Nutrition Tip of the Week: Try a New Whole Grain // Sorghum & Curried Carrot Salad

Remember when Captain Create shared all about whole grains with you? (Check it out here)

It’s important to eat a variety of foods from each of the MyPlate food groups, and sorghum is a naturally gluten free whole grain food that is sometimes called an Ancient Grain. It has been a popular food grain for people residing in Asia and Africa for a long time. The earliest known record of sorghum comes from an archaeological dig at Nabta Playa, near the Egyptian-Sudanese border and had been dated at 8,000 B.C. That counts as Ancient!

In the USA, sorghum is most often grown in the Midwest and South, and can be grown for processing into a sweet syrup, a whole grain for people to eat, or for animal feed or ethanol. Kansas farmers grew 3.2 million acres of sorghum in 2021!

What can sorghum do for you? Sorghum is full of tasty whole grain nutrition!

It has:

Protein provides the building blocks for bone, muscle, skin and enzyme development
Iron strengthens the immune system and oxygen-carrying capacity in the blood
Vitamin B6 is integral in synthesizing antibodies and enhancing nerve function
Niacin provides improved blood circulation
Magnesium aids in calcium absorption and body temperature regulation
Phosphorus helps form healthy bones

As long as it has been harvested on machines that don’t also harvest wheat, its gluten free too!

Sorghum is easy to cook! Simply cook it in water, the rice cooker, or you can pop it like popcorn, but popped sorghum is mini! It only takes a minute or two in the microwave in a brown paper bag.

If you want to try another way to share sorghum with your family, make this easy whole grain salad!

Sorghum is usually in the gluten free part of the grocery store, and most stores can order it if they don’t have it in stock for you to buy. This salad is a tasty side to many Asian or African style dishes like grilled marinated meat or tofu, or you can eat it by itself for lunch!