Oat flakes are ground oats. The traditional one takes 30 minutes to cook; the “fast” one does not require cooking at all. In the latter case, the flakes are small and extra-thin, and this is not the only difference. There is almost no flour in them and a priori there are no scales. Do I need to wash oatmeal before cooking? In general, no. But sometimes it’s worth worrying about.
Millet porridge with poached egg
- 50 g millet cereal
- 200 ml water
- 150 ml milk Related article
Healthy porridge. 25 cereal recipes
- Salt and sugar
- 25 g parmesan cheese
- 15 g cheddar cheese
- 1 egg
Step 1. Boil millet in water until half cooked, add milk, salt, sugar to taste
Step 2. Add grated cheddar, stir until the cheese disappears completely, place on a plate, sprinkle with grated Parmesan
Step 3. Prepare a poached egg: salt the water, without bringing it to a boil (about 80 degrees), break the egg. Cook for 2-3 minutes
Step 4. Place on the porridge and garnish with a basil leaf.
Dirty cereal
So, we have dealt with “flour” - you should not be afraid of it, on the contrary, it is half the benefit. What about the hulls left in cheap oatmeal? Nutritionists claim that this is a very useful component for the intestines, it acts like bran, cleanses the digestive tract... But let's be honest.
You can’t serve this dish to children, and picking out scales from between your teeth yourself is unpleasant, and they don’t add any appetizing value. But this does not mean that the flakes urgently need to be washed. Peels are lighter than water. Measure a glass of flakes, fill it with 1.5 glasses of water - and use a slotted spoon to remove unwanted particles; they will float up.
Advice: Any impurities in oatmeal are the result of poor performance of production equipment. Leave this pack on the shelf. Take only a quality product.
I don't like weaklings
When and to whom does it make sense to wash cereals? If you want to enjoy cereal as a delicious dessert or breakfast cereal, of course, flour will interfere. It makes the porridge homogeneous, jelly-like, and unaesthetic. In this case, you can rinse the flakes until clean and only then cook them, add berries, honey and nuts - a delicious dessert for the whole family.
We recommend: Balanced nutrition: prepare for the whole week in one day
However, there is a recipe that allows you to get an aesthetic porridge without fighting with useful powder.
Oatmeal
Our ancestors always soaked cereals (as well as legumes) before cooking (including for making wheat vodka), as well as flour (bread was baked from flour using long-cooking fermented sourdough).
Soaking is the easiest way to enrich cereals with enzymes and partially destroy phytic acid (soaking activates the phytase enzyme, which promotes the decomposition of phytic acid), gluten, lectin and other harmful components of the grain. As a result, cereals are digested and absorbed several times better, and their nutritional value increases.
The soaking process is very simple: you need warm water (25-28 degrees) to cover the cereal mass, 1 tablespoon of a natural oxidizing agent (apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, kefir or yogurt, whey or sour milk) for each glass of water and a time of 8-12 hours (it’s better to soak in the evening). Cover everything with film or a lid and place in a warm place.
For maximum benefit, porridge should be boiled in water. When using milk (it contains milk fat), the advantage of oatmeal in its ability to bind and remove cholesterol is lost.
However, there is another opinion that porridge cooked with milk has a wonderful creamy taste and vitamin A, which is important for the body, is well absorbed with milk fats, in addition, the porridge is enriched with protein and calcium.
- Uncrushed;
- Flattened;
- Cereals and oatmeal (healthy oat flour in which the grain shell - bran) is preserved.
If whole grains retain all the beneficial vitamins and microelements, then processed cereals are no longer so beneficial for our body. When making flakes, the phytase enzyme is destroyed, so phytic acid remains, and a number of chemicals are also used in the technology.
Therefore, it is recommended to include in a healthy diet porridge made from whole grain cereals, occasionally rolled oats, when the grain is minimally processed (the whole grain is separated from the husk of the top layer, then steamed at high temperature and pressed until plates are formed), while the cooking time of the porridge is reduced.
