You may look at millet and think, “That looks like birdseed!”, and you would be right.  Birds love millet and it is found in all sorts of birdseed blends.  But it is also a really tasty seed for us to incorporate into our diets.  Millet is rich in B17 which should be a part of every healthy and cancer-preventative diet.  It has a nutty taste and can be found as whole seeds, puffed cereal (I love puffed millet as a cereal, especially for use in my Puffed Millet Bars), or ground to be used as flour.  I usually buy the whole seeds and grind what I need in my spice grinder when I need the flour.

Using millet as a dressing is a great way to get all of the traditional holiday flavors into a dish, and this recipe takes advantage of both dried rubbed sage and fresh sage leaves.  While it was cooking during my last Gluten Free Thanksgiving cooking class, one of the students said “That just smells like Thanksgiving!”.  Using sage to satisfy those scent memories makes this dish even more successful among your gluten free and traditional guests alike!

Harvest Sage Millet Dressing

1 cup millet
2 ½ cups water
1 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp celery seed
1/2  tbsp rubbed sage
2 cups colorful diced veggies – carrots, celery, onions, peppers, zucchini, turnips, etc.
Olive oil
Fresh sage leaves
1 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp Lea & Perrin’s Worchestershire sauce (gluten free)

Boil the water. Add the spices and the millet, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.
Remove from the heat and let sit uncovered 20 minutes. (This is the key to having all of the millet soft and fluffy. It seems counter-intuitive to let it sit uncovered to finish, but it really works!) Makes about 3 cups.

Slice or roughly pull apart the sage leaves. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil and sauté the vegetables and the sage leaves. Add the sautéed vegetables to the millet and toss. Add the tamari and Worcestershire sauce and toss. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Serve as is, or put into a casserole dish and warm through. Don’t let it sit uncovered in the oven for too long though, or the top layer of millet will dry out. Or, use this as your turkey stuffing.

Choose your vegetables to give a nice sprinkling of color to this dish, with more veggies for use as a vegetable side dish, or less to make it more of a grain dressing or stuffing.