PicoBlog

Sweet breakfasts have a grip on America that I don’t understand. I don’t crave sweets in the morning and never want more than one bite of a stack of pancakes. And don’t get me started on sweet oatmeal – actually, too late, I’ve already started because this newsletter is about oatmeal.

A few years ago, I realized oatmeal is really just a flavorless vessel for whatever flavors you want to add and can be made savory. I didn’t invent this concept and yet I feel like not enough people know about it. Wake up, sheeple! Oats can be savory!

I probably got into savory around when the pandemic started because I had more time to make breakfast. At first I started off simple by just cooking it in chicken broth instead of water, maybe melting in some cheese at the end. And that’s a perfectly tasty alternative to the simple sweet version of oats with some brown sugar and cinnamon.

But since oats are such a blank slate, it’s fun to experiment because you can add basically anything. I’d throw in some chopped-up garlic with a splash of soy sauce, maybe some kimchi juice. I’ve made cacio e pepe-style oats with parmesan and a bunch of black pepper. Chili crisp is a great topping on basically all versions of savory oatmeal.

Recently, I’ve had to start going into the office at 6 a.m. twice a week, meaning I wake up at 5 a.m. and don’t have time to eat breakfast before work, and even if I did, I’m not hungry first thing in the morning. I have some of those protein bars as a backup, but they depress me, and if I have to go into the office, I need food to look forward to. This led me to consider the concept of savory overnight oats, something I’d never tried or heard of, but that seemed pretty doable. 

I know the basic concept of overnight oats is soaking oats in a liquid overnight so they don’t need to be cooked. My first and maybe tastiest attempt was a combination of Greek yogurt, tahini, and lemon juice, with some water for the liquid. I also threw in some parsley and some chili crisp on top. (I do heat up the overnight oats in the microwave for about 30 seconds to a minute so they’re not cold and slimy).

My next attempt was yogurt again as a base, but I added some chicken broth, soy sauce, and kimchi. It could have been good, but the yogurt really threw things off, so I’d leave that out next time.

This week’s version was inspired by these sweet and salty cookies; I added some miso, peanut butter, and honey (plus water) to the oats. My ratio was a little off (too much peanut butter, not enough miso), but overall it was a success.

I don’t measure these things, so I don’t have any exact recipes to offer, but below are some suggestions for flavors of savory oats. I’m always trying to recruit people onto the savory oats train, so let me know if you make it or have other oat ideas!

(Note: I use regular rolled oats because I’ve never really learned what steel cut oats are; should I try steel cut oats?)

Regular/overnight savory oatmeal suggestions:

• Cheddar and chive oats

• Mushroom oats (rehydrated dried shiitakes, use shiitake broth as oat liquid)

• Cacio e pepe oats

• Miso and peanut butter oats

• Yogurt, tahini, and lemon juice

• Pizza oats??? (leftover tomato sauce + cheese)

• Yogurt and herb (dill, parsley, chive, etc.)

• Spinach and feta (maybe a some greek olives?)

• Miso soup oats

• Kimchi oats

• I was about to write sauerkraut oats but that might be a bridge too far

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