Best Scottish Porridge oats recipes – How to make a healthy, cholesterol lowering breakfast.
Porridge with fruit and strawberry jam
The best porridge oats recipe ever
Porridge oats must be one of the healthiest foods on the planet. But porridge oats on their own are more of a punishment than a pleasure. Only wild Scottish Highlanders can survive on a sporran full of salted oats and a drink of water. To raise porridge from the mundane to the magnificent we need to add something. This is the great strength of porridge oats. They are the food equivalent of a blank canvass and you can be the artist waiting to create a unique breakfast masterpiece.
Basic Porridge Oats - How to make porridge
Porridge oats come in a multitude of forms. Basic cheap and cheerful, boil it up in a pan porridge is the lowest cost option and you don't really need anything more. If you are short of time there are many 'instant' varieties that you can just add boiling water to or cook in the microwave. The basic recipe is a cupful of porridge oats to two to three cupfuls of milk or water. You don't need to be too scientific about proportions. If after heating for 3 – 4 minutes it's like concrete then add more fluid. If too runny stir in some more oats.
Porridge and Fruit Ingredients
- 1 cup porridge oats, organic
- 2 cups milk, skimmed or semi skimmed or full fat if you dare
- 1 banana, chopped
- Half apple, chopped
- 2-3 dried apricots, chopped
Porridge Cook Time
Porridge Instructions
- Add porridge and milk to pan.
- Bring to simmer over a medium heat - not too hot or it will catch and burn. Then simmer for 2-3 minutes until smooth like a thick yoghurt.
Sexing it up - porridge with fruit, nuts, jam and spices
My personal favourite is to add chopped up apple with a handful of assorted nuts and dried fruit (raisins and sultanas). If it's Christmas you can add cranberries and a sprinkle of cinnamon. If you prefer an exotic taste then a teaspoon of ground ginger is very warming.
Almost any fruit is good, Blueberries, Bananas, let your creativity run free to tickle your taste buds.
Most people like a little sweetener with their porridge. Sugar is the easiest especially brown sugar, honey is more healthy and my old man liked syrup on his, but my personal favourite is Strawberry Jam. I'm lucky to have an allotment and so can grow my own fruit which mostly goes in the jam pot. If you are on high protein and low carb diet then by all means use an artificial sweetener.
If you think porridge oats on their own, even with fruit and jam, can be more than a little claggy, then add a little milk or cream to the bowl. Porridge has the head retention properties of molten lava, so a little milk helps to make it cool enough to shovel down with gusto.
Is porridge healthy?
Researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada found that a diet rich in foods, such as oats and nuts, was more effective in lowering cholesterol levels than by cutting out saturated fats alone.
So go ahead and fill up on porridge oats for a healthy and sustaining breakfast.