Ingredient: Oats

A bowl of oats on hessian sacking with a few oats strewn around.

Oats started out as a weed, popping up uninvited in wheat and barley fields. Nobody thought to cultivate them properly until people started to farm the North and West on cold, rainy ground where the wheat lay flat and the oats thrived. They’ve been eaten for at least 3,000 years, and oats still suit our British weather very well. Farmers here use them as a ‘break crop’ because they leave the soil in good order.

Oats are one of my greatest kitchen heroes. They are a wonderful source of fibre known as beta-glucans that help to give a slow and sustained release of energy and help with immunity. I find I’m not raiding the biscuit tin by eleven if I have an oat-based breakfast. They also help to keep your cholesterol at a normal level and feed your gut bacteria while they are at it. You’ll also get a nice boost of calcium, magnesium, iron, manganese and B vitamins!

Jumbo oats are a thicker and coarser variety, so popular for granola, muesli and flapjacks. They give porridge a chewy, nutty bite and take around 6-7 minutes to cook. Conversely, porridge oats (also known as rolled oats) absorb liquid faster and take 3-5 minutes to cook, make a smoother, creamier porridge.

I love making my family oat-based breakfasts like overnight oats, granola and soft chewy oat and fruit bakes like my banana and raspberry oat bake. Have you tried porridge the Scottish way with a pinch of salt? It’s a game changer.