Spelled porridge with parsnips
Photo: Remy Kitchen Bakery Restaurant Recipe by Ruslan Polyakov, chef of the Remy Kitchen Bakery restaurant
Step 1. Boil the spelled until tender
Step 2. Peel the parsnips and cook until tender (until soft)
Step 3. Then prepare the parsnip puree: mash the finished parsnips with a fork.
Step 4. Place parsnips in a pan with prepared spelled and pour 11% cream and milk
Step 5. Cook until thick. Add salt and sugar to taste. Serve with poppy seed jam.
Soaking oats
Some housewives, after soaking the cereal, grind it in a blender with a small amount of water (3-4 tablespoons), then the cooking time for the porridge is several minutes. Many people diversify the taste of oatmeal by adding fruits and berries, cottage cheese and fruits, raisins, a little honey or cinnamon.
Another well-known option is to soak the rolled oats in the evening (pour 1 cup of flakes into 2 cups of cold water), and in the morning add a little more water and cook for 3 minutes - you get a tender porridge. You can prepare rolled oats with kefir: in the evening in 1 tbsp. kefir (yogurt or yogurt) add 1.5-2 tbsp. l. rolled oats, stir, and in the morning add your favorite toppings to taste.
Basic cooking instructions
Instructions for staff of food establishments on how to carry out the technological process are demonstrated in a special document - a technological map for preparing porridges. According to this document, the energy value of 100 g of ready-made viscous porridge is 73.86 kcal. Type of product layout: cooking.
Recommended food yield in preschool institutions (8-10 hours) per meal:
- up to 3 years - 200 g;
- 3-7 years - 250 g;
- 7-10 years - 200 g;
- 11-18 years old - 200 g;
Adults are recommended to consume 250 g.
According to the cooking requirements, the porridge should be viscous, the grains of the cereal should be completely swollen and well-cooked. The viscous consistency represents a thick mass. At 60-70 degrees, the dish should stay on the plate in a heap and not spread. From 1 kg of cereal, the yield is 4-5 kg of finished porridge.
The technology for preparing liquid milk porridge made from Hercules flakes, according to the Labor Code, the calorie indicator in which is 111.5 kcal per 100 g of the finished dish, is as follows:
- The sorted cereals (flakes) are poured into boiling milk and water. Add sugar, mix and cook until tender. When leaving, pour melted butter over it.
Recommended portions when children are in preschool during the day.
- nursery groups (1-3 years) - 150 g - 4 times;
- 3-7 years - 200 g - 5 times.
Dairy types can be prepared with milk alone without any added water.
This recipe belongs to the PP category (proper nutrition).
A little about the harmful properties
The concept of harm in this product is relative. There is a category of people for whom it simply will not suit:
- This applies to patients with type 2 diabetes due to its high carbohydrate content.
- For those who experience frequent intestinal disorders (diarrhea).
- Allergy sufferers who suffer from sensitivity to oat products.
- People with gluten intolerance (celiac disease) and low cholesterol.
- Oatmeal contains purine compounds (purines), which block the kidneys from excreting uric acid. Once deposited in the body, it can cause gout (arthritis) if consumed continuously in very large doses.
And, of course, we should not forget that there should be a reasonable measure in everything.
How to properly rinse oatmeal?
The washing process itself is very simple. The flakes are washed 2 times and left in water for a couple of hours.
If you are short on time, you can add a natural oxidizing agent - a teaspoon of lemon juice. Now all that remains is to rinse well after soaking and you can cook the porridge.
The rinsing rule only works for natural oatmeal that needs to be cooked. You can't do that with instant cereal.
Rinsing oatmeal does not require much effort, but can protect you from many diseases.
We can say that washing and soaking cereals is a means of preventing diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
There have been a lot of funny food-related prejudices lately. Of course, not all of them can compare with the popular conviction that yeast is a poison invented for the destruction of the Russian people. But in terms of comedy they can easily compete.
2. Then the oats are WASHED and STEAMED. This helps improve storage and eliminate rancidity.
3. During drying, the grain is cleared of its shells and dehulled using special beakers to obtain cereals. After final cleaning, the cereal is steamed again. In this case, partial gelatinization of starch occurs, which contributes to better absorption of the product.
