Grains, rice & flours · Gluten-free flours
Sorghum meal
Mild, slightly sweet gluten-free meal from sorghum grain; used for jowar roti, stiff porridges and gluten-free baking.
Also called: sorghum flour, mabele, jowar flour, red sorghum meal, mtama flour
Around the world: mabele (tn) · jowar (hi)
Photo: Martin Hipangwa, via Wikimedia Commons (CC-BY-SA-4.0)
What it is
Sorghum is a drought-tolerant cereal grown widely in Africa and India. Its flour is pale cream (white sorghum) or reddish (red sorghum), and red sorghum meal is often fermented for sour porridges. It has no gluten and a mild, slightly sweet taste, making it one of the easier flours for gluten-free baking.
Sorghum bicolor
How it’s used
- Jowar roti and bhakri
- Ting and mabele porridge
- Ugali-style stiff porridges
- Gluten-free bread and cake blends
- Fermented sour porridges
Characteristics
- Taste
- Mild, slightly sweet; red sorghum is more tannic.
- Texture
- Fine and soft; slightly gritty.
- Sold as
- ground
- Cooking uses
- Commonly cooked, Suitable for baking
- Common in
- Indian, South African, Botswanan, Sudanese, Ethiopian, Tanzanian, Kenyan, Zimbabwean
Storage
Cool, dry and dark. Airtight and cool; refrigerate in hot climates.
Diet, allergens and safety
No major allergens in typical versions.
- Vegetarian
- Vegan
- Dairy-free
- Egg-free
- Gluten-free
- Nut-free
- Soy-free
- Caffeine-free
- Naturally gluten-free.
Nutrition per 100 g
- Energy
- 359 kcal
- Protein
- 8.43 g
- Carbohydrate
- 76.64 g
- Fat
- 3.34 g
- Fibre
- 6.6 g
- Sugars
- 1.94 g
USDA FoodData Central: Sorghum flour, whole-grain.
Substitutes
Optional — what works if you don’t have it, and how it changes the dish.
- Pearl millet flour — Interchangeable in porridges and flatbreads; earthier.
Related ingredients
Recipes with sorghum meal
Aseeda with mullah
Sudanese · 1 h 30 min · 504 kcalBogobe jwa lerotse
Botswanan · 50 min · 257 kcal · VeganJowar bhakri
Indian · 45 min · 165 kcal · VeganKisra
Sudanese · 12 h 40 min · 279 kcal · VeganLahoh
Djiboutian · 4 h 35 min · 308 kcal · VegetarianThalipeeth
Indian · 55 min · 249 kcal · Vegan
More gluten-free flours
Gluten-free flours
Rice flour
Finely milled white rice; gluten-free, gives crisp batters and tender, sandy textures, but cannot form gluten.
35 recipes
Gluten-free flours
Buckwheat flour
Grey-brown, earthy flour from buckwheat; gluten-free, used for galettes, blini, soba and kuttu puris.
4 recipes
Gluten-free flours
Glutinous rice flour
Flour from sticky rice that cooks to a smooth, stretchy, chewy dough; essential for mochi and tang yuan.
6 recipes
Gluten-free flours
Pearl millet flour
Grey, earthy flour from pearl millet (bajra, mahangu); gluten-free, used for flatbreads and stiff porridges.
7 recipes
Gluten-free flours
Cassava flour
Whole dried cassava root ground to a fine flour; the most wheat-like of gluten-free flours.
4 recipes
Gluten-free flours
Oat flour
Finely ground oats; tender, slightly sweet and absorbent, used in gluten-free and wholegrain baking.
No recipes yet
Gluten-free flours
Coconut flour
Very absorbent, fibre-rich flour from dried, defatted coconut; used in small amounts with plenty of egg.
No recipes yet
Gluten-free flours
Gluten-free flour blend
A ready-mixed blend of gluten-free flours and starches, usually with a gum, designed to stand in for plain flour.
2 recipes