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This millet rice recipe is made with seasonal Spring asparagus and a delicious vegan lemon butter sauce, giving it a vibrant and delicious taste.
No need to keep eating the same boring stir fry rice recipe over and over. When using millet as a rice replacement, you get more versatility and a lot more nutrition!
Is Millet Healthier Than Rice?
Millet packs much more nutrition than regular brown (or white) rice.
- Millet is used as a grain but it is technically a seed. This makes it naturally gluten free.
- It is the most alkaline of all grains.
- It has a lot more fiber than brown rice and has been used to help with sugar cravings.
- Millet has abundance of minerals like magnesium, potassium, zinc, and calcium.
That’s A LOT of health benefits! Move over rice there’s a new sheriff in town! Check out this awesome resource (Good Grains: What Is Millet) to learn more about the history and benefits of millet.
How To Eat Millet?
You can use millet for…
- porridge
- homemade granola
- breads and muffins
- homemade vegan burgers
- stir fry dishes
- any other dish that would normally call for rice!
Millet can be found in your local store in the bulk section or rice aisle, the intentional ethic store, or you can order it online here.
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING ABOUT THIS RECIPE!
I did try the millet recipe and it too was awesome and so quick and easy. I can’t wait to try your other recipes! – Kelly Macaulay
How To Make This Millet Rice Recipe:
*Please read detailed and printable recipe card below for full ingredients and instructions.
Cooking the Perfect Millet Rice
- Soak your millet for an hour or over night. Then rinse your millet. (Photos 1 &2)
- Simmer your millet rice for 20 minutes until liquid is fully absorb. After millet sits, fluff it with a fork. (Photos 3 & 4)
Lemon Butter Garlic Sauce (Vegan Style)
- Now you are going to make your delicious lemon butter sauce. First melt your vegan butter in a saucepan or microwave. (Photo 1 & 2)
- Next add your garlic powder, salt, and squeeze fresh lemon juice into the bowl. Mix well until fully combined. Super easy! (Photo 3 & 4)
How to Boil Asparagus
- Don’t feel imitated if you never cooked asparagus before it’s super easy! Start by rinsing off your asparagus. (Photo 1)
- Then you are going to snap off the woody edges (the part where the asparagus starts to turn white) for each asparagus piece because the bottom tips of asparagus are extremely tough. It’s just like snapping green beans. You can also use a knife to cut the bottoms off. Both methods shown below. (Photo 2 & 3)
- Then chop the rest of your asparagus into pieces and boil for 2 to 3 minutes. (Photo 4 & 5)
- Transfer to ice cold water to stop cooking and drain. This step is optional but helps stop the cook of the asparagus to preserve some of it’s pretty bright green color. (Photo 6)
Putting It All Together
- Now it’s time to assemble all of this yumminess! Add half your lemon garlic butter sauce to a heated pan. (Photo 1)
- Then add your white beans, tomatoes, millet, and asparagus to the pan and pour the remaining lemon garlic sauce over the pan. (Photo 2 & 3)
- Stir as if you are cooking stir fry for a few minutes until fully heated through. (Photo 4)
SUBSTITUTION, COOK, AND STORAGE TIPS:
- Make sure you do not skip soaking your millet. Most grains, seeds, and nuts have enzyme inhibitors. Soaking your millet helps release these inhibitors and make it easier to digest and absorb nutrients.
- Keep in mind that soaked grains like millet cook faster so DO NOT OVERCOOK or will end up with a porridge consistency.
- Cooking your millet in broth instead of water adds more flavor and I highly recommend doing so.
- Though you can use any vegetable you like, I urge you to not replace the asparagus (unless you just really hate asparagus). It adds a nice “light” feel to the dish and asparagus taste DELICIOUS with the lemon butter sauce!
- Use White Northern Beans instead of Navy White Beans. Both will work but white Northern Beans have a delicious butter nutty texture that pairs well with this dish.
- This millet rice recipe DOES NOT FREEZE well. However it will store it in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.
