Let me get this out right away: I don’t care for oatmeal. At all. Growing up in Brazil it was not part of my breakfast, in fact I only learned about it when I was 26 years old and arrived in the US for the first time for a post doc. I thought the texture was unpleasant, the taste very bland, unless you dump a ton of brown sugar and heavy cream and this and that on top. What would be the point then? However, oatmeal is very popular, considered a healthy option to start the day, keeping you full until lunch time with good amount of fiber, the right carbs, vitamins, and anti-oxidants. None of this would make me look forward to a bowl of oatmeal to start my day, especially considering I am not a breakfast person. But hubby loves it. And that was enough to make me try a sous-vide version. I had no idea it would be a game-changer for me. It’s really tasty. So, if you are an oatmeal hater who owns a sous-vide gadget, I urge you to give this recipe a try. If you don’t have a sous-vide, I heard that crock pot versions can be excellent too, but I have no personal experience with it.
OVERNIGHT OATMEAL SOUS-VIDE
(adapted from several sous-vide sources)
jars:
8 jars with 4-ounce capacity
or
4 jars with 8-ounce capacity
for each small (4oz) jar:
2 tablespoons steel-cut oats
70 g water
pinch of salt
for each bigger (8oz) jar:
4 tablespoons steel-cut oats
140 g water
pinch of salt
Using sous vide circulator, bring water to 155°F. Fill the jars of your choice with the appropriate amount of oats, water, add the salt. Seal jars. If they have screw-caps, don’t tighten them too much. Lower jars slowly in the prepared water bath until fully submerged. Cover and cook for 10 to 12 hours.
Remove jars from water-bath. Stir oats and serve with the toppings of your choice. If using the small jars, you’ll need two of them to make a single portion.
ENJOY!
to print the recipe, click here
Comments: I now realize that texture was my main issue with oatmeal. For some reason, even after cooking for so many hours, the sous-vide results in oats with the exact amount of bite for my taste. I still prefer to have them later in the day with a fried egg on top. I call it light lunch. The jars, once ready, can sit in the fridge for a few days. When you are ready for breakfast (or any other time of the day you feel like it), pour the contents in a bowl and warm very very briefly in the microwave. Add the toppings you love and you are done. Golden raisins and a touch of brown sugar is a nice combination, and yes, I’ve had that for lunch more than once.
As I mentioned, you can find plenty of recipes for overnight oatmeal using a slow-cooker. I imagine they will please all oatmeal lovers, but if you are part of my team, sous-vide might be the real winner. Plus, I am always happy to find new uses for my beloved Anova gadget.
One last thing: many recipes using sous-vide call for longer cooking times. I prefer to keep a maximum of 12 hours, but 10 hours worked better for us. After 12 hours of cooking the texture got a tad too soft for our taste.
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Strangely enough, my mystical fuzzy logic rice cooker (aka “Jasmine Sous”) has an oatmeal setting and it does an unexpectedly excellent job. But you’ve really piqued my interest with this, so now I’ll have to make a batch with my sous vide and compare.
However…12 jars? Of different capacities?? Screw that. It’s all getting dumped in a bag, and I’ll pipe it out. I hate to think of the look on my wife’s face when I tell her she has to was a dozen gruel encrusted jars. No thanks.
Sláinte!
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Make that “wash” a dozen jars. I was so scared I mis-typed.
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You work at ungodly hours…. me? Just awake and cannot sleep….. well, I happen to have an obscene number of glass containers, and in fact tried both sets. The bigger set, a lot more convenient, but next time I will try a bag. Clean up definitely easier, but not as “green”. They can sue us…. HA!
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Of course you have an obscene jar collection – and probably an autoclave to keep them NSF ready. Me? Just an immune system. Green is great, but I’d rather stay alive. Bag me, baby! (Let ’em sue me. I’m so poor my will is gonna read the same as one I saw years ago: “I have nothing, I owe much. The rest I leave to the poor.”) 🙂
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I never ate oatmeal as a child or young adult either because of the texture. Then I discovered steel cut oats and now I love it whether they are baked in the oven, which takes quite a long time, but only a short time in the Instant Pot. Thanks for the post 🙂
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definitely steel cut oats are the real thing! the only thing!
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A very interesting approach. I enjoy a nice bowl of porridge and tend to favour a topping of nuts, seeds and honey. Must look at SV for it.
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it’s kind of fun, plus having all those little jars in the fridge gives this impression of being oh so very cool 😉 (I am easily amused)
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How interesting. I wouldn’t’ve thought to sous vide oatmeal. I love oat meal, by the way. I would also never have though to put an egg over oat meal – which you buzzed right by as if it were a trifle. I want to hear more about that!
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I think probably because I did not grow up with the “regular” type of oatmeal, I thought nothing of making it savory – I thought I had a blog post on my version with the fried egg on top, but I think it’s probably a minor reference to it in one of my In My Kitchen posts… I coul not retrieve it… BUT I do have a blog post on the savory route, a bit more elaborate… take a look here https://bewitchingkitchen.com/2018/05/09/savory-oatmeal-with-bacon-and-cheddar-and-a-cookbook-review/
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Neat idea. I never would have thought of making oatmeal in my sous vide.
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