Savoury Oats with a Soft Egg
Oats cooked in stock instead of milk, finished with cheese and an egg. It sounds wrong and it stops sounding wrong at the first spoonful.
Oats are a grain, and every other grain in the kitchen gets treated as savoury without anyone blinking. Cooked in stock they behave like a very quick risotto, and they take about a third of the time.
This is the breakfast for people who do not like sweet breakfasts, and there are more of those than the internet suggests.
Ingredients
| Amount | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 1/2 cup | rolled oats |
| 1 cup | chicken or vegetable stock |
| 2 tbsp | grated hard cheese |
| 1 | egg |
| 1 | spring onion, sliced |
| — | black pepper, and salt depending on the stock |
Method
- Bring the stock to a simmer in a small pan and stir in the oats.
- Cook five to six minutes, stirring now and then, until it thickens and pulls away from the sides.
- Meanwhile fry or poach the egg, keeping the yolk soft.
- Off the heat, stir the cheese through the oats. Taste before salting — stock is usually salty enough on its own.
- Into a bowl, egg on top, spring onion and a lot of pepper.
Notes
- A spoon of miso instead of some of the salt is a considerable improvement.
- Leftover roast vegetables stirred through at the end make it a whole meal.
- It thickens as it sits. Loosen with a splash of hot water rather than more stock, or it gets salty.
Questions
Can I use water instead of stock?
You can, and it will be dull. If that is what you have, be generous with the cheese and the pepper.
Instant oats?
They work here better than they work in overnight oats, because the cooking is doing the job anyway. Cut the liquid slightly.