Cooking Steel Cut Oats That Rock

Posted by jfoster | 0 comments

Steel cut oats with cranberries, almonds, and maple syrup

When you go down the cereal aisle in your grocery store you’ll likely see 3 or 4 varieties of oats. Quick cooking oats, old fashioned oats, steel cut oats, and those horrible little instant oats. Yes I’m an oatmeal snob. Back in the day before everyone was tauting the health benefits of eating oats, my mom fixed them at least once a week.  Usually we had old fashioned oats with butter, sugar, and a little milk to make them creamy. I still love them but now that I’ve  found their big brother - steel cut oats, it’s tough to go back.  Trust me, they’re additive.

What are steel cut oats?

When oats are harvested, they have a hard inedible husk on the outside. When that husk is removed, what you have left is the oat groat. Steel cut oats are oat groats that have been cut into smaller pieces by a steel blade, hence the name. Once cooked, they have a nutty chewy texture, unlike quick cooking or rolled oats.

How do you cook steel cut oats?

Because steel cut oats still have the bran attached, they take a while to cook. This is my standard cooking method. If you want them a little more creamy, add another half cup of water.

Ingredients

2 1/2 cups water

1 cup steel cut oats

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Combine water and oats in saucepan.

2. Bring water and oats to a boil.

3. Cover and turn down to a simmer. Stir occasionally. Cook for 30 minutes.

4. Remove from heat and leave lid on pan. Let sit for 10 minutes.

Want to jazz up your oats? Try adding cranberries, raisins, diced apples, cinnamon, blueberries , or maple syrup.