Easy Millet with Red Kidney Beans (Pitimi ak pwa rouge) Recipe
Millet, Pitimi or Petit Mil with Red Kidney Beans can be cooked the same way as Rice with Red Kidney Beans. Millet, a healthy grain, has many great benefits.
First and foremost, be aware that if you want to cook Millet, Pitimi, or Petit Mil, you cannot be starving or think you will eat in 15 – 20 minutes. I can assure you it will not happen. But if you can wait patiently, you will have a healthy, tasty dish. That goes for the millet in the photo below in West Indian Markets.
The name of the recipe is different in Creole. The same fish may be called Millet ak pois rouge, which is the French Creole translation. In Creole, Pitimi ak paw roug.
Don’t forget to read my article about the Health Benefits of Millet or Pearl Millet, which translates into Creole, Pitimi, and French, Petit Mil? This grain has so many special benefits that it is important to include it in your diet and, of course, after reading the great information and researching it a bit more.
The ingredients in the Millet ak pwa rouge recipe
- Olive oil: it is best to use that type of oil because it is healthy and best to cook with. You can also choose coconut or grapeseed oil.
- Garlic cloves: if you can always use fresh garlic cloves when cooking most grains
- Fresh chives: a great herb to add to this recipe. If you cannot find it, substitute it with scallions.
- Fresh parsley: for flavor and aroma. Many people also add fresh herbs to all their grains dishes, not for the flavor but also for
- Onion: for flavorful
- Whole Cloves: many dishes need some earthy flavor, and cloves are the right choice for grains. You can add whole cloves or ground cloves.
- Fresh Thyme: if you don’t have fresh thyme, you can always use dried thyme.
- Water: use hot water, preferably
- Millet grains: contain a wealth of healthy benefits. You can find it on Amazon, local supermarkets, or West Indian and Caribbean supermarkets.
- Cooked red kidney beans with beans broth: it is best to use fresh red kidney beans and not canned beans.
- Salt and pepper to taste
- Tomato paste: this ingredient is mostly for color.
How to cook Millet
Petit Mil with Red Kidney Beans can be cooked like Rice with Red Kidney Beans. Both dishes can be cooked with similar spices as well. The only difference is timing. One main ingredient will affect cooking if you choose to make this dish. While you may opt to use canned beans because it will save time, I advise against it. Cooking with dried beans is the best and healthier option. If you use dried kidney beans, add 1 – 2 hours to the cooking time. That will take a total of 4 hours to eat this dish.
Loving your stomach has to be a priority! I just realized that I forgot one important tip. If you love cooking beans with grains, on Saturdays, for example, cook about 1 – 2 bags of dried beans (depending on the size of your family); when cooled, divide into portions, and freeze in plastic or glass containers. Whenever you need to cook your grains with beans, the time spent preparing a meal will drastically be less.
Another marvelous way to enjoy healthier grains is by cooking with fresh herbs. I think fresh herbs add more aroma to grains than dried herbs. I am not saying you should ignore your dried herbs entirely but use fresh herbs when possible. They are better for you, in my opinion.
So again, if you want to make Petit Mil with Red Kidney Beans, please don’t start cooking on an empty stomach. Eat a fruit or something! Cook this wonderful meal and enjoy it!
Millet with Red Kidney Beans (Pitimi ak pois rouge)
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1 teaspoon fresh chives chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- ½ onion minced
- 2 – 3 whole cloves
- 1 fresh thyme sprig
- 3 ½ cups water
- 2 cups millet washed
- ¾ cup cooked red kidney beans with 1cup beans broth (warm)
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 – 2 tablespoons Tomato paste optional
Instructions
- Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan. Add garlic, chives, parsley, onion, cloves and thyme and fry for 2 – 3 minutes stirring. Add tomato paste if using before adding water (let tomato paste cook with spices). Add water and bring to boil. In the meantime, rinse millet under cold running water. When water starts to boil, add millet, stir, and season with salt and pepper and let cook over medium heat. When water has almost evaporated, add cooked beans with its broth gently stir and continue to cook. Check seasoning and add additional salt and pepper. When all the water evaporates, lower heat, cover and cook for 45 minutes to one hour, gently stirring millet mixture occasionally. Let millet cook completely before serving. Serve with seafood, poultry or meat of your choice.
Notes
Nutrition
Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on the products used.
Nutrition info is automatically generated and provided as a courtesy and as an estimate only.
Corn Allergy:
Always choose ingredients without corn or corn derivatives.
Originally published November 22, 2014. Revised and updated.
Hi, thank you for this recipe. I love sorghum, and I have found the Haitian one, PITIMI, and I was looking for ideas on how to make it Haitian style… (I am Italian and have 0 knowledge of Haitian food culture). Thanks for sharing this.
P.S. FYI I’d like to mention that millet, the one commonly found in stores, cooks in max 15-20 minutes, if you cook it for one hour and with that much water you will get a puree. The grain that cooks in one hour or more, that has a similar look to millet, but slightly darker and is called pitimi, is the SORGHUM.
Thanks for your comment. I have not heard of the grains called sorghum, but I will definitely check it out. Regarding the cooking time, the unrefined millet grains sold at the west Indian stores take longer to cook than the one, for example, Bob Red Mills brand. We may update the post to reflect that. Thanks for sharing. Have an awesome day!
I too found a bag of pitimi (which also says sorghum) at a local ethnic market and wasn’t quite sure how to cook it so it didn’t turn to mush… I wanted a grain with some bite, like quinoa or rice. I found Instant pot cooking directions for sorghum, but got mush. I think because on closer inspection the pitimi sorghum is a cracked version, not an intact whole grain, and cooks faster. Any ideas?
Interesting bit of trivia I learned also… I always though millet was a particular kind of seed, but in much of the world it is a catchall term for any variety of small, roundish, cereal seeds… hence the millet/sorghum confusion. At my Indian grocery there are lots of varieties of “millet”… jowar millet, (which is actually sorghum) finger millet (ragi) , foxtail millet, pearl millet, proso millet, amaranth millet, (a tiny seed related to quinoa) buckwheat “millet”(kutu) and so on. Confusing… but tasty!