This recipe was inspired by an article I read in Everyday Food, which suggested adding fresh pear to your oatmeal since they’re now in season. Wow! What a treat!
Of course, if you’re a real foodie, you know how beneficial it is to soak your oatmeal prior to cooking and enjoying it. So my version employs the centuries-old practice of soaking grains for maximum nutrition.
P.S. This is just one delicious way we like to spice up our morning oatmeal. For more ideas, check out my special recipe section devoted to Wholesome Oatmeal Recipes & Breakfast Porridges. Enjoy!
How to Soak Oats for Delicious, Nutritious Oatmeal:
Step One: Soak your gluten-free oats overnight, following the recipe instructions below. If you’re new to “soaking,” please check out the note “How to Soak Grains for Optimal Nutrition.”
If you’re gluten-free and can tolerate oats, I recommend using certified GF rolled oats and combining them with ground buckwheat groats for your soak, as outlined in the recipe notes below.
Step Two: Tired of sour-tasting soaked oatmeal? Gently rinsing soaked oats not only helps them to be less “pasty” in texture, but also helps to reduce any sour flavor that may develop as a result of the soaking process. In fact, by using apple cider vinegar instead of a dairy acid medium (such as kefir or yogurt) and by making sure to gently rinse your soaked oats, your family will be able to enjoy completely “sour-free” soaked oatmeal!
Step Three: Cook the oats to your desired consistency and ENJOY – so simple and SO delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup organic GF Rolled Oats
(not quick-cook)
- 2 tbsp ground buckwheat groats
(*see note below)
- 1 1/2 tsp raw apple cider vinegar (or fresh-squeezed lemon juice)
- Pinch of Celtic sea salt
- 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups filtered water
- 1 ripe organic pear, cored and cut into bite-size chunks
- Unsweetened almond milk or raw whole milk
- Raw honey
Instructions
- Place above ingredients into a ceramic (or glass) mixing bowl or jar.
- Add enough warm filtered water to completely cover the mixture by an inch or two. Mix well to combine.
- Cover and place it in a warm area of your kitchen for 12-24 hours.
- Once soaking time is completed, drain oat mixture in a fine-mesh strainer and thoroughly rinse.
- Add drained oat mixture to a medium saucepan. Add water and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir frequently and continue to simmer, until oatmeal is cooked to desired consistency (about 3-4 minutes).
- Divide oatmeal evenly among 2-3 bowls. Top with pear chunks, a splash of milk and drizzle of honey. Yum!
Notes
*If you’re gluten-free and can tolerate oats, I recommend using certified GF Rolled Oats
If you are not gluten-free, you can substitute the buckwheat groats with rolled rye flakes, rye flour or spelt flour for your soak.
I totally love this recipe…it’s the only way we do stovetop oatmeal now! Thanks 🙂
Thanks, Teresa! So glad you enjoy it! Thanks for your kind words! 🙂
This sounds so good. I have a few pears that need to ripen a few more days and then I’m going to make this!
I hope you enjoy it as much as we do! Good job being patient – the riper the pears, the sweeter! Yum! Thanks for saying Hi! Let me know how you like it! Blessings, Kelly
This is probably a dumb question, but I”m new to soaking. Do I need to use something like plastic wrap to cover the bowl while it soaks, or can I just use a dish towel?
No question is ever dumb, we’re all learning – so feel free to ask a question any time, Monika! Yes, you can cover it with a dish towel or a paper towel secured with a rubber band, or just the lid lightly placed on top. The reason for covering it, is to keep bugs out – fruit flies (and really any fly for that matter) really love culturing foods. If you have an issue with ants though, the best bet is plastic wrap secured tightly, although you can’t do this with culturing foods that need to “breathe” like homemade kefir, buttermilk, kombucha, etc. Most of the time, soaking oats aren’t a huge attraction to bugs like other cultured foods, but you never know, so it’s always best to keep your soaking foods covered. Hope you enjoy soaked oatmeal! Blessings, Kelly 🙂
I’m also new to soaking. I make my own baby cereal by blending oats, buckwheat and barley into flour then cooking. So how can I introduce soaking into this process? Seems to me that babies could benefit from this soaking process too. If I soak the flours I’m not about to rinse then cook am I? . Thoughts on soaking cereals and getting them fine enough for a 7 month old who eats thick foods but not chunky?
I prepare Steel-cut oats three times a week using my crockpot as a double broiler, overnight oatmeal. Do you think I could continue to do this method and include a soaking step before hand? Or am I going to get an uneatable mess?
Thank you for your time and effort in putting this all together and sharing with us! Blessings you and your family, Pattee
Wonderful in sight, Pattee! You don’t have to remove the soaking liquid. I just do this because what I’m really doing is removing any of the soured residue to make the oats less soured in flavor since my guys are picky about their oatmeal. But the phytic acid is neutralized by the soaking process, so it’s not necessary to remove the liquid.
