The best thing about Sunday mornings is that I have all the time in the world to peel onions, whip eggs and scoop ripe avocados. In this case I could juice some ripe mandarins and get started with the below “cereal + porridge + granola “style bowl as well. All this to prepare a hearty breakfast or brunch at home since most weekdays we normally stick to one kind of breakfast- The usual mundane kinds that saves a lot of time.
Option 1: Bowl of rolled oats, nuts and berries.
Option 2: Homemade granola, scoop of Greek yogurt and fruit.
Option 3: Boiled egg whites on toast or sliced avocados on toast.
Add some chai or coffee above, and repeat Option 1 through to Option 3 until the weekend arrives.
This Sunday it started with soaking some buckwheat groats the night before. Then I rinsed them in a sieve under a tap of cold running water to get rid of the glue like feeling that gets created on soaking buckwheat overnight. I wanted to bake my groats though not in a “cakey” kind of way. And didn’t want to make my previous buckwheat chocolate porridge bowl either.
So I turned to my spices that I thought could be put to use to create some new flavors:
Cinnamon – Not today. I know it has great benefits but still think it is the most over used spice in anything that has a hint of baking or porridge
Vanilla – I just had vanilla extract on hand and decided to keep it for any classic cakes and bakes. The beans are so expensive and need to be consumed once bought. I have ruined few pods earlier by dumping them in the refrigerator, forgetting all about them and then only to find them ages later shrivelled up and lost their plump, soft feel. Yes I know that was the silliest thing to do. And I have learnt from it.
Nutmeg and cloves: Naa not now. This was not a Christmas morning to dream about Spiced beverages and sweet treats.
Cardamom – Yes the green pods of cardamom reminded me of a raw chocolate cardamom bar I recently bought from the grocery section of Real Foods. And I wanted this in breakfast today.
So I blended one juicy mandarin (pits removed) in the blender with the black seeds from 3 cardamom pods. Then added a scoop of raw cacao powder, some coconut oil and maple syrup. It literally felt like a “melted chocolate bar” that I smeared over the groats baking them in an oven. It turned out just the way I had wanted – crunchy and chewy at the same time with the chocolate coated well around the groats. The whiff of baked chocolate groats with infused cardamom and orange took over the entire house making for pleasant aromatherapy 🙂 Further this is a vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free friendly breakfast that I can have as dessert as well.
Ingredients:
I normally don’t measure the quantity of groats since even if I bake more, this can be stored in an air-tight box for over a week.
Also I soak my nuts and seeds as I have previously mentioned about the advantages of soaking nuts, seeds and grains for easier digestion and better gut health.
Raw buckwheat groats soaked overnight
Bunch of raw almonds soaked overnight
Dried fruit of your choice – raisins, cranberries, apricots, sultanas
1 scoop of raw cacao powder
1 tablespoon extra virgin cold pressed raw coconut oil
1 tablespoon good quality maple syrup (or honey)
Juice of 1 ripe mandarin
Seeds from 3 cardamom pods
Scoop of chia seeds or ground flax powder
Method of Preparation:
- Wash the soaked buckwheat groats under a tap of running cold water
- Roughly chop the soaked almonds
- Meanwhile juice 1 mandarin – I blended the cardamom pods with the mandarin. Then passed the pulp through a sieve resulting in cardamom flavoured orange juice.
- In the juice above, add in the raw cacao powder, coconut oil and maple syrup.
- In a baking tray scatter the chopped almonds and groats and smear the liquid from step 4.
- Bake for about 30-35 min in a pre-heated oven at 180 degree centigrade.
- Let the mixture cool a bit before adding in the dried fruit and chia seeds/ground flax powder. I used a combination of sultanas, cranberries, apricots and green raisins.
- Serve with a scoop of Greek yogurt (or nut milk of choice to make it vegan) and fruit of choice