Vegan With Curves Star Ingredient:
No surprise here that millet is the Vegan With Curves star ingredient of this recipe. One cup of millet has 41 grams of “curvy” carbohydrates and 6 grams of plant based protein.
To make this more weight loss (waste/weight release friendly) you could:
- Lower the portion serving.
- Omit the butter and replace it with broth. Then flavors of the garlic and lemon.
- Omit the white beans and replace it with mushrooms or your favorite vegetable!
If this is your first time trying millet you will love it! It has a really nutty texture like no other grain. With fresh asparagus and lemon butter sauce, this dish has a wonder savory and spring like taste. Enjoy!
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Millet Rice with Asparagus and Lemon Butter Sauce
Ingredients
Millet
- 1 cup dry millet
- 2 cups vegetable broth or stock (or water)
Vegan Lemon Butter Sauce
- ½ cup vegan butter
- 3-4 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ -1 teaspoon sea salt
Asparagus
- 1 pound fresh asparagus
- 2 cups water
- 2-4 cups water additional optional; please read instructions
- ice cubes optional; please read instructions
Other Ingredients
- 3 small roma tomatoes (or any type of tomatoes you like)
- 1 16 ounce can white nothern beans, drained
- handful chopped parsley (for garnish; optional)
Instructions
Cook Your Millet
- Soak your millet for an hour or overnight. Drain and rinse.
- Bring 2 cups of vegetable broth (or water) to a boil in a large pot. Once the broth starts to boil, add your rinsed and soaked millet to pot and lower to a simmer
- Cooked covered for about 20 minutes until grain absorbs the most of the broth and water.
- Once done, remove from heat and allow millet to sit covered for about 10 minutes to allow millet to fully absorb the liquid.
- After millet sits, fluff it with a fork and set aside.
Vegan Lemon Butter Sauce
- Grab your vegan butter and melt in microwave or in a small sauce pan over low heat.
- Transfer melt butter into a small bowl and add lemon juice, garlic powder, and sea salt. Mix together until fully combined and set aside.
Cook Your Asparagus
- Grab your fresh asparagus and rinse well.
- Then bend to snap off the the woody end of the asparagus or cut those off. (Please refer to video below or photos above for demonstration).
- After snapping off the woody ends, cut the rest of your asparagus into small pieces. (Please refer to video below or photos above for demonstration).
- Grab a large pot or skillet and bring 2 cups of water to a boil over high heat.
- Grab a large bowl and fill with COLD water adding a few ice cubes. (This is optional step for if you desire to stop you asparagus from loosing too much of it's green color from being boiled.)
- Add chopped asparagus to your pot and boil for about 2 to 3 minutes just enough to get tender.
- Then immediately turn off heat and transfer you asparagus to the cold ice water. This stops the asparagus from overcooking, keeping it's bright green color. (You can skip this step if you like and simply remove you asparagus from boiled water and drain on a paper towel in a separate bowl.)
Putting It All Together
- Rinse and chop your tomatoes leaving them on your cutting board.
- Next open your can beans, drain in a colander, and rinse the liquid off it was packed in.
- Grab a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Add (in this order) half lemon garlic sauce, beans, tomatoes, millet and lastly asparagus.
- Next pour the rest of the lemon garlic sauce over the ingredients and kinda toss and stir in your skillet until sauce fully covers all of the ingredients for about 3 to 4 minutes.
- Remove from heat, garnish with chopped parsley (optional), and serve immediately. This dish can be kept in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. It DOES NOT freeze well.
Video
Notes
- Remember to SOAK YOUR MILLET to make for easier digestion and better absorption of nutrients.
- Having a hard time finding millet? Try this recipe with quinoa!
- If you really hate asparagus you can substitute with broccoli or your favorite vegetable
- I highly recommend white Northern Beans for it's nutty texture but this recipe will work with any bean. Chickpeas pairs well with millet!
- If beans aren't your thing you may omit it from this recipe.
- This millet rice recipe DOES NOT FREEZE well. However it will store it in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days.
Nutrition
Update Notes: This post was originally published in April 19, 2018, but was republished with new photos, step by step instructions, tips, and a video April 5, 2019.
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