Therefore, you can do exactly what you’re doing and just incorporate soaking into your routine. First, grind the oats, buckwheat and *barley into flour. Then, add about 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar per cup of flour to just enough water to mix the flour into a batter consistency. Allow the mixture to soak on counter overnight. The next morning you can add additional water and cook the oat mixture for a few minutes to the achieve the texture you want. If your breasfeeding, I recommend cooking the oats a bit thick, then allowing them to cool to touch. Then add breast milk to thin the mixture out and add more nutrients. Remember to not use honey to sweeten until your baby is over one year of age. And in reality, it’s not necessary to give baby food with added sweeteners – whether they’re natural or not. It’s better to let them learn to enjoy the natural taste and texture of foods. So GOOD FOR YOU for making your own baby food!!
As far as your crockpot goes, you can soak the steel-cut oats overnight right in your ceramic insert and then turn the crockpot on the next day and allow the soaked oats to cook – just watch the cooking time, because soaked oats generally take less time to cook than unsoaked do.
And as far as baby food goes … I also recommend checking out Heather’s site – Mommypotamus – if you haven’t already. She has a great Baby Food eBook. I’m not an affiliate, so I don’t get any commission for recommending this book, I just personally think it’s a great resource and she follows the traditional real food lifestyle: http://www.mommypotamus.com/lp/order-nourished-baby-book/.
Hope this helps! Lots of blessings, Kelly
Hello, could you do the same soaking method using steel cut oats? We prefer the texture of steel cut oats to rolled. Thanks!
Yes, you sure can, Sara. 🙂
If you use kefir or buttermilk for the soak, do you also let that sit at room temp? I’ve soaked oats in buttermilk overnight in the fridge for my oatmeal pancakes, but am wondering if it should be at room temp. Thank you for the help! I’m new the blog and am really enjoying it!
Hi, Andrea. Welcome to The Nourishing Home. So glad to meet you and thank you for your kind words. Yes, no matter the acid medium for best results soaking should take place at room temperature. You may find this article to be helpful to you. Lots of blessings, Kelly
http://thenourishinghome.com/2012/03/how-to-soak-grains-for-optimal-nutrition/
Any particular reason for the glass or ceramic? I’ve been soaking mine in the stainless pot I cook them in. Am I inhibiting or ruining something?
Thanks!
Hi, Sky. Good question. Most metals are reactive to acids, thus the recommendation to use glass or ceramic to reduce the likelihood of leaching of metals into food. The good news is 100% stainless is considered non-reactive. But if you have any doubt about your mixing bowl being pure stainless, I’d err on the side of using ceramic or glass. I don’t recommend plastics (even BPA free) because they’re porous and can hold odor and stain. Hope this helps. Blessings, Kelly 🙂
Hi! Thanks for the recipe, here a vegan natural chef from argentina!
i have a few Questions:
1)We dont have buckwheat here…but we can manage to get some organic rye flour…so, if i add the rye flour to the soaking (and vinager), will it be cooked in 3 minutes the next day?
2) if after soaking i make some milk without cooking (processed with raisings and cinnamon and filtering the bagasse), will it be ok for kids (and old boys too!)? is it necessary to add the rye flour considering that we wont eat the whole fiber?
3) is it a way to take the phitic acid away from chickpea flour (Fainá is a shummy preparation made soaking overnight water(2 cups water every 1 cup flour), salt, spices and pure chickpea flour, and then cooked on oven).
4) what about fermenting sunflower seeds (or similar) with water kefir (after soaking for a night with vinager and rinsing) for a day or so… will take out the phitic acid? Its a nice way to make a veganyogurt, or a chesee!! will the rye flour work while soaking nuts and seeds?
5) thanks u very very much!!
Diego San
Hi, Diego. Have you read my overview of the WAPF phytic acid paper? You can find it here: http://thenourishinghome.com/2012/03/how-to-soak-grains-for-optimal-nutrition/
This article should help answer many of your questions about soaking. I would also recommend reading that actual paper I refer to (Living with Phytic Acid by Weston A Price Foundation).
As far as the buckwheat for the oatmeal, as you will read in the soaking overview (link above), you can use rye flakes or rye flour, or wheat flour or spelt flour or flakes, so again, please see that article I’ve provided you a link to above.
With regard to your question #2, if you’re talking about making oat milk. You will need to include a phytase rich source as discussed in the soaking overview (see link above). That’s because, in order to reduce phytic acid in grains, it requires soaking the grain along with an acid medium to activate the process of phytic acid reduction. However, in the case of oats which do not contain sufficient phytase to reduce phytic acid, a phtyase booster needs to be included such as rye, wheat, spelt or buckwheat (if GF). If you soak oats without a phytase booster, it will not effectively reduce phytic acid. Again, please refer to the article I provided a link to above.
#3 If you’re already soaking chickpea flour with some type of wheat based or rye flour, all you would need to do is add a bit of vinegar to the soak to have an acid medium in order to help reduce the phytic acid. Again, please see the overview post on phytic acid (link above).
#4 I also cover seeds and nuts in the overview, so be sure to read that overview as flour and vinegar are NOT used to soak nuts and seeds. I also recommend doing a google search for soaked/fermented seeds to find many resources with recipes for the specific nut/seed you wish to soak/ferment/sprout. Same with vegan cheese. Just do a google search and you’ll find many options, such as using raw cashews (soaked) to make vegan cheese.
Blessings to you! 🙂 Kelly
Thank u very much!! Blessingssssss! Diego
my pleasure!