Saturday, February 14, 2009

Steel-Cut Oats Shortcut

I have heard nothing but wonderful things about steel-cut oats, so yesterday morning we tried them, and we're not going back! They are tasty. Much "fuller" than regular rolled oats. And better for you as well (rolled oats are flattened and steamed before packaging, but steel-cut are closer to the true form, a more "whole grain"). If you have a Win-Co nearby you can get it in the bulk bins for pretty cheap. Otherwise it's sold in almost every grocery store as Irish oatmeal.

The only drawback is that it takes longer to make - about 40 minutes total. UNLESS you do the presoak method, which I found on the McCanns website, and I will tell you about. While I was doing the dinner dishes I brought 4 cups of water to a boil on the stove. Added 1 cup oatmeal and let it simmer for a minute. Then I put the pot in the fridge overnight. This morning I just put the stove on a lower heat setting and cooked it for around 10 minutes. It was ready!

We serve it with regular oatmeal fixins. At our house those are: brown sugar, chopped fresh or dried fruit, chopped nuts, and some milk. Yummy.

9 comments:

Chris said...

We moved to steel cut oats a while back - though our short-cut is a product called Coach's Oats we found at Costco. They are cracked steel-cut oats, so they cook faster, but still retain the fuller texture and whole-graininess.

Christy said...

hmmm, may have to look for those...

Lacey said...

Yummy! Thanks for the tip. I agree, steel cut oats are sooo good. The texture is better I think than regular oatmeal, though I haven't bought any in a while because of the time. Perhaps I will try this??

Anonymous said...

good gollie, what does it say about me that i didn't know there were different kinds of oats?!

Chris said...

hey christy, thanks for looking at my website! it looks like chris already beat me to tell you about the coaches oats, but i will have to try your trick too. the reason we used the ones from costco was because they're faster (i don't have much to give in the mornings), but i'm sure that the steel cut ones are cheaper if i could get them down to a reasonable time! i definitely like them better...not so gluey-textured.

christy said...

umm...that was christy who just posted, not christopher. dang.

Anonymous said...

We also love steel cut oats and I like your shortcut. There is a crock pot method that I have tried, but they were overdone. If one had a crock pot with a timer, I think it would work great. But alas since I wil not be purchasing a timer crock pot for the sole purpose of speeding up my oatmeal cooking time, I think I will try your method next. We also just discovered a new brand of steel cut oats "Bob's Red Mill" sold at the bakery outlet and they are great. A little finer than the Irish can but sooo delicious. My girls are sold! Love, Kelli

Lacey said...

So you made me hungry for steel cut oats, so at Trader Joes this week I bought a box that promised to be quick cooking, 8 minutes. It is pretty yummy, but I don't know if its is really as good as the real thing. I once had some for breakfast at a nice restaurant and it was so fabulous, but I've never been able to cook them as well as that restaurant.

I like mine with honey....and secretly with chocolate chips but I am trying to restrain myself, as much as I wish chocolate was a breakfast food.

Annecourager said...

I'm chuckling to myself.....back in the day when I was first married, I had never really done any substantive cooking or shopping.

So Andy and I were at the store, and I saw a CAN of steel-cut oats. I thought it absolutely disgusting that someone would sell COLD, MUSHY, PREMADE oatmeal! I mean, how lazy do you have to be?

.....I received heaps of scoffing and laughter at my ignorance. :) I do much better now.

I like steel-cut oats, too, but the 40 min time is a real pain. I'll have to look into this presoaking thing.

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