Dedi Toda: A Kutia Kondh Summer Porridge from the Hills of Odisha
For the Kutia Kondh community in Odisha’s Kandhamal district, dedi toda is a cherished dish. Made from finger millet, cowpea and rice, it helps cool the body and keep people hydrated when temperature rises in summer and farm work becomes exhausting. Abhijit Mohanty shares the story and recipe for this dish.
Across the slopes of Kandhamal, a hilly district in Odisha, Kutia Kondh, one of India’s Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) cultivate a range of diverse crops like millets, pulses, cereals, tubers and vegetables through traditional mixed cropping system. This practice of rainfed farming has sustained their agriculture for generations. Each crop has its unique taste, aroma, and is deeply rooted in local food culture.
The traditional porridge, dedi toda, is one example of a dish made using these diverse crops. It is made from finger millet, locally known as dedi in Kui (the language of Kutia Kondh), cowpea or toda, and rice, and is a summer delicacy of the community.
Kudeladu Jani, a farmer from Burlubaru village in Kandhamal was 10 years old when she learned the recipe of dedi toda from her grandmother. “While cooking dedi toda, her hands move carefully. First she would boil the water in a pot, then add cowpea and later rice. Finally, putting finger millet flour and mixing it carefully so that no lumps remained.”
Today, Kudeladu continues cooking dedi toda for her family. “My grandmother expired long back. But when I cook dedi toda, the aroma brings back her voice,” she says. “The dish gives a flashback of those moments where my parents and siblings used to sit in the kitchen, and my grandmother would gently pour dedi toda in sal leaf bowls.”
The texture of dedi toda is thick and soft. It has a gentle sweetness of finger millet and the nutty flavor of cowpea. It is generally served along with boiled greens, stir fried seasonal vegetables or mango chutney.
Kudeladu Jani eating dedi toda along with her family. Images credit: Abhijit Mohanty
KUDELADU JANI’S RECIPE FOR DEDI TODA
Ingredients
200g cowpea
400g rice
350g finger millet flour
Salt to taste
Method
Put water in a pot. Add cowpea and cook on low-medium flame until it is 80 percent cooked.
Then add rice and boil on low flame until rice is cooked.
Mix finger millet flour with water to prepare a slurry.
Now, put this slurry in the pot. Keep stirring to mix it well with rice and cowpea.
Cook on low flame for 10 minutes.
Serve once it is cool.
Abhijit Mohanty is a Bhubaneswar-based independent journalist who reports on sustainable food, culture, livelihood, women's leadership and climate change with a special focus on tribal and other marginalized communities of India.
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