Sorghum

Sorghum, or jowar, is an ancient cereal grain harvested from Sorghum bicolor, a drought-tolerant annual grass in the Poaceae family.

In Indian kitchens you’ll find it as unpolished whole kernels or milled into flour. You’ll hear it called Jwari (Marathi), Jola (Kannada), Jonnalu (Telugu), Cholam (Tamil), and Juwar (Gujarati).

Mild, faintly sweet and starchy at first. When roasted or cooked on a dry skillet, it turns fragrant and pleasantly nutty. Expect an earthy base with subtle sweet undertones.

For flatbreads, use finely milled jowar flour. Blend the flour with hot water to gelatinize the starches, then pat and cook Maharashtrian jowar bhakri or North Karnataka jolada rotti.

In winter, tender green sorghum grains are charcoal-roasted to make seasonal hurda in Maharashtra and ponk in Gujarat.

If you want deeper flavor, dry-roasting the grains on a skillet brings out a distinctly toasted, nutty note.

Sorghum originated and was first domesticated in northeastern Africa before spreading across the Indian subcontinent through ancient trade routes. In India today, Maharashtra is the leading producer, with Karnataka also a major producer. Rajasthan grows large areas in the kharif season, and Madhya Pradesh and Telangana are among the principal sorghum-growing regions.

Sorghum is completely gluten-free and provides dietary fiber, complex carbohydrates, and plant protein along with minerals such as iron and phosphorus.