Porridge Tips

Ahh, the classic warming winter breakfast. Some people love it, others hate it. Maybe it’s the texture, maybe you just haven’t found the right flavour combination. Read on to revitalise your oats…

1. Compile your porridge with plenty of liquid as soon as you get up, bring to the boil (in pan or microwave), turn the heat off and leave covered for as long as possible until you’ve faffed about doing morning things… Then heat up & eat, it’ll be much creamier.

2. Try overnight oats. That just means put your liquid (and flavours) in your oats the night before. Use more liquid than you expect. This also minimises morning faff, or can be easily transported to work.

3. Put more things in, like:

• Chia seeds (a little goes a long way, leave in longer for them to really swell up)
• Frozen berries (they defrost quickly and make it a pretty colour)
• Desiccated coconut, ground ginger and lime zest
• Cinammon and grated apple
• Grated pear
• Grated carrot and spices for “carrot cake oats”
• Cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cardamom and nutmeg for a ‘chai’ flavour
• Cocoa powder

4. Change it up. Experiment. Jumbo oats, pinhead oatmeal, anyone? Different non-dairy mylks will introduce different flavour combos, like

• Hazelnut mylk + cocoa powder
• Coconut mylk (from a carton so it’s not super heavy) + ginger + lime
• Almond mylk + vanilla + raspberries
• Hemp mylk + cinammon + apple

5. Top with stuff that’s not just brown sugar and golden syrup. Like

• Dark chocolate (mmm melty)
• Brazil nuts (mmm selenium)
• Coconut flakes
• Maple syrup
• Seeds
• Peanut butter
• Powdered peanut butter
• Blackstrap molasses (mmm iron and calcium)
• Elderflower cordial (yes really)
• Crystallised ginger
• Dried fruit, e.g. cherries, strawberries, raspberries, raisins

6. Travelling? For ‘dehydrated’, camping-friendly fancy oats, try adding coconut mylk powder + dried fruit to oats/oat flakes. Just add hot water and heat.

Enjoy!