Bring back the humble oat

Whatever the weather, the breakfast staple in my bowl is oats which started domestic life as weeds in fields of wheat and barley before farmers got smart and grew them as a crop in their own right. Why look to the far side of the globe for a superfood when there is a fantastic, multi-tasking and delicious one under our noses? Aside from being a low glycaemic index food, oats are packed with protein. Not only that, but they are a great source of β-glucans. This soluble fibre has been shown to help to lower cholesterol, helping to prevent heart disease.

To be completely truthful, oats are a bit of an obsession in my family, to the point of pedantry. My mother is quick to remind me that when it comes to bringing benefits, all oats aren’t equal. Steel-cut (sometimes called Irish or pinhead) oats have a lower glycemic index (GI) than rolled or instant oats. As with sugar, the more refined the oat groat, the higher the GI. Rolled oats are less processed than oatmeal and quick oats, but more than steel-cut.

I am an inveterate early riser, and what keeps me going on these dark, cold winter mornings is porridge. Oats release their energy slowly, fuelling me for long days of research and sourcing whether I am trekking across the countryside or just up and down the stacks at the British Library. But I don’t just eat porridge for the oats alone: I use it as a base and add all sorts of ingredients rich in the antioxidants, vitamins and omegas my body craves.

Don’t limit your creativity to a handful of sultanas and the odd sprinkling of sugar. Go wild. Toasted almonds, hazelnuts, linseed, grated apple, dried apricots, cranberries, dates and goji berries…when it comes to porridge, my husband accuses me of stopping just short of adding the kitchen sink. Have a sweet tooth? Give blackstrap molasses a go: one tablespoon provides you with at least 20% of the RDA of iron, calcium, potassium and magnesium. If like me, you are allergic to fish and can’t get those precious omegas from the sea, add linseed (aka flax seed), walnuts, or pumpkin seeds.

As the weather starts to warm towards spring, I swap my hot porridge for Bircher muesli. A blend of oats and fruit, muesli was developed at the turn of the last century by a Swiss doctor Maximilian Bircher-Benner as the ideal hospital breakfast. Little did he know that his scientifically perfected blend of oats and fruit would be transformed into the array that greets us on supermarket shelves.

Sticking closely to the Bircher-Benner original, my recipe means I know exactly what is going into my bowl.

• 200g rolled oats
• 350ml fruit juice - orange, apple, pear, peach…you can tailor the recipe to your tastes
• 1 apple
• 125g natural or low-fat yoghurt (soya and goats’ yoghurt also work well if you don’t eat dairy)
• Fresh fruit – another chance to add your antioxidants in the form of blue, black and red berries and to get a jumpstart on your 5-a-day.
• Dried fruit – I love the combination of apricots, sultanas, cranberries and even blueberries if I can’t get fresh.
• Toasted and flaked almonds
• Seeds and/or nuts to sprinkle over the top
• 1 tablespoon of manuka honey or blackstrap molasses, to drizzle over the top.

1. Put the oats and dried fruit in a bowl and cover with enough juice to moisten them. Cover the bowl and chill overnight in the refrigerator.
2. In the morning, peel the apple and coarsely grate it. Stir the apple chopped fresh fruit and almonds into the oats. Stir in enough yoghurt to create a creamy consistency. You can adapt the texture of the Bircher muesli to your taste by adding additional juice or yoghurt.
3. Place each portion in a bowl and top with a drizzle of honey or molasses, a sprinkle of seeds and nuts, and a few more berries then serve.

I’ve found a great way to use oats at the end of my day, too. As a child, my sensitive skin made conventional bubble baths a no-no. Instead, my mother used oat baths to calm irritated skin, whether from chicken pox or allergies. Oat grains contain avenanthramides; compounds that have a range of activity against itchy and inflamed skin. More than three decades later, Orange Flower Botanical Body Wash (UK, IE & US) with its soothing oat extract came into my life, and now my baths are full of gentle bubbles.