Nourishing kanji deserves a comeback in our daily diet

Whether you prefer to call it by the old colonial word "congee" or the now popular name kanji, make sure you make this unbelievably nourishing broth a part of your daily diet. It was extremely popular in traditional diets, for a reason, but somehow seems to have fallen wayward, and lost favour with us today. A big loss, I feel.

Still remember how while growing up rice kanji was a quick fix for diarrhoea, and was served up whenever anyone in the family was unwell or the digestive system was playing up.

And no, before you say out loud what I know you are thinking - it is not a food just for those who are sick, or who are too old to eat anything else. In fact it is so designed that it can help avoid and delay both these situations very effectively. Plus it is a brilliant comfort food!

Now kanji is not just "one" broth. There are multiple kanjis. So besides the better known rice kanji, it can be made with multiple other grains - pearl millet (bajra), finger millet (ragi), wheat and maize too.

Process is similar: simply boil respective flours and add milk and jaggery and slurp up warm. In fact it was from beeji, my husband's badima that I learnt how to make pearl millet (bajra) kanji. She would soak bajra overnight, pressure cook it, grind it a bit, add some jaggery and in the morning it'll be ready to be gulped.

But it is the savoury option that she made which I looked forward to more (after cooking instead of jaggery just add fresh butter milk to it and temper with salt, green chillies and curry paste). According to her it was the best kanji to have. "Most easily digestible," she would say.

That's probably because bajra is (like rice) gluten-free, and beside being high in magnesium (hence good for heart, and blood pressure and blood sugar control), it is great for weight control too. It is very popular in Tamil Nadu and is called kambu kanji there.

With ragi kanji, another gluten-free grain you can score lots of calcium and iron and it is an ideal food for diabetes and overweight people too, as its digestion is slow and glucose is released from the intestines very slowly into the blood.

Oats kanji (thickened sweetened oats spiked with cardamom, saffron and nuts) is probably the best way to have oats and score the cereal's cholesterol cutting benefits too. Oats act almost like nature's broom, literally whisking excess cholesterol out of the system, and antioxidant compounds unique to oats, called avenanthramides are a panacea for the heart.

Another great option is moong dal kanji. To make this simply pressure cook dry roasted moong dal in water, then add milk and jaggery. Besides being a brilliant source of iron, easily digestible protein, moong dal has an extremely cooling effect too, so helps keep the body temperature balanced. Great for the hot months ahead!

Apparently there is a multigrain kanji too called sathu maavu kanji which is made by mixing wheat, rice, bajra, ragi, moong dal, corn, some nuts (peanuts, almonds and cashews)… I'm yet to try this but it sure sounds like a glass of pure protein deliciousness.

Then, of course, there is the famous kali gajar (carrot) kanji, which is made by fermenting carrots, and is possibly the best potion you can drink up to sort out all your gut issues.

This is also coveted due to the high concentration of anthocyanin in the kali gajars, which are proven anti-carcinogenic. But this one is seasonal as these carrots are in season only for a short few months every year. But remember to try it out the moment these are back on the vegetable carts and are fresh.

The bottom line is that kanjis are not difficult to make and can easily be incorporated in our diets. But the problem is pure and simple laziness. Drop it and start having kanji (any that you fancy or by rotation) twice or thrice a week and see the health benefits add up. And your soul thanks you too for feeding it the comforting gruel.