Rice is a staple food here in the Philippines. At our home, almost every meal has rice. But did you know that although rice has it’s benefits, there’s actually a better alternative? That alternative is called Sorghum. I recently learned about this grain when I was approached to review Wholly Grain Sorghum.

What is Sorghum?

Here are some facts about this superfood.

• Sorghum is an ancient grain that originated from the north-eastern part of Africa around 5,000 to 8,000 years ago. Its secondary origin
  is from India, which had evidence of cultivation dating back to about 4,500 years.
• Sorghum is part of the top five cereal grains being produced around Asia, Africa, and Central America.
• This grain has been used in many traditional foods such as breads, couscous, porridge, and snacks.
• There are several types of Sorghum grains, and the kind usually consumed is the sweet white Sorghum, which is often used as a sweetener.
• These grains are not only natural, but are also environmentally sustainable.
• Sorghum requires only about a 60th the amount of water rice would use in cultivation, and are drought tolerant.
• Locally, Sorghum Grains are grown and harvested in Ilocos Norte, a province located in Northern Philippines.

Benefits of Sorghum:

Sorghum, being used as a staple for millennia, is a superfood.

• Its nutrition density, is higher than that of Brown, Red Rice and Quinoa, and provides many health benefits.
• It is an excellent staple for dieting, as the grain’s high protein and fiber content keeps one satiated for a longer time period.
• Its dietary fiber also aids in digestion and increasing metabolism, while helping lower blood cholesterol.
• It is whole grain and gluten-free.
• It also contains fiber, protein and calcium.
• It is good for the body, the heart, and the bones.

Wholly Grain:

Wholly Grain is a natural leader for healthy snacks and staples. With its star product, Sorghum grains, Wholly Grain introduces a more fibrous and nutritious alternative to any grain in the market–driving more to adopt a higher quality of living.

The company sources their grain from small-scale growers to help develop the local community. The grains are minimally processed, so as to preserve
the product’s nutritional integrity. They were strained of all unnecessary particles collected in the harvest, and de-husked once using a colloid mill.
After which, the grains were placed into resealable packages, made ready for home-cooking.

This is how Wholly Grain sorghum is packaged. It is available in 500 gram packs for only Php 70.00, in 1 kg resealable packs for only Php 120.00, and in 2 kg packs for only P 220.00.

The first photo above shows how the actual sorghum grain looks like. As you can see it looks a lot like popcorn, only smaller.

How to Cook Sorghum:

As mentioned above, sorghum is usually used as an alternative to rice. The packaging says to boil it with water in a pot in a ratio of 1:4 for about 90 minutes until it is soft to eat. We tried cooking it as rice at home but used a rice cooker instead. We didn’t wait 90 minutes and just let the rice cooker estimate the cooking time. This process is faster but since we didn’t try to cook it in a pot for 90 minutes, I’m not sure how different it would be if we did. We were happy with the result though.

The sorghum was cooked just right. It wasn’t very white like rice and looked more like soft corn. But I like it’s texture and the fact that it’s flavorful on its own. Plus, so filling too!

Here, we paired it with stir fry chicken and vegetables. We just put some of the sorghum on top. It was a really yummy and healthy meal that even our kids enjoyed eating.

However, sorghum is not just a rice alternative. You can eat it like popcorn as well. That was really exciting to me because we love eating popcorn at home although I try to limit eating it because it’s not really healthy especially because we like it with lots of butter.

To pop sorghum, the packaging said to just heat a pan, pour the sorghum and wait for it to pop. It said you must move the pan to stir the sorghum to avoid it from burning. This didn’t really work for us though and this resulted to a few burnt batches. But we discovered that it was best to cook it with a little olive oil instead and use a spatula to keep stirring the sorghum until it all pops. Here’s the outcome.

I have to say, the popped version is yummy as well. Unlike plain popcorn, popped sorghum already tastes good on its own. It already has its own slightly salty taste. However, popped sorghum is smaller though. But it’s not something we mind. We actually couldn’t stop munching on it (even the slightly burned ones!). So, it’s actually good that it’s healthier. We get the feeling of eating popcorn without the guilt.

This is definitely a product that our entire family love. My hubby is actually borderline diabetic and I think a large part of this is because he loves to eat a lot of rice. Now, he can have a fulfilling meal that’s a lot healthier because of sorghum!

You can try it yourself. Order some for your family by sending a message to Wholly Grain via their Facebook page.

Happy healthy eating!