Saturday, March 8, 2008

Oatmeal with almonds and raspberries

Oatmeal is another food I didn't grow up with. I first got to know it when I went to high school in the US, sadly only out of a box with way too much sugar and artifial flavors that overpowered any other aroma. Yikes. Then during my time at university I spend some time in Scotland, the motherland of all oatmeals and porages. At least this is what they say there. It makes sense, though. The Scottish climate is kind of harsh, too cold for wheat and rye, and potatoes have been around in Europe only for the past 200 years or so. People had to eat something before then and in Scotland this happened to be oats and kale.


In Scotland I also learned the "proper" Scottish way of preparing porage, as they call oatmeal there: steelcut oats cooked in water with a pinch of salt, and served with a little cream or sour milk. I thought this must be gross, but then a Scot made it for me and I actually liked it. He told me that "in the old days" Scots would cook a huge pot of oatmeal in the morning, let it cool, cut it into chunks and take it with them for lunch.

Since going vegan, this is the way I usually make my oatmeal now (minus the cream, of course). But sometimes, I have this craving for a rich, creamy oatmeal, sweet and satisfying. And then I get out my soymilk and my quick cooking oats. This morning I also added almonds for added nutrients and frozen raspberries for fruitiness. I cooked the almonds with the oats to soften them a bit and added the frozen raspberries to the hot porage just before serving. The heat thawed them in no time and this way they didn't discolor the whole dish, even though pink oatmeal would probably have been pretty as well.

Lastly, I didn't add any sugar. I'm trying to avoid sugar as much as I'm trying to avoid fat - mostly but not religiously. I used "Alpro plus Calcium", it already contains as much raw cane sugar as cows milk contains lactose - sweet enough for me.

And this beautiful bowl? My husband gave it to me for my birthday last year. It is handpainted Meissen china, and to the right of the cherrie blossoms (how very Japanese) you can see the painters interpretation of my name in Japanese kana characters. See, best husband in the world :-)

1 cup soymilk
5 tblsp quick cooking oats
a few almonds
1 handful of fozen raspberries

Bring the soymilk together with the almonds to a boil. Stir in the oats, lower the heat and simmer until the oats are tender. Stir frequently. Add the frozen raspberries just before serving.

10 comments:

Vaishali said...

Oatmeal is really a perfect breakfast. I love the idea of adding raspberries. Thanks, Anke!

ChocolateCoveredVegan said...

LOL when you first said "oats and kale" I thought you meant that they put them together! I was thinking, "Hmmm, that'd be an interesting breakfast."

Veggie said...

I've been on a bit of a Scottish kick this week, I'm not a big oatmeal fan but the raspberries do sound like a nice addition. I think it would be very Scottish to also have a wee bit of Scotch in it as well.

I have awarded you with the 'Excellent Blogging Award' at my blog. (I wasn't sure if you'd noticed this yet?)

Check it out here.

BitterSweet said...

Oatmeal is a favorite breakfast of mine for the winter- I usually go with apples and cinnamon, but frozen raspberries sound like an excellent addition as well. I'll remember that next time I break out the oats!

Anke said...

veggie, no, I must have missed that post. thank you so much. you've just made my day :-)

Anke said...

chocolatevegan, hihi, I was thinking the same thing when I was writing it. should have made it clearer that one was breakfast and the other one was dinner - for centuries. no wonder Braveheart was so strong and the Scots repeatedly kicked the English's behinds :-)

J said...

I love oatmeal so much! Yours looks fantastic.

dreamy said...

You reminded me I have not had oatmeal for a long time! I should really have a change of breakfast food.

Vegan_Noodle said...

Isn't oatmeal the greatest? I only just started eating it in the last year or so... you're not alone! I like adding frozen raspberries to mine as well... but I should follow your example because I tend to add a bit of maple syrup to sweeten it a bit.

Oh, and that's a beautiful bowl that your husband gave you!!

Anke said...

well, my soymilk is slighly slightly sweetened. it's got 5g of raw cane sugar per liter. ooh, too tired to convert this into oz/gallon.