Polish Christmas: Millet with Poppy seeds

Over the last couple of years I made another twist on my favourite Christmas Dish - Pasta with Poppy seeds. I decided to replace pasta with millet; and it turned out to be my favourite version!

Wheat berries that are often used instead on pasta in the traditional kutia, the Christmas dish very popular in the Eastern Poland close to the Ukrainian border, are very hard to find in my region of Canada.



Ingredients:
1.5 cup of cooked millet (I like to rinse it a couple of times before cooking, at times I soak it)
1.5 cup of poppy seeds (soaked in hot water for 2 days and rinsed 4 times)
0.5 cup of dried fruits - I use figs and dates, raising work well too
0.5 cup of nuts - I like the best pistachios and almonds in this recipe
1 lemon - juice and zest
4 tbsp of raw honey






Steps:
1. Place soaked and drained poppy seeds in the blender with honey and lemon juice. Blend until it is fairly smooth and poppy seeds are crushed. This is very important step and may require few minutes. Whole poppy seeds are quite bitter and you may need more honey to compensate if you do not crush them enough.
2. Add all remaining ingredients, and mix well.
3. Traditionally it is a Christmas dessert. I also enjoy it for breakfast after Christmas. It can be stored in the fridge for a week.
4. Enjoy!