Millet Sweet Potato Porridge in Rice Cooker

Millet sweet potato porridge is a nourishing breakfast. Creamy, naturally sweet, gluten-free and vegan. This millet sweet potato porridge is simple to make in a rice cooker using only 2 ingredients. Program the rice cooker ahead of time, and you will wake up to hot porridge in the morning! Stove top cooking method also included.

When I grew up in China, I ate porridge at breakfast almost every morning. In fact, porridge is a common food in every family. This is because porridges are nourishing, comforting and easily digestible. There are many ways to combine ingredients to make porridges of endless variations.

Millet is a common porridge ingredient, and a nutritious ancient cereal grain (technically a seed). Previously, I shared the health benefits of millet (TCM explanation), a plain millet porridge recipe and popular ingredient pairings of millet in another blog post. Here I want to introduce a slightly sweet porridge by combining millets and sweet potato. In addition, I want to demonstrate through this recipe that a good rice cooker can do more than cooking rice. Prepping ahead can greatly save time in the morning. 

The Rice Cooker I Use

You can’t use just any rice cooker to make this millet sweet potato porridge. Most rice cookers sold in North America are really simple with an “on/off” switch.  In comparison, Asian rice cookers are much more sophisticated and multi-functional. Once you learn to appreciate all the extra features, you will not want to live without them. 

I have been using the same rice cooker for over 15 years. Although I had to replace the inner pot because it just worn out eventually, the rice cooker itself worked wonderfully this entire time. The rice cooker I own is a zojirushi. I dare to say, it is the most famous and trusted Asian rice cooker brand.

Here are some features I really love about my rice cooker:

• Neuro-fuzzy technology: A fancy way of saying that the computer inside the rice cooker can “think” for itself to make fine adjustment to temperature and heating time to cook perfect rice every time. I can honestly say that the rice made in my rice cooker tastes better than the rice made on the stove or in my instant pot.
• Available programs for white rice, brown rice, sweet rice, sushi rice, etc.: As we eat whole grain brown rice and red rice all the time in the house, the “brown rice” setting is the one I use most often.
• A separate program to make porridge: This setting takes about an hour to slow cook the grains into a porridge. The “porridge” setting is what we will cook the millet sweet potato porridge in. 
• You can program 2 timers into the rice cooker: I programmed the 1st timer at 7am, which I use for making breakfast porridge the night before. I programmed the 2nd timer at 5pm, which I use for making rice ready just before dinner.
• Keep warm function: Whenever cooking is done, the rice cooker automatically switches to the “keep warm” setting. 

The zojirushi rice cooker was an expensive investment at the time when I bought it. Looking back, it’s worth every single penny. 

Millet Sweet Potato Porridge Ingredients and Substitutions

Millets

I highly recommend using Chinese foxtail millets to make this porridge. In contrast, the kind of millets grown in North America and sold in most grocery stores has a rough texture and isn’t as tasty. Foxtail millets can be found in Chinese grocery stores. I even found some certified organic Chinese millets in Toronto.

Sweet Potato

Sweet potato adds a hint of natural sweetness to the porridge. For this reason, my kids love the millet sweet potato porridge. You can use any kind of sweet potato, or substitute with butternut squash, kabocha squash or pumpkin. 

How to Make Millet Sweet Potato Porridge in Rice Cooker

The following images illustrate how to make millet sweet potato porridge using a rice cooker. 

1. Add washed millets into the inner pot of the rice cooker.
2. Next, add filtered water into the inner pot of the rice cooker.
3. Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into small pieces.
4. Then add sweet potatoes into the inner pot of the rice cooker.
5. Start the rice cooker using pre-programmed “porridge” setting (this program takes 1-hour cooking time).
6. When cooking is done, the rice cooker will play a ringtone, and then automatically switch to “keep warm” setting until it is manually turned off.

Prep Ahead Using the Rice Cooker Timer Feature

If you could, wouldn’t you love waking up to hot breakfast? If time isn’t a constraint for cooking in the morning, wouldn’t you eat healthier? I honestly think the solution is in preparing breakfasts ahead of time.

It doesn’t mean we have to cook the food on the previous day and eat leftovers. But we can use a programmable appliance to make breakfast while we sleep. Congee and porridge are ideal breakfasts to be cooked overnight. For example, this millet sweet potato porridge made in rice cooker, or Forbidden Rice & Red Bean Congee made in Instant Pot.

On the zojirushi rice cooker, press the “timer” button to toggle between “timer 1” and “timer 2” to choose the timer you want to use for breakfast time. Then, use the “▲” and “▼” buttons to adjust finish time. Once you set the finish time, press “cooking” button to start the rice cooker. The rice cooker will start cooking while you sleep, and finish cooking at the time you set on the timer. 

Related: More Chinese Congee and Porridge Recipes

• Instant Pot Forbidden Rice & Red Bean Congee
• Nourishing Liver, Vegetable & Sweet Rice Congee
• Millet Porridge: A Chinese Postpartum & Digestive Healer

Related: More Time-Saving Breakfast Ideas

• Baked Eggs in Portabella Mushroom Caps (Paleo, Keto, Whole 30)
• Immune-Boosting Chicken Broth Seaweed Egg Drop Soup
• Overnight Banana Spelt Pancakes: Fermented for Better Nutrition and Digestion

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