MEDIA ADVISORY: Colorado State University Food Product Development Class Holds Millet Recipe Tasting

What: A Colorado State University class in food product development will be holding a tasting for gluten-free recipes they’ve developed that are made with millet. Winning recipes will be featured in the university’s Aspen Grille restaurant for a limited time. The contest is the conclusion of a six-week class project and will include a variety of dishes. Tasters, who were chosen by invitation only, include representatives from the Colorado Department of Agriculture.

When/Where: 1 – 2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 16 at the Horsetooth Room, Ram’s Horn Dining Commons in the Academic Village.

Details: Students were required to develop recipes that included whole millet or millet flour. Foods featured in the tasting will include lettuce wraps, a southwestern salad and comfort foods such as fruit crisps and stuffed peppers. Students could change existing recipes but were required to change a minimum of three ingredients.

Millet is a naturally gluten-free grain that is the most nutritious of all grains yet is not commonly consumed. Colorado grows more millet than any other state, and the class project is in conjunction with the Colorado Department of Agriculture, which is working to expand the gluten-free and international food markets for Colorado-grown millet.

Millet is cooked like whole-grain rice but requires half the time to cook. It contains 15 percent more protein such as essential amino acids, and also is high in fiber, contains iron, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese, potassium and B-complex vitamins. Although millet has been grown since 2700 BC, there is currently little research on growing and preparing millet.

The class developing the recipes is part of the Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition in the College of Applied Human Sciences.
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