Popped Grains

Did you know that you could pop grains like sorghum and amaranth like popcorn?  I have a big race coming up and I've been looking for ways to carbo-load in a healthy way to fuel my body for long distance training runs and long races.  I had seen this idea on a cooking show a few years ago and then forgot about it until one night my husband and I were trying to figure out what to do with all of our grains and remembered this idea!  We had amaranth, millet, and barley on hand and only the amaranth really popped.  Then I bought sorghum on Amazon.com to try that out and they even make popping sorghum which has a slightly higher moisture content than regular sorghum you can buy in a grocery store.

I'm not going to lie, there is definitely a technique to doing this which we haven't fully mastered yet.  The amaranth popped best when placed on a really hot dry pan on the stove top and was just constantly swished around.  Amaranth is a really small grain so the popped result is also small.  We just added a little sea salt and ate it with a spoon.  It was actually delicious.

The sorghum requires coconut oil to be heated to a really high temperature in a pan on the stove top, pour in about an 1/8 cup of grain in the pan, cover with a plate to catch the flying grains when they pop, and swish the pan around after it starts popping.  Popped sorghum most resembles little popcorn kernels and tastes delicious.   It has soaked up a bit of the coconut oil so if you just add a little sea salt, it is quite delicious.

Why would someone go to all this work when they can just have popcorn you ask?  These grains have a much higher complex carb, protein, calcium, and iron content than regular popcorn.  Plus it's just fun to try something different.