Toasted Oat and Yoghurt Bowl
Four minutes in a dry pan turns raw oats into something closer to granola, without the sugar, the oil or the oven.
Granola is oats, fat and sugar baked until they hold together. Most mornings none of that is wanted, and what is actually wanted is the toasted part.
A dry pan does it in four minutes. The oats go from pale to biscuit-coloured and start smelling like the inside of a bakery, and that is the whole recipe.
Ingredients
| Amount | Ingredient |
|---|---|
| 1/3 cup | rolled oats |
| 3/4 cup | plain yoghurt, thick |
| 1 tbsp | walnuts or almonds, roughly chopped |
| 1 tsp | honey, optional |
| 1 pinch | salt |
| — | fruit, whatever is in the house |
Method
- Dry pan, medium heat, no oil. Oats and nuts in together.
- Move them constantly for three to four minutes. They go from pale to golden quickly and from golden to burnt quicker.
- Tip them straight out of the pan onto a plate. Left in it, they keep cooking.
- Yoghurt in a bowl, oats over the top, salt, then the honey and the fruit.
- Eat it while the oats are still warm and the yoghurt is cold. That contrast is most of the point.
Notes
- The pinch of salt is not optional in practice. Without it the whole bowl tastes flat.
- Toast a week of oats at once and keep them in a jar. They stay crisp about five days.
- Nuts burn faster than oats. If yours are large, put them in a minute late.
Questions
Instant oats?
They toast in about ninety seconds and turn to dust. Rolled oats are the ones that work.
Can I use frozen fruit?
Yes, thawed. Frozen straight from the bag chills the yoghurt to the point of being unpleasant.
Is this granola?
No. Granola is baked with fat and sugar and clumps. This is toasted oats, and it is faster.