Overnight oats are my default breakfast in the summer, but once the temperatures begin to drop, I like to spend chilly mornings cozied up with a hot bowl of oatmeal. This banana nut porridge with rolled oats, quinoa, and teff is currently my favorite weekend breakfast.
It’s kind of funny how enthusiastic I’ve gotten about oatmeal over the past few years. Growing up, I ate the same thing for breakfast every single morning before school: a slice of toast with cinnamon sugar or a bowl of instant oatmeal. I hated the monotony so much that I swore off breakfast one day and refused to touch toast or oatmeal for several years. These days, I can take or leave toast, but ever since I began eating oatmeal again of my own volition, I just can’t get enough of the stuff.
Of course, you still couldn’t convince me to eat the same thing for breakfast every day. To keep things interesting, I like to incorporate different types of grains into my morning bowl of porridge — it mixes up the texture, and adds variety to my diet. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been eating a lot of quinoa these days, so it makes an unsurprising appearance here. I originally threw some whole-grain teff in with my rolled oats in an effort to clean out my pantry, but I liked it so much that I make sure to always keep some on hand to stir into this porridge. Both the quinoa and teff add a nutty roundness to this porridge, but if you don’t have them on hand, you can substitute additional rolled oats for either one.
I should note that I actually enjoy this porridge cold on weekdays as well. I often cook up a batch larger than I can eat myself on Sunday morning, pack the remainder in a jar, top it off with some nuts and flax seed meal, and bring it to work on Monday for a no-effort, delicious and healthy breakfast.
- 1½ c unsweetened, unflavored plant milk
- 1½ c water
- 1 c rolled oats
- ¼ c dry quinoa (or ½ c pre-cooked)
- 2 Tbsp whole grain teff
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp allspice
- pinch of salt
- ¾ c banana, fresh or frozen, roughly chopped
- ¼ c walnuts or pecans, chopped
- flax seed meal
- maple syrup
- In a medium pot over high heat, bring milk, water, oats, dry quinoa (if using), teff, spices, and salt to a boil.
- Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 15 minutes, or until quinoa is tender. (If using pre-cooked quinoa, simmer for 10 minutes instead.)
- Stir in banana (and pre-cooked quinoa, if using) and continue to cook for another minute or two until porridge is heated through.
- Let sit, covered, for 5 minutes before serving.
- Spoon into bowls and top with nuts, flax seed meal, and maple syrup.
- Serve hot.
4 comments
FoodFeud says:
Sep 22, 2014
I know this isn’t the point of yr post, but I LOVE that dishware! The vase thing in the back is so pretty.
Haha, anyway! Very interesting about the whole teff. I’ve really only heard about it as used in injera. I like overnight oats a lot too but don’t eat them as much as I used to. maybe switching up the grains would help! Any banana and walnut combo is usually good.
claryn says:
Sep 22, 2014
Haha, thanks Maud! I actually made the mug and bowls myself. 😉 The whole grain teff was actually in my cupboard because my former roommate bought it to make injera, not realizing that injera requires teff flour, rather than the whole grain. I was stoked to find that it works so well in oatmeal!
Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy says:
Sep 23, 2014
Banana nut porridge is one of my favourite breakfasts, but I have not made it with quinoa before. Yum!
Sandra says:
Oct 19, 2014
I just found your beautiful blog and this idea for breakfast seems really delicious! I’ll try it as soon as I can!
Already put your site into favs. ^_^