Vegan MoFo Day 3: Cheery Cherry Oatmeal

Today I was starting work at noon, meaning that lunch would end up being very late so breakfast was going to have to see me through until about 4.30. Here in Scotland a bowl of porridge has been used for centuries as a sustaining breakfast and when the weather starts to turn cold, oatmeal reappears on my breakfast menu. A few weeks ago I discovered Susan V's cherry pie oats and started to play with the recipe. I love fresh cherries but I can rarely afford them so frozen cherries are a great alternative to use in this recipe. I decided to combine the cherries with almonds, which is a combination I really love, and I added a couple of chopped dates as a sweetener. Pinhead (or steelcut) oatmeal takes longer than rolled oats to cook, but soaking the oatmeal overnight means that it cooks much quicker in the morning. If you don't soak overnight, add 10 - 15 minutes to the cooking time before adding the cherries.

Cheery Cherry Oatmeal

1/2 cup (50 g) pinhead oats
2 cups (400 ml) water
pinch of salt
1 cup frozen cherries, unsweetened
1/2 teaspoon almond essence

2 dates, finely chopped

Handful of flaked almonds

Soak the oats overnight in a medium-sized saucepan in 2 cups of water with a pinch of salt. In the morning bring to a boil, reduce the heat to very low, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Cut the frozen cherries in half, stir in to the oatmeal, together with the chopped dates and almond extract. Cover and cook for a further 10 minutes or so until the until oatmeal has thickened. Stir in the flaked almonds and serve. 

I served mine today with home-made almond milk and a tablespoon of cherry juice with some gomasio sprinkled on top. It also tastes great with a fresh nectarine slices stirred in.

Makes 2 servings.