Pumpkin Gingerbread Steel Cut Oats

Well, now that we are almost two months into fall, I can finally share my favourite steel cut oats recipe with you!

This breakfast is for those mornings when you wake up craving gingerbread and pumpkin pie at the same time. While I would love to live in a perfect world where we could eat gingerbread and pumpkin pie for breakfast every day, I prefer to start off on a decidedly more virtuous note. Not because I shun desserts, but because I like to save those for the end of the day. There’s method to my madness, you see. For me, my morning meal needs to check off the following boxes:

• healthy fat
• plenty of satiating and blood sugar-stabilizing fibre
• a healthy amount of protein (ideally 15-20 grams)
• a dose of antioxidants from fruit

At this time of the year, it must also be warm. While studying Holistic Nutrition, I learned about Ayurveda. This ancient eastern healing tradition posits that we need to eat warm, cooked food with lots of warming spices during the winter months in order to stoke our digestive fire (agni) and keep our metabolisms healthy. On the other hand, in the warmer months of the year, we can feel free to eat more cold, raw foods because the warmth and energy from the sun naturally stokes our digestive fire. This is purely anecdotal, but I rarely get colds now that I mainly consume cooked food (with the exception of ferments like sauerkraut), lots of warming spices, hot beverages, and some animal fats during the fall and winter. I think there is a lot of wisdom in ancient medicinal modalities, even if they are not completely backed up by modern science.

It also needs to taste good! That’s why I have made it my mission to deliver you virtuous, healthy recipes that still taste good and, dare I say, rather naughty.

Steel cut oats are my favourite way to enjoy oatmeal during the colder months of the year. They’re chewy, warm, and delightfully filling. Just what a girl or guy needs when the mercury plunges.

This sweet and lightly spiced porridge will warm you right up on a chilly fall or winter morning! When you soak steel cut oats overnight, they soften, cutting down their cooking time by more than half! That means that this porridge recipe is weekday morning-friendly. Its flavours are reminiscent of gingerbread and pumpkin pie, and it’s packed with fibre, iron, and healthy fats! 

Servings: 2
Time: 8 hours soak time + 15 minutes active time
Cuisine: Vegan

Ingredients:

• 1 cup steel cut oats
• 1 tablespoon grass-fed butter, ghee, or virgin coconut oil
• ½ cup pumpkin puree
• ½ teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
• 3 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
• Pinch of sea salt
• 1 cup non-dairy milk
• ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Toppings:

• 2 apples, finely chopped
• ⅓ cup walnut halves, toasted and chopped
• Yogurt of choice (goat, sheep, coconut…)

Instructions:

1. The night before making this recipe, place the oats in a medium glass bowl and cover with 1 inch of water. Soak overnight.
2. The next morning, drain the oats through a fine mesh sieve.
3. Heat the butter, ghee, or coconut oil in a medium saucepan until shimmering. Add the oats and brown, stirring occasionally, for about two minutes.
4. Add the pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, molasses, salt, and non-dairy milk. Turn up heat to medium-high and bring to a low boil.
5. Turn down heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring often, until the porridge has thickened to your desired consistency (some prefer their oats on the thinner side and others prefer a thicker porridge. And some like it JUST RIGHT. Okay, Goldilocks?). This will take between 10 and 15 minutes.
6. Divide between two bowls and top with the apple, walnuts, and a dollop of yogurt.
7. Leftovers will keep, covered, in the fridge for up to one week. To reheat, simply add a small amount of non-dairy milk to a pot with your porridge and warm on the stovetop.