“Oatmeal, said the National Public Radio news analyst with that tone reserved for unpleasant, non-glamorous foods. He said it as though oatmeal and soup, foods for economic hard times, were a come-down for the palate of people of culture.
Obviously then, this is a call for cultured oatmeal. It is a taste treat that will enliven the most hum-drum bowl of soup or will serve as a stand alone dish.
Cultured foods are built upon the refinements provided by those same bacteria that make your gut healthy.
To elevate your oats, do one (or both) of the following recipes.
Cultured, Rolled Oats: Recipe #1
- If you have a roller mill, such as the Marga Molina, start with organic oat groats. Run the oats through the roller mill to produce a medium to fine flake. If you don’t have such a mill, begin with already flaked, organic oats.
- Mill slightly less than 1 cup oat groats or use 1 3/4 cups of oat flakes.
- Put the oat flakes in a pint canning jar.
- Add 1 1/2 tsp. Celtic Sea Salt.
- Add 1/2 capsule of Simplexith Health brand acidophilus.
- Put the lid on the jar and shake until the salt and acidophilus powder are well distributed.
- Add enough non-chlorinated water to the jar to cover the oats and to leave about one inch head space.
- Put the lid tightly on the jar and set on the counter for three days at room temperature. The jar may overflow once the bacteria get active, so set it in a bowl or on a towel to catch any excess liquid.
If your fermented oats have a grey, fuzzy mold on top or otherwise smell bad, feed them to your compost. They should have a kind of cheesy smell and taste somewhat reminiscent of cottage cheese. At least that is what the smell and taste seem like to me.
Fermented Oatmeal: Recipe #2
- Prepare your oatmeal in your usual manner. Let it cool until it is not warm to the touch.
- Measure out enough oatmeal to fill two pint jars, leaving about one inch of head space.
- Add one tsp. Celtic Sea Salt and one capsule of Simplexity Health’s Spectrabiotic. (A blend of eight beneficial bacteria)
- Stir well and place into the jars. Cover tightly and let stand at room temperature for two to three days
Again, these should have no mold on top and should smell acidic. The taste is beyond description! They will be somewhat fizzy from dissolved carbon dioxide, which will be released when you open the jar.
At the end of the three days you will have a jar of lactic acid preserved oats. Now invite that NPR news analyst over to enjoy your oatmeal!
You can blend your cultured oats with fruit for a smoothie
Use straight from the jar as a dressing on steamed asparagus or steamed greens.
Serve with nuts and raisons or other fruit as a healthy snack.
Blend with herbs, such as dill, for a non-dairy, salad dressing.
Or just sit down with jar and spoon until it is all gone.
Recipe by Ellis Hein
Thanks Ellis. Great recipes. Very different than the usual fermented ones. Can you tell me how long the oatmeal will last in the fridge after it has been fermented? Also, instead of powdered acidophilus, can I add a couple tablespoons of kefir or yogurt instead?
Carrie, thank you for your comment and questions. We do not try to keep these for very long; a few days in the refrigerator. (we easily eat about 4 and a half pints per day.) It seems that the cultured, rolled oats keep longer than the cultured oatmeal. When we have an excess of the cultured oatmeal, i.e. more than we can eat up in a few days, we freeze it. Freezing ruins the texture for eating it straight, but it still makes a great garnish for a bowl of soup or for use as a topping for steamed vegetables.
I have never tried to innoculate with yoghurt or kefir. I don’t think commercial yogurt would have enough bacteria. I have tried innoculating the recipe #1 with the Spectrabiotic and Recipe #2 with acidophilus. They work much better the way I have posted here. I don’t know why. So you will have to try the experiment to see what you get using kefir or yogurt. Also, I have only used the Simplexity Health brand Acidophilus because it is blended with the algae powder which gives the bacteria a boost to start vigorous colonies. (Spectrabiotic is a proprietary blend and not available from other sources.) So again, if you experiment with other brands, I would be interested in knowing the results.
Ellis
I didn’t know that.
Right on!
I hope you try these recipes and enjoy them as much as we do!
Ellis
This is interesting…do you have more?
Ummm I tried the links to see if these products were ok for us and the links didn’t work….so can you list the brand and where they are available?
Thank you Ronni for pointing out the broken links. They should now be working and you can go to the specification sheets detailing what is in these products and what they are good for. Also you can visit http://www.simplexityhealth.com/hfe for more information and to see other nutritional products. Thanks for your interest in cultured oats
Ronni, if you go to my homepage http://www.heinfailyenterprises.com/, you will see on the right-hand side a subheading of “Categories”. Click on recipies to see other recipes I have on my blog.
Ellis
durn….those contain enzymes which are grown on aspergillis…that is a terrible no-no for my family….penicillin allergy then we had mold in house…now no more aspergillis for us…even in enzymes…ugh!!
I wish I could suggest alternatives. But these are the things I have tried so can’t say what other things might work. You might try some other things to see how they work, maybe kefir grains. I know that the cooked oatmeal does not ferment very well on just the acidophilus, so some things will work better than others. I hope you find a way to make this. We can’t imagine breakfast with fermented oatmeal. Ellis
Ronni, You are apparently talking about the Spectrabiotic which I use to inoculate the fermented oatmeal (boiled before fermenting). This product does have enzymes added to the mix. However I use the Acidophilus to ferment the rolled oats variant of the recipe where the oats flakes are not boiled first. The Acidophilus does not contain enzymes and should not cause your family any problems. Ellis