes it better for the environment for the current climate.
Since I already had a firsthand taste on sorghum as delicious cookies—which I absolutely obsess over—I thought I’d try cooking it like rice this time. And what better way to test this than with a good ol’ risotto dish? Well, you know how much I love Italian food. A fair warning: my first trial of this recipe didn’t go so well. But I did tweak the recipe to fix my errors and add some notes for you to pay attention to. Please don’t be alarmed! This dish is fairly easy to make with the right measurements and I hope you’ll love it.
2 servings (original recipe via Zestful Kitchen)
Prep time: 5 minutes + overnight soaking
Cooking time: ± 1 hour
Ingredients
- 1 cup soaked white whole sorghum grain (100 gr before soaked)
- 2 cloves of shallots, minced
- 5-7 champignon mushrooms, sliced
- 1/4 tbsp. broth powder
- 3 cups of water
- 1/8 cup vinegar
- 1 tbsp. fresh rosemary, minced
- 2 slices of mozzarella cheese (or to taste)
- salt and pepper, to taste
- grated fresh nutmeg, to taste
Instructions
- Before you start, remember to soak the whole sorghum grain the night before.
- Dilute the broth powder in water in a saucepan, bring to a simmer over medium heat, covered, then reduce to medium-low and maintain a simmer.
- Heat butter in a stock pot over medium. Add shallot and cook until softened and translucent (1-2 minutes). Add sorghum and cook, stirring constantly, until edges start to become translucent (2-3 minutes).
- Stir 1 cup warm broth mixture into sorghum and cook, stirring constantly until liquid has nearly absorbed (7-10 minutes). Stir in 1½ cups warm broth mixture, reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring once.
- Uncover pot and cook, stirring constantly ½-1 minute, then stir in the rest of the broth mixture, cover and simmer 10 minutes, stirring once.
- Once the sorghum is tender and creamy (around 20-30 minutes more), stir in the vinegar and cook, stirring constantly, until creamy (about 4 minutes).
- Stir in rosemary and mushroom; season with salt and pepper, nutmeg and additional rosemary, if desired.
- Transfer the risotto to a dish and serve while it’s hot!
Things to Note
As mentioned above, please start the process the night before by soaking the sorghum. The amount of water doesn’t really matter, so long as all of the sorghum is submerged in water. But, if you are planning to cook this for dinner, per se, set aside around 8 hours to soak the sorghum beforehand. When you are heating the butter and sautée-ing the shallot, please keep watch of it to keep it from burning—shallots burn rather easily.
Make sure to add the vinegar gradually and taste it each time, just to see whether it would be too much. Personally, I added too much in mine and nothing could save it—except maybe another batch of sorghum. The original recipe, however, uses wine—but I don’t consume alcohol, so I swapped it with vinegar.
Lastly, for vegetarian or vegan option, feel free to substitute the mozzarella with vegan cheese or skip it altogether. For the broth, I personally used an instant chicken broth powder—not the healthiest, I know—but you can use dashi or make it yourself. For the vegan-friendly option, you can use shiitake broth powder or make one yourself using konbu or other vegetables.