This hearty millet pilaf dish is seasoned with a Moroccan-inspired spice blend and served with tender oven-roasted carrots, greens, chickpeas, and lemon tahini dressing. It’s a complete plant-based dish with tons of texture and flavor.

Are you new to cooking with whole grain millet? If so, this millet pilaf recipe is a wonderful place to start.

Millet tends to be an underrated grain. I see so many recipes that call for rice, farro, or quinoa—and in fairness, those are the grains that I cook with most often.

Millet, however, is a lovely ingredient to work with. It has a faintly sweet flavor, which I often compare to the flavor of cornbread. It’s texture is light and fluffy. And the cooking time for this grain is about 20-25 minutes, which is convenient.

“Pilaf” is really a modest description for this dish, which also includes crisp greens, tender oven-roasted carrots, chickpeas, and a creamy tahini dressing. The recipe is essentially no different from one of my vegan bowls that feature a grain, green, and a bean.

Within that category, it’s one of my favorites. I love its combination of flavors and textures, and I hope you will, too.

All about millet

Millet isn’t actually a whole grain, though it’s commonly categorized that way.

Millet is a type of edible seed that’s known as a pseudograin. The pseudograin category also includes buckwheat, amaranth, and quinoa.

Like most grains and pseudograins, millet is rich in dietary fiber. It’s also rich in minerals, especially phosphorus and magnesium, but also folate and iron.

Millet isn’t especially rich in protein—it has about five grains of protein per 1/4 cup (dry) serving—but you can combine it with other protein-rich plant foods within your meal.

Millet can be sold in its whole, round form, or in flakes or flour. The flakes cook quickly and make a pleasant breakfast cereal. The whole grain cooks in 15-20 minutes on the stovetop, depending on the recipe and cooking liquid that you use.

Millet flour, which has a sweet and mild taste, is one of my favorite gluten-free flours to work with.

Speaking of, yes—millet is a gluten-free grain, and this is a gluten-free recipe!

A flavorful (and colorful) spice blend

The spice blend that stains my millet pilaf gold is inspired by some of the spices that are common in Moroccan cuisine.

These include cumin, ginger, turmeric, black pepper, and cinnamon.

I love that this spice mix is savory and warm. It shows up in a lot of my home cooking, including my Moroccan-inspired chickpea tomato stew and butternut stew.

It’s also the seasoning that makes the Moroccan-inspired lentils and sweet potatoes from my cookbook Power Plates come to life.

I love the way that turmeric turns foods a beautiful, vibrant yellow. Thanks to that spice in particular, all components of this millet pilaf recipe, including the millet itself, are colorful.

How to make millet pilaf with oven-roasted carrots

Like so many of my grain bowl (or grain bowl adjacent) dishes, this one calls for a few steps.

This is the sort of recipe that’s great for meal prep, and it benefits from being broken down into stages.

Maybe you cook the millet pilaf itself one day, then roast your carrots and whisk together the dressing on the next.

Ultimately, the order is up to you, but tackling the recipe piece-by-piece may help to make the process simpler!

Step 1: Roast the carrots

Every time I roast carrots in the oven, I marvel at how good they are. I roast and air-fry so many batches of sweet potatoes, and while I love them, other beta-carotene-rich vegetables deserve some love, too.

You’ll roast the carrots at 400°F / 200°C for 35-40 minutes. Before roasting, season the carrots with cumin, olive oil, salt, pepper, and a touch of maple syrup, which highlights their natural sweetness.

Step 2: Prepare the millet pilaf

Millet can be cooked plainly, with a 1:2 ratio of dry grain to water and about 15-20 minutes of simmering. Some methods call for dry-toasting the grain in a skillet before adding liquid.

This recipe is a bit more complex, but the resulting millet pilaf is so worthy in its flavor and texture.

You’ll start by popping cumin seeds in your deep skillet or a pot with a little olive oil. Then, sauté onion and celery till tender.

Finally, add the millet to the pot, along with broth. (I think broth imparts more flavor to the grain than water alone.)

Bring the mixture to a simmer, cover the millet, and simmer it over low heat for 18-20 minutes, or until nearly all of the broth is absorbed.

Remove the millet from heat and let it rest for about 10 minutes; this completes the cooking process and ensures a fluffy, pleasant grain.

Step 3: Whisk together the tahini dressing

If you ask me, dressing made with tahini, or sesame seed, paste, is as versatile and essential a condiment as any.

I have plenty of recipes that attest to my love of this creamy mixture, including herbaceous green tahini dressing, brightly-colored turmeric tahini dressing, and sweet and tangy orange tahini dressing.

As an accompaniment to my millet pilaf, I like to use a lemony, garlicky tahini dressing. It’s a perfectly bright counterpoint to the deep sweetness of carrots and peppery bite of arugula.

Making tahini dressing is wonderfully easy: just whisk all of the ingredients together till smooth. You may need to thin the mixture a little with additional water, till it’s a consistency you like.

Step 4: Assemble

Finally, it’s time to assemble your plated millet pilaf with all of the components. I like to arrange a bed of arugula onto each serving dish, plate or bowl).

Then top the greens with a quarter each of the pilaf and carrots, and a heaping third cup of cooked chickpeas. You can use canned chickpeas in the recipe, which is my preference, or beans that you’ve cooked from scratch.

Drizzle the plate generously with the tahini dressing just before serving. If you like, you can add some chopped, fresh herbs, such as cilantro or parsley, as well.

Other pleasant finishing touches for this dish:

• Toasted pine nuts
• Pomegranate arils
• Quick pickled onions

Make-ahead and storage options

The millet pilaf and roasted carrots can each be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to four days.

The tahini dressing can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to six days.

If you’re making ahead, and you don’t intend to eat the dish right away, I recommend storing the components separately and plating them together when you’re ready to enjoy them.

The word that comes to mind when I think about this layered dish is cheery: cheery colors, cheery vibe.

I hope the millet pilaf will brighten your day and lift your spirits!

xo