Oatmeal. It's Not Just For Breakfast.

Last week Whole Story, the Whole Foods Market blog, had a post about greens you could eat in honor of St. Patrick's Day. I could have predicted some of their suggestions--adding spinach to sandwiches, greens to soups and main dishes, and zucchini to dessert breads. However, one of their breakfast ideas intrigued me; it was called Savory Oats with Hearty Greens. I like oatmeal and I like greens, but I never thought about combining them in the same bowl, so I bookmarked the recipe for later.

Later turned into today.  The forecast called for a huge snow dump, and I figured that if I was going to be stuck in the house a big bowl of hot oatmeal would hit the spot.  I already had most of the ingredients on hand, but yesterday I stopped at the store and instead of the trite emergency snowstorm ingredients of bread and milk I bought kale.

The snow started overnight. It made things so gloomy I didn't wake up until almost 9 o'clock.  I was hungry and didn't want to wait an hour for the steel cut oats to cook, so we had the dish for lunch.  This recipe is definitely a keeper!  I substituted yellow onion for the red (because I had a surplus of them), and coase sea salt instead of fine. At serving time I set a variety of hot sauces on the table so everyone could have use their favorite

SAVORY OATS WITH HEARTY GREENS (Whole Foods Market) 

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 small red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 cup steel-cut oats
1/2 bunch kale or collard leaves, thick stems removed, leaves chopped)
1 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese or nutritional yeast

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; cook until softened, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in oats and cook until coated. Add kale a few handfuls at a time, stirring and adding more as the leaves wilt. Stir in 3 cups of water and salt; bring to a boil. Lower the heat, cover and simmer until oats are soft and most of the liquid has been absorbed, 50 to 60 minutes. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, 10 minutes. Serve garnished with Parmesan or nutritional yeast.

Five years ago today: New Thing #73--Reuse and Recycle