4. The steamed cereal is kept and then flattened into flakes.
There is an alternative - use pre-soaked flakes. At the same time, they retain all the useful properties and acquire no less useful new ones. And they also become very tasty.
“In the last two years, at the initiative of America, oatmeal has appeared on sale, which under the name “Hercules”, thanks to extensive advertising, immediately attracted the attention of consumers. The successful sale of this product caused, of course, counterfeits and imitation. The same cereal appeared on sale under different names, of which “Champion” and “Columbus” should be considered the most famous. This cereal is considered to be particularly nutritious and is recommended to be given to weak patients, children, etc.
The advertised features of this cereal have even given rise to local production, and we know one mill in the Vyatka region that produces the same cereal called “Russian Hercules”, and this cereal, by the way, is no worse than the American one. And if it is unknown to the public, it is only because it is in the hands of few enterprising and inept people.
But what, in essence, is this “Hercules”? These are roasted, then steamed oats, not so much ground as torn. The writer of these lines tested “Hercules” on people who suffered from indigestion and lack of appetite, and recommends preparing “Hercules” as follows:
Take three glasses of water for half a glass of cereal and boil. Then do not eat the cereal, but drink the decoction, which is obtained in the form of a whitish liquid. It also serves to quench your thirst, so you can pour it into a decanter and drink it whenever you want. My results have always been good.
So, this name completely entered our lexicon already at the end of the 19th century. Thus, the encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron (1890-1907) gives the following definition:
Hercules (Hercules), 1) an ancient Italian deity, early identified with the Greek hero Hercules (see). - 2) Austrian, constellation of the northern sky. — 3) Hercules beetle, Dynastes hercules, from the group Dinastidae family. lamellar (Lamellicornia).— 4) Thin oatmeal, special preparation, nutritious substance, for children and convalescents.
In general, eat, children, rolled oats, you will get biceps and abs.
- Interesting
- Adviсe
Everyone knows that oatmeal porridge is healthy and nutritious, but do you know what else is interesting about oatmeal? Let's talk!
Oatmeal is now considered a healthy and popular product among lovers of a healthy lifestyle, but previously it was not at all like that. Oats were very cheap, they were fed to livestock and people were ridiculed for eating oatmeal. This was the case until the 19th century, when oatmeal was invented. They became easier to transport and store, the price of cereals increased and porridge became popular. And when it became known about its beneficial properties, they forgot about ridicule of ordinary people: now oatmeal is popular even among the stars.
According to the tabloids, oatmeal is included in the diet of world-famous models and actresses. Aishwarya Rai, Christy Turlington, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Hurley - this is not a complete list of lovers of oatmeal, granola and muesli. To diversify oatmeal, many of them add fruits, seeds, grains, and nuts to it - this makes the porridge both tastier and healthier.
Oatmeal gives energy and a long feeling of fullness, good health, maintains a beautiful complexion, good condition of nails and hair. The calorie content of rolled oatmeal is 352 kcal per 100 grams.
A bit of a strange statement, right? However, it is true: let's take a closer look.
At the market or in the store you can find three types of oatmeal: oatmeal, rolled oats and instant oatmeal. All of them differ from each other in the processing method and, accordingly, in the cooking time, as well as in beneficial properties.
Oatmeal is an unrefined, steel-cut oat grain that is loaded with fiber and nutritional benefits. Due to minimal processing, cereals are considered the healthiest oatmeal product. However, this processing makes the cereal not very convenient for those who do not have time to cook porridge: it takes from 40 to 60 minutes.
Hercules is a processed oat grain. It is cleaned, sanded, cut in half and flattened. With this processing method, some beneficial substances are lost, but only partially - rolled oats are only slightly inferior to oatmeal in terms of benefits. It cooks much faster than cereal; it only needs to be cooked for 15-20 minutes.
Instant oats don't need to be cooked and are ready in 3 minutes. Oat grains for such flakes are thoroughly cleaned, steamed, ground and crushed. Because of this, most vitamins are destroyed, and the amount of starch, on the contrary, increases. When you eat porridge for a minute, starch is absorbed by the body much faster, then it turns into sugar, which, in turn, turns into fat.
