These are two recipes I get asked for over and over again – particularly by guests who stay at my house!

They are an absolute hit with both children and adults, so I am sharing them with y’all in the hopes you’ll love them just as much as my guests have. 🙂

SOAKED OATS PORRIDGE

To do the night before – or at least 12 hours before cooking the oats:

1. Put 1 cup of slow-cook (rolled or steel-cut) oats and 1.5 cups of filtered water in a bowl
2. Add 1 tsp fresh squeezed lemon juice (or whey is ideal if you have it)
3. Cover and leave sit at room temperature overnight or at least 12 hours – this will pre-digest the oatmeal, making it very easy to digest and will also make it cook very quickly

When ready to eat:

  • Put 1/2 cup of water in a pot (Optional: Add 1/2 cup of diced apples and/or raisins) and bring it to a boil
  • Add the soaked oats mixture (as is, no need to drain off the soaking water) to the pot of boiling water
  • Stir frequently, as it only takes 5 minutes to cook because you have pre-digested and already broken down the grain
  • Put the cooked porridge in a bowl and stir in 1 tsp – 1 tbsp of ground flax or chia seeds if you want to bulk or soften your bowel movements
  • Optional: Put 1 tbsp of butter directly on the hot porridge and let it melt
  • Add your milk of choice (or coconut water) and sweetener as needed (brown sugar, honey, stevia) – enjoy!

This recipe serves 2

Now, if you do not like porridge, or, if you have leftover porridge, you can make Oatcakes from it!

HOT BANANA OATCAKES

1.  Take 1/3 cup of cooked porridge (made according to instructions above)
2.  Add 1 egg and 1 ripe or black banana and mix thoroughly until there are no lumps
3.  Optional: Add 1 tsp – 1 tbsp ground flax or chia seed

Are you more of a meal-prepper? You can also make up this mixture the night before and then fry them up in the morning!

When ready to eat:

  • Heat a frying pan to medium heat on the stove with 1 tbsp of butter melted in it
  • Pour the oatcake mixture into the pan (if you go bigger than 6″, it will be really hard to flip over!), pat flat into a smooth pancake, and fry on both sides until crisp and brown. Repeat until mixture is used up
  • Serve oatcakes with more butter on top and your choice of honey (my favorite), jam or maple syrup – unless you have used a very ripe banana – in that case, you may not need a sweetener
  • If you don’t like banana, you can replace it with 2 tbsp. of raisins or cranberries, or, just leave it out

NOTE: These oatcakes can be floppy, so you may need to flip it over in sections when cooking in the pan.

This recipe serves 2

Like anything, as soon as you make porridge (and oatcakes) this way once, it will seem so easy – yet delicious – that you’ll be hooked for life!

Original post dated October 2012. Most recently updated May 2021.