Winter Eats - Spiced Milk Porridge

This is a recipe for those cold, wet morning (like we have so often in England) when you absolutely must start off the day with something warm inside your belly.  To save on time, you can make the milk several days in advance, keep it in the fridge, and then simply reheat when needed.  I made porridge with oats and quinoa but you could make straight up oatmeal, or even add the hot milk to cereals – anyone else remember having Weetabix and hot milk as a child?

Serves Two

For the Milk:

200ml milk (I used Oat, nut or dairy options work too)
3 cardamom pods, outer shell removed
½ cinnamon stick
1 star anise
3 cloves
2 tsp honey

 

The Porridge:

4 cups of organic whole oats
6 cups of water
2 cups cooked quinoa

 

Method:

Add the spices to a pestle and mortar or spice grinder to make a coarse spice mix.

Add this to a tea infuser. My infuser was made from metal but you can get rubber versions or even use muslin tied with string (for all my Bridget Jones fans out there, just make sure the string’s not blue!).  Add the infuser to a saucepan with the milk (cold) and bring up to the boil. Once boiling, quickly turn the heat down to a simmer and leave to infuse for ten minutes. 

Remove the infuser and add the honey, stirring until dissolved. Either transfer the milk to a jar and refrigerate, or use immediately.

In a separate pan, add the oats and water and cook for around 5-10 minutes on medium heat until almost all of the water has evaporated and the oats are tender. Turn out the pan and add the quinoa and warm milk.

I served the porridge with bee pollen, chia seeds, some extra honey, and half a baked apple (sliced and baked in the oven for ten minutes with a little coconut oil).

If porridge isn’t your thing, then the warm milk can simply be drunk on its own (as a sort of ‘chai tea’ – which is great before bed!) or added to coffee to spice things up a bit.

Let me know what your favourite winter warmer breakfasts are...