That is why instant oatmeal is not recommended for those with diabetes. If you want to lose weight, it’s also better for you to give up instant porridge in favor of rolled oats.
Sometimes, when cooking rolled oats, an unpleasant “dirty” foam forms on the surface, and the water itself becomes cloudy, and most often this happens with loose oatmeal. Therefore, a logical question arises: is it worth rinsing the flakes before cooking?
Many housewives wash the oatmeal - this way you can remove husks, dust and excess flour, and the finished porridge will be lighter and more pleasant in appearance. Others simply skim off the foam and husks that float up during the cooking process. This process does not affect the benefits of oatmeal in any way, so it’s up to you to decide. However, if you want to make the porridge more appetizing and get rid of the remaining husks, it is better to rinse the rolled oats and squeeze out the water well.
Surely you have encountered the fact that oatmeal turns out to be similar to “muddy porridge”: it becomes slimy, tasteless and completely unappetizing in appearance. This is what happens if you cook it incorrectly. Let's look at the most popular mistakes in cooking oatmeal.
- cook oatmeal in water? Replace it with milk. This is worth doing for several reasons: firstly, the water may make the porridge too sticky, and secondly, in order for the porridge to satiate you for a long time, you need protein, which is contained in milk. If you are lactose intolerant, add seeds and nuts to the prepared porridge.
- add the cereal at the right time. Do you want the creamy, creamy texture of your porridge? Add cereal to boiling milk. Want your oatmeal to keep its shape? Place it in cold milk.
- add salt. Even if you are preparing sweet porridge, a pinch of salt will make it much tastier. And what’s most important is that with salt, the porridge will not be sticky and unpleasant in appearance.
- stir the porridge more often. This will break up the bubbles that form during the boil, which will help maintain its appetizing appearance. Stirring will also help release excess starch, giving the porridge a nice texture.
- cook until finished. If the porridge is undercooked, it will turn out tough, with a sticky, unpleasant texture. In order for the oatmeal to become tender and creamy, it needs to absorb the liquid - this will take 10-15 minutes. At the very end, add a piece of butter to the porridge and let it brew for a few minutes.
If you are not a porridge fan, it doesn’t matter - use oatmeal in a different way:
- for example, prepare homemade granola according to our recipe, add homemade yogurt to it - and a healthy breakfast is ready.
- For a healthy snack, you can make oatmeal bars - granola bars. Add your favorite nuts, dried fruits, honey and spices to them: such a snack will be much healthier than chips or chocolates.
- bake oatmeal cookies according to our recipe. Add chocolate, vanilla and cinnamon to create a soft yet crunchy dessert that the whole family will love.
- add oatmeal to a smoothie, bake pancakes or a pie with it - there are many options for preparing dishes with oatmeal. Experiment and you will definitely find a recipe that you like.
Oatmeal can be used not only as food:
- Oatmeal neutralizes unpleasant odors in the refrigerator. Place the cereal in an open container and place it in the refrigerator - it will absorb odors.
- According to a dermatologist from the British Skin Foundation, oatmeal helps prevent sunburn. Summer is coming, be prepared for it: if you spent too much time in the sun and got sunburned, grind half a cup of oatmeal, add it to a quarter glass of milk and gently apply it to the burns. This will help moisturize the skin, relieve itching and inflammation.
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The main question is how to cook oatmeal. In practice, several cooking methods are used - some are simple, some are more complex, in any case, it is necessary to take into account a number of rules that will help deal with the problem.
- Choose large flakes - they actually cook very conveniently, without gathering into a single mass, providing the finished dish with an exquisite taste.
- It is advisable to rinse the flakes before starting the cooking process. This will destroy debris and harmful particles that could get into the cereal during the production process.
- You need to eat porridge with various additives - you can put nuts, honey, fresh berries and fruits in it. In this case, oatmeal will become a complete dish in terms of the content of essential vitamins and microelements.
- Do not overcook. Oatmeal, like any other, requires a certain preparation mode, so not finishing/overcooking it means ruining the taste and nutritional properties.
- Always eat freshly prepared porridge - a heated product loses its properties.
