Porridge

Serves:

Ingredients

• 3 cups rolled oats (1/2 cup per person)
• 1.5L (6 cups) water
• pinch of salt

Method

Place oats and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and add salt. Simmer for 10 minutes. Stir every minute or two to prevent sticking.

Once looking creamy and thick (the porridge will start to stick to your stirring spoon), remove saucepan from heat, put a lid on top and leave the porridge to sit. Besides cooling down to eating point, this allows the flavour of the oats to develop into something extra special.

When you’re ready, put your porridge in a serving bowl, sprinkle with a little brown sugar to taste and add a splash of milk.

Find more breakfast recipes

• Banana and honey porridge
• Basic pancakes
• Bull’s eye egg
• Fluffy cheese omelette
• Breakfast burritos
• Baked cinnamon apple porridge
• Almond pancakes
• Bacon and egg muffins
• Lemon butter
• Apple & hazelnut bircher muesli

Serving Suggestions

Note

• Don’t even think about those little wax paper packets filled with something called Maize Maltodextrin. It’s just not the same!
• If you want to reduce your cooking time, you can soak the oats overnight in half of the water required in the recipe and add the other half of the water when you are ready to cook them. This method requires cooking for only 5 minutes or so, but keep the stirring going.

Variations on a theme

• A spoonful of brown sugar – spoon size dictated by your conscience
• A generous sprinkle of cinnamon sugar
• Add crushed almonds and drizzle with maple syrup
• Add cream instead of milk at the end
• Stir through your favourite yoghurt
• Dollop with golden syrup or treacle
• Stir in some cooked apples or pears
• Top with sultanas, craisins or chopped dried apricots or dates
• Add a drizzle of honey
• Spoon in a bit of jam to swirl around.
• If your porridge very rudely gets stuck to the bottom of your saucepan (remember to stir and stir and stir), all you need to do is cool the pan, pour in enough vinegar to cover the base, leave for a goodly amount of time and… wipe clean.
• This recipe was created by Maxabella