Staycation Meal #4

 

Somehow, I was in the mood for something really different. This was a warm fonio salad sweet potato bowl with curried pecan sauce (recipe from Hello Kalin). Although the recipe was written in a way that I think misdirected me, so it has a lower fonio-to-other-things ratio than intended, it was still pretty good--if a bit on the light side.

Fonio is a West African grain that has a texture very similar to couscous, and a virtually identical cooking method--soak it five minutes in just-boiled water, then fluff. It's a type of millet, with the smallest seeds of all species of millet. This was my first time trying it, but I look forward to more experiments, since it is truly so easy to prep. It's kind of like a lazy quinoa.

The recipe said to use 1 cup of cooked fonio, but I think it meant to say to cook 1 cup of fonio, which would be 4 times as much. I cooked a half cup because I suspected as much and figured if it was way too much I'd just have extra for something else. I ended up with less fonio than I think it was supposed to have, but it was still tasty.

The pecan sauce intrigued me and wasn't that great on its own, but somehow it really made everything sing when put over the fonio salad and roasted sweet potatoes. Go figure that out. I've made a lot of nutty sauces, but never one that I recall from pecans. I think I would probably have enjoyed a cashew or peanut sauce more, but it was still pretty great all together.

Have you had fonio? Let me know how you like to have it, if you have!