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One of the early changes that we made to our food was to soak our oatmeal. Why? In a nutshell, oatmeal is high in phytic acid. Phytic acid blocks the absorption of some minerals in the body and is basically an anti-nutrient (you can read more detailed information here and here). Considering one of my goals for my family is to increase the nutrition in our diet eating something that is an anti-nutrient sounded counter-productive.
The good news. The phytic acid can be neutralized by soaking oatmeal (and other grains) in an acidic medium for at least eight hours. An acidic medium is something like whey, yogurt, buttermilk, kefir, kombucha, lemon juice, or even vinegar. You might even have plain yogurt, lemon juice or vinegar on hand so you can start soaking your oatmeal right away without needing to buy anything special.
Since you are soaking this recipe, mix it up before you go to bed and it will be ready to cook in the morning.
Basic Soaked Oatmeal
1/2 cup old fashioned oats per person
1/2 cup water person
1 teaspoon whey, yogurt, kefir, buttermilk, lemon juice or vinegar per person
Mix up in a bowl and cover with a cloth. Leave on your kitchen counter to soak overnight.
In the morning add:
1/2 cup water per person
a dash or two of salt
Mix it up and put in a saucepan to cook. I bring it to a boil and then turn it down and let it simmer for a couple of minutes. I try not to let it get to be a mushy mess because we don’t like our oatmeal looking like that.
Dish into bowls and serve with butter and honey (or natural sweetener of your choice) and top with cream or milk and fresh fruit if you would like.
Variation:
Scottish/Steel Cut Oats
Prepare as above but substitute Scottish Oats. These take a couple of minutes longer to cook but are wonderful.
Beyond the Basics
Here are some other wonderful oatmeal based recipes
Rich Soaked Oatmeal from Wardeh @ gnowfglins.com
Yummy Baked Oatmeal from Kelly the Kitchen Kop
Butterscotch Oatmeal– one of my favorites
Do you like oatmeal? What do you top it with?
