Please add soy sauce and scallions to my oatmeal

January 4, 2010 5:14 PM

I want your favorite savory oatmeal receipts!

I'm really tired of eating sweet oatmeal(e.g. with brown sugar, berries, cinnamon and etc.) How about something different? How about savory oatmeal? I know the first reaction most people to this request would be, EWWW, GROSS, and etc. But Mark Bittman approve it, it can't be that bad.

So please share your savory oatmeal receipts!

Thanks

posted by Carius to Food & Drink (26 answers total)

I like oatmeal with roasted garlic & Parmesan cheese.
posted by torquemaniac at 5:31 PM on January 4, 2010

Oatmeal Upma. Garlic Oatmeal Soup. Rosemary Oatmeal Crackers. (add up to a tablespoon of rosemary and make sure you poke alot of holes in them before baking, a meat tenderizer hammer is helpful.Veggie Burgers. Additionally oatmeal flour makes an excellent thickener for gravies, soups, stews and chili.
posted by bigmusic at 5:40 PM on January 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

This grape gorgonzola walnut oatmeal is a total win. They have other suggestions on the page as well.
posted by crush-onastick at 5:41 PM on January 4, 2010

I make it savory much more often than sweet. It's good cooked normally and finished off with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and maybe some parmesan. You can also cook it more like a risotto. Like you'd start off with some oil, garlic, maybe onion/celery/carrot, then add the oats and water (or stock!) a little at a time until cooked. Finish off with cheese, or however else you'd eat a risotto/porridge kind of thing. I've tried with with tomatoes and other random veggies.

I definitely use steel cut, and it makes sense as it clearly feels like more of a grain. I think the texture is toothier and it really isn't weird to eat savory. I feel like cereal-ish rolled oats would be kind of weird and a little too mushy.
posted by ruby.aftermath at 5:47 PM on January 4, 2010

Definitive Scottish porridge at the Laigh Coffee House in Edinburgh (preferably followed by kippers) has simple steel-cut oats with a little salt - or did have, when I lived there way back in the '60s. Totally non-sweet and very toothsome.
posted by anadem at 5:55 PM on January 4, 2010

I can really endorse that oatmeal upma. We love it at my house!
posted by redfoxtail at 6:11 PM on January 4, 2010

Oats, cheddar cheese and canned tuna with a pinch of salt and cayenne tastes surprisingly like tuna mac. Throw in a bag of broccoli and it's even better! Plain oats with a dash of dill is pretty good too.
posted by aquafortis at 6:33 PM on January 4, 2010

seconding anadem - it's the way it's supposed to be eaten. I suppose you could serve it on the side like grits or ugali.
posted by scruss at 6:37 PM on January 4, 2010

Bacon (cut into bits) and fried onions with a bit of ground black pepper. You can fry the bacon and onions together so it's pretty quick and easy.
posted by benign at 6:41 PM on January 4, 2010

Fried or poached egg (you can toss actually just toss it on top of the oatmeal during the last few minutes) plus hot sauce.
posted by susanvance at 7:00 PM on January 4, 2010

Finally! While I enjoy just butter and salt on my oatmeal, I absolutely LOVE oatmeal with soy sauce, nutritional yeast and a little bit of Rooster garlic and chili sauce. Kimchi would also be a good addition.
posted by The Light Fantastic at 7:01 PM on January 4, 2010

Treat oatmeal as though it were a baked potato, add cheese and chives or sour cream and sauteed onions. Super delicious with bacon bits and a tiny bit of butter and pepper.
posted by banannafish at 7:16 PM on January 4, 2010

Savory oats are awesome! My favorite go-to mix: shiitake mushrooms, green onions, a spoonful of good miso paste, and a fried/poached egg on top.
posted by Knicke at 7:17 PM on January 4, 2010

There was a video on Chow a while back that called Miso, Tahini, and Honey the 'holy trinity' of oatmeal. I can't say I disagree.
posted by piedmont at 7:55 PM on January 4, 2010

I'm a big fan of green onions and goat cheese, and a poached egg on top so you can stir the yolk in.

Grits recipes tend to be savory more often than sweet, so you might have good luck looking for grits recipes and just using oatmeal instead. (This is how I got started on the goat cheese/green onion combination.)
posted by adiabat at 8:09 PM on January 4, 2010

Jacques Pepin has a recipe for an oatmeal-leek soup made with steel-cut oats that's outstanding. (It's not bad made with other grains — the last time I made it, all we had was a multi-grain thing, and it worked fine — but it's best with the steel-cut oats.)
posted by Lexica at 8:11 PM on January 4, 2010

I have never really thought about this, but an idea that popped into my head was that you could mix some miso paste and simmer some silken or firm tofu and dried mushrooms in the oatmeal, add some vinegar and salt and pepper and I think you would be onto something.

One thing that you might want to look into as a further resource would be rice porridge or "congee" recipes, that seem like they would easily substitute oatmeal in some cases and they are one of my definitions of a good savory breakfast food.
posted by BobbyDigital at 8:18 PM on January 4, 2010

Steel cut oats, cheddar cheese & as much Tabasco as you can stand makes for a fantastic breakfast!
posted by deadmessenger at 9:07 PM on January 4, 2010

the most delicious oatmeal topping in the world is Rou song, or meat floss. oh my god, it's so delicious. it's pork that has been stewed, teased apart, and oven-dried. basically it is the definition of savory. i guess it's a traditional congee topping and bun filling, but my mom used to put it on oatmeal. you MUST try it. you can get it in a big tub at an asian market, and it lasts almost forever!
posted by acidic at 9:31 PM on January 4, 2010 [5 favorites]

This may not be savory enough for you, but I make mine with garam masala, ground chipotle (or red pepper and smoked paprika when I'm out), butter and salt. Steelcut, of course.

Trader Joe's used to have packages of dried hibiscus flowers in among their dried fruits... they were awesomely fleshy if reconstituted in the cooking oatmeal, and looked like baby Cthulus/withered hands/squid when they surfaced. I haven't seen them the last few times I've been shopping at TJ's, sadly. Not that they were particularly savory, but they were definitely unexpected :)
posted by mumkin at 10:29 PM on January 4, 2010

You can fry (cold) oatmeal and use it like fried polenta.
posted by iviken at 2:43 AM on January 5, 2010

I like oatmeal salted, with a spoonfull of peanut butter, some plain yogurt, and some soy milk. Sometimes I add other nuts (sunflower seeds are great). I have this most mornings.
posted by yourcelf at 6:58 AM on January 5, 2010

Haggis usually has oatmeal in it. Maybe you could reverse it, and do some kind of lamb/onion/spices/oatmeal/stock concoction.
posted by Emilyisnow at 6:58 AM on January 5, 2010

I treat my steel cut oatmeal like the thick congee that my mom makes. I put on over easy eggs and salt or soy sauce. I would also use the Rou Song that acidic mentions, if my kitchen wasn't vegetarian.
posted by jefftang at 7:43 AM on January 5, 2010

Check out this other AskMe: Pimp My Oatmeal.
posted by jabberjaw at 9:47 AM on January 5, 2010

I've been pleased by sliding an over-easy egg on top of a bowl of oatmeal.
posted by carlh at 4:57 PM on January 5, 2010