Oatmeal has always been a permanent fixture in many a family’s breakfast tables. But it often gets a bad rap for being bland and boring. And sure, oatmeal could be unappetizing, but it doesn’t mean it has to be. In fact, you can make it as savory as you want.
Considering how it offers a ton of health benefits, including stabilizing blood sugar, lowering cholesterol, not to mention the almost endless list of vitamins and minerals it has, you owe it to yourself to eat oatmeal often — not just plain oatmeal, of course, but tasty banana bread oatmeal.
A good trick is to turn flavorless oatmeal into banana bread oatmeal. Banana is typically thrown on a bowl of oats as a topping, but in this recipe, it’s mashed and mixed in the creamy concoction. And believe it or not, it will come out tasting like banana bread.
Curious to try it out? Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients
- 1/2 Cup of old fashioned oats
- A medium ripe banana
- 2 TBSP of maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
- A pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 Cups of water, or a mixture of water and plant-based milk, or all plant-based milk
Instructions
- Slice and mash the bananas.
Slicing and mashing bananas may seem like a task that can be easily completed by pretty much everyone, there's actually a technique that goes into it. Instead of simply slicing the whole fruit with a knife and mashing it with a fork, you must first place it on a cutting board and then cut it half lengthwise. Do it half at a time so the banana doesn't break right away. You then slice it horizontally into coins, resulting in perfect tiny banana pieces that you can be mashed with a fork with absolute ease. You can also use the leftover pieces later on as a topping to the finished product.
- Throw everything into the rice cooker.
This is perhaps the easiest part of the process. While it's easy to make oatmeal using a microwave, you'll yield better results with a rice cooker, a tool that also happens to be a staple in your kitchen. It's a good thing that modern rice cookers have a slew of swanky functions, many of them having a "porridge" setting that automatically cooks oats the way it should be. For this recipe, just throw everything in, use a mixture of water and milk (or all milk) for a creamier result, turn the porridge setting on, and wait until it's done. This step typically lasts 20 to 25 minutes as it takes a while for most of the liquid to be absorbed.
- Top with extra banana, maple syrup, granola, or cinnamon.
Once your rice cooker notifies you that your oatmeal is done, stir the mixture and then spoon it into a bowl. You may also want to cool it for a few more minutes to thicken even more before you begin eating. And to finish it off, add extra bananas, maple syrup, granola, cinnamon, or any other topping you may want to your heart's content.
Want another scrumptious recipe? How about giving chewy gingerbread cookies a try?
Written by Jennifer Birch for thinkplantbased.com