Tizan, A Goan Breakfast Porridge That Would Impress Goldilocks

Made with coconut milk, jaggery, and cardamom, or more simply with water, salt and a side of mango pickle, the Goan tizan is both comfort and medicine in one bowl.

It was the odd one out at our childhood breakfast table. A bowl of grainy-looking porridge that sat forlornly in a corner, surrounded by cold meats, cheese, spreads, jams, and bread, almost aware it would remain untouched. Given the choice, I would leave that porridge alone. But I didn’t have a choice, so every morning, my brothers and I would reluctantly gulp down the bowl of tizan, hot nachni (finger millet) porridge. To us, it tasted like medicine. “It’s good for your bones,” was the constant refrain, echoing countless Goan mothers and grandmothers. It’s one my mother still reaches for, coaxing me to eat tizan for breakfast when I am home.

Tizan is a porridge that many Goans, like myself, have been eating since we were little. The version I want to tell you about, is nachni tizan, made of nachni or gonde, madachem godd (Goan palm jaggery) and coconut milk.

Smooth like velvet, a well-made tizan can offer comfort and nourishment. It is easy to prepare, is consumed hot or cold, keeps well in the refrigerator, and is a hearty, fulfilling meal. “We have been eating tizan for generations, because it’s a power house of nutrition. From lactating mothers, to babies, to invalids, we’ve all had tizan at some point,” says culinary consultant and food entrepreneur, Melissa Martins.

What’s in a name?
There’s limited information on the history of tizan. Among Goans too, there is some confusion on its nomenclature and definition. The common consensus is that tizan is a kind of sweet porridge, made with coconut milk. Author Fatima da Silva Gracias believes tizan is a catchall term for porridge, and can be made with nachni, methi, moong dal, sweet potato and more. Sometimes, nachni is mixed with rice flour or wheat flour, too.

“Tizan is the term used by Goan Catholics, Hindus call it ambil or sattva,” says retired bank employee, Medha Avinash Lavande. In her childhood, she has eaten sattva with rava (semolina), sugar, milk and ghee; and another version with boiled rice, cooked with coconut and jaggery. “Sattva is typically used to describe porridge cooked to a thicker consistency — like a halwa or pudding — and decorated with cashew nuts.”

Martins maintains that tizan is always made with nachni. “Tizan was eaten by the higher-class people, and made with jaggery, coconut milk, and cardamom. Ambil was eaten by workers in the fields; they had it as gruel — it was just nachni, water and salt.”

Tizan’s origins are believed to be in this ambil, once snubbed for being a poor man’s dish. “Ambil was made by some tribal communities. It was popular in areas where nachni was cultivated: hilly areas in Sattari, Bicholim, Canacona. People would take this porridge to the fields to have as a midday snack,” says da Silva Gracias. Ambil would sometimes be eaten with chepnechem tor (mango pickled in brine), or miskut (stuffed mango pickle). In her book, Health and Hygiene in Colonial Goa (1510-1961), she writes, ‘Kunbis and other lower classes consumed nachini in large quantities in the form of ambil, tizan and bhakri, until nachini was replaced in this century by wheat bread’.

“People used to think it was below their dignity to eat ambil,” says Lavande. “Once nachni became popular as doctors and scientists spoke about its health benefits, that’s when the porridge also gained popularity.”  

Those who could afford it, would add coconut milk/ juice, and jaggery to their nachni, to make tizan.

The most common method of preparation is nachni mixed with coconut milk and jaggery. Preparing the nachni takes time: soak, wash, dry and then grind the millets into a fine powder. This flour is used directly — cooked together with milk and jaggery. Another method involves mixing it with water or coconut milk till it forms a paste, squeezing out the juice or ‘milk’ from the mixture and then cooking with it.

Today, readymade nachni flour is preferred, though my mother and others follow the old method. “When we were young, the flour wasn’t readily available so, we had to follow this process: wash, soak, grind and extract the juice,” says housewife Brenda Lobo. Her mother used to cook tizan in pudding form and set it in a jelly mould, to be eaten as a teatime snack or after dinner. “It’s one of those old Goan specialties. All my aunts ate it.” Lobo’s mother still eats it every day, sometimes mashing in a banana for extra healthy kick.

Tizan was, and is typically eaten at breakfast or tea time. “Tea and coffee weren’t popular in Goa; only upper-class people would take it. To the rest it didn’t serve any purpose. Instead, they would eat nourishing and filling dishes like tizan, and godshem (a pudding usually made of moong or chana dal, coconut and jaggery),” adds da Silva Gracias.  

Health in a bowl
In olden times, though rice was popular, nachni was grown in certain parts of Goa, too. The book, Goa Through the Ages: An Economic History (Volume 2), documents that millets like nachni, beans, mung and kulith were grown on land not suited for the production of rice. This was largely restricted to Ponda, Sanguem, Sattari, and Bicholim. These were lands at higher levels, and generally poor in productivity, called morod or molloi. Nachni, thus, featured in people’s meals as it was cheaper and more easily available. And, it was nourishing.

“Nachni flour is rich in carbohydrate from starch and dietary fibre. It is digested slowly and this keeps one full for longer thereby helping to control food intake and preventing spikes in blood sugar levels. It is also a good source of protein, has a very high content of calcium and potassium and is a good source of B-complex vitamins, is gluten-free and its consumption is believed to help relax the body,” says Diniz.

It is now widely accepted millets are a superfood. The United Nations declared 2023 as the year of millets. During the second wave of COVID in Goa, tizan and sattva were fed to COVID patients and their relatives at Goa Medical College.

Tizan is known for being restorative, and is a well-known home-remedy for healing wounds, broken bones, and minor ailments typically treated at home. Easy to digest, it is the obvious choice for those recovering from illness and unable to eat/taste other foods. It also forms part of the weaning diet of infants. Architect Ankita Kolamkar explains that traditional weaning food included tizan. “Tizan was a substantial part of my baby diet, too. My mother would make a very liquid version that I could drink from my feeding bottle,” she says. Kolamkar’s mother makes it in two versions: the liquid porridge and the solid, thicker one to “cut into wobbly barfi shapes and eaten as dessert.” Sattva is often fed to lactating mothers. On days when my 112-year-old grandmother refuses to eat solid food, she is fed tizan. It has the sweetness that she craves and is nourishing.

In today’s millennial parlance, tizan ticks all the boxes— it contains local, homegrown ingredients, it features the now-trending superfood, millets, and it is healthy. And with coconut milk and jaggery, it is a delicious treat.  

Joanna Lobo is an independent journalist from Goa who enjoys writing about food, her Goan heritage, the freelance life, and other things that make her happy. Follow her on @thatdoggonelady.

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