Bhaidku – the multigrain breakfast porridge

The Gujarati house-holds follow a particular pattern when it comes to meal planning. Each day has a  are certain meal -combinations, like on Wednesdays we invariably have moong on the menu, on Thursdays there has to be a chana dal preparation and so forth. So when the menu has foods that do not suit the elderly the home maker would ensure there was either Khichri or Bhaidku or Thuli on the menu. These are foods that easy to chew and digest, very apt for the family elders. Bhaidku is a millet and legume mixture, essentially bajra and moong-dal. The word Bhaidku derives from the verb Bharadvu – which in Gujarati means ‘to grind.’ The mix is  ground coarsely which gives the cooked Bhaidku some texture. In the bygone times when all the grains were ground manually Bhaidku, Thuli, Lapsi flours that are either coarse or gritty  would have been quite a relief for the lady assigned with the task of grinding.

In the countryside, spiced Bhaidku is had with millet rotla ( the millet flat bread). During the times when there were no roadside food-joints the folks would carry  it while traveling as it was easy to carry porridge. The millets are very filling and slow to digest so a bowl of Bhaidku would keep us full for very long time. And because of this quality it is also a preferred breakfast porridge and is usually had with milk. Since it is made quite often for breakfast, I developed a liking for it. I can understand it might not look vey appetizing but if we look at it from nutritional aspect it is a  mix that  the ‘doctors ordered.’

Our neighborhood flour mill prepares their in-house Bhaidku mixture, the  ‘7-dhaan’ or 7 grain Bhaidku mix. For every 1 kilo Bajra (pearl millet) they add 100 grams each of yellow moong dal, chana dal, rice,wheat, jowar and maize. All of these grains are ground to a coarse mix. You may prepare the Bhaidku mix at home because outside Gujarat this is a difficult flour to find.