The Times - UK (2022-06-11)

(Antfer) #1
the times Saturday June 11 2022

Body + Soul 5


chewy flapjack and 25 min for a crispier
one. Leave to cool for 15 min in the tin then
cut into squares and leave in the tin to cool.

The easiest homemade


muesli
Mix 500g porridge oats with 150g
dried fruit (chopped dried
apricots, sultanas, chopped
dried prunes, dried goji
berries), about 60g
mixed unsalted nuts
(flaked almonds,
chopped hazelnuts,
walnut pieces,
brazil nut pieces),
60g seeds (ground
flaxseeds, pump-
kin, sesame, sun-
flower, poppy) and
some toasted coconut
flakes. To make into
bircher muesli, take
about 50-60g muesli
per person, add some
grated apple (about
¼ of an apple per
person), a spoonful
of yoghurt and just
enough milk to
cover. Stir well,
cover and refriger-
ate overnight.

Nutty granola


Preheat the oven to 180C/
gas 4. Mix 50ml oil (sunflower or
vegetable) with 50ml sweetener (honey or
maple syrup) and a dash of vanilla extract.
Stir in about 400g jumbo oats, 80g mixed
seeds (sunflower, pumpkin, chia, sesame
etc) and 80g mixed, roughly chopped nuts
(pecan nuts, walnuts, cashews etc). Tip on
to one or two lined baking trays and spread
out evenly. Bake for about 20-25 min until
golden and smelling toasted. Remove from

to lunchtime at your desk. “Oats are a
complex-carb food with a low glycaemic
index that means they offer this sustained
energy,” she says. “The soluble fibre, oat
beta glucan, they contain also helps to slow
their absorption over two to three hours,
so that they just keep you going.” Bean says
it’s best to consume them two hours before
a workout, but to eat for breakfast if you are
not exercising.

Choose your oats


carefully


When it comes to selecting oats for their
health properties, some varieties are defi-
nitely more beneficial than others. “Where
possible choose coarse, steel cut oats, also
called Irish or ‘pinhead’ oats, which have
been cut in half by large steel blades and
are the most minimally processed,” says
Van de Bor. However, she says they do take
15-20 minutes to cook, longer than regular
rolled porridge oats, the most popular
variety, which are steamed and ironed flat
by a giant roller to retain many of the nutri-
ents. “Instant microwaveable oats are the
most processed variety so will be lower in
fibre and contain slightly fewer nutrients,”
Van de Bor says.
Being finely rolled so that they cook
more quickly means that instant oats have
a higher GI, which causes a more pro-
nounced blood sugar spike after eating
them. Watch out for added sugar or syrup,
which sends blood sugar soaring. Adding a
handful of oatbran to your instant oats can
lower the glycaemic response by as much
as 20 per cent, but it’s best to stick with the
least processed oat options.

the oven and stir in 100g mixed dried
fruits (cranberries, sultanas, goji berries,
chopped apricots etc). Set aside to cool.

Homemade oatcakes
Preheat the oven to 190C/gas 5. In a bowl,
mix together 200g oatmeal, 40g oats,
40g wholemeal flour, ½ teaspoon fine sea
salt and a teaspoon or two of caster sugar.
Melt 75g unsalted butter then stir into the
dry ingredients along with 100ml boiling
water. Mix together to make a soft dough.
Grease and line a baking tray. Dust the
work surface with oatmeal, then roll out
the dough to ½ cm thick. Cut out triangles
or rounds, then place on the baking tray
and bake for 18-20 min until lightly golden.
Turn over and bake for another 5 min until
golden. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Oat muffins
Line a muffin tin with cases and preheat
the oven to 180C/gas 4. Sift together 250g
plain flour with 2 teaspoons of baking
powder, then stir in 75g porridge oats. In a
separate bowl, beat 3 eggs with 175g caster
sugar and 250ml sunflower oil. Fold the
flour mixture into the egg mixture, along
with 2 mashed ripe bananas. Stir in a
handful of blueberries. Spoon into the
cases, then bake for 15 min until golden.

Oat pastry


The Times food editor Tony Turnbull
makes pastry dough with oats,
using equal parts flour,
porridge oats and butter
(about 125g of each will
make enough pastry
for a quiche serving
4-6). Add a little
beaten egg to help
it to bind. The ben-
efit of this is that
you don’t need to
pre-bake it before
adding the filling —
but it does need to be
a filling that will set, like
a quiche’s. Alternatively,
add lemon zest and use
the pastry for a
treacle tart.

Oat-crusted
chicken

goujons


Instead of using
breadcrumbs to coat
pieces of chicken to
make goujons, use oats
for extra crunch and texture.
Cut chicken breasts into strips.
Take three shallow bowls. In one, put
plain flour mixed with some salt and
pepper. In another, whisk a couple of
eggs. Put rolled oats in the last bowl. Dip
each chicken strip first in the flour, then
the egg, then the oats. Bake on a lined
tray in a preheated oven (190C/gas 5) for
20-25 min until golden and crispy and
cooked through.

is the ultimate superfood


Porridge bread


Rather than throwing away leftover por-
ridge, use it in a loaf instead of some of the
flour and liquid — it makes easy, moist,
quite savoury bread. Put 200g leftover
porridge (refrigerate it until you need it)
into a large mixing bowl with 500g strong
white bread flour, 7g easy-bake yeast and
1 teaspoon of flaked sea salt. Add 300ml
lukewarm water and mix well until a
dough comes together — it will be quite
wet and sticky. Turn the dough on to a
well-floured board or worktop and knead
for a few minutes. Put into a well-floured
bowl, cover with a tea towel and set aside in
a warm place for an hour to double in size.
Grease and line a loaf tin. Knead the dough
for a couple of minutes, then shape and
turn into the loaf tin. Set aside for another
45 min until it has risen again, and preheat
the oven to 220C/gas 7. Bake for 10 min,
then turn the oven down to 190C/gas 5.
Sprinkle some oats on top of the dough and
bake for another 25 min until the bottom
of the loaf sounds hollow when the bread
is turned out of the tin and tapped.

Oaty crumble topping


Instead of using only flour, sugar and
butter in a crumble topping, add oats for
extra crunch and flavour. Place 100g
unsalted butter and 100g plain flour into a
bowl and mix together with your fingertips
until nearly combined. Alternatively, use a
food processor and blend until it looks like
coarse breadcrumbs. Add 75g rolled oats
and 50g demerara sugar and mix well with
your hands until combined. Press some
bits into larger chunks for added texture.
Scatter over plums/apricots/peaches dot-
ted with brown sugar and a little cinna-
mon, or chunks of apple mixed with
berries, then roast in a preheated oven at
180C/gas 4 for about 40 min until golden.

Energy balls with oats and


peanut butter


Mix a couple of handfuls of oats in a bowl
with a few tablespoons of almond flour, a
few tablespoons of peanut butter, maple
syrup and a pinch of salt. Stir together —
you want a consistency that you can roll
into balls, so if it needs to be wetter add
more peanut butter; if it needs to be drier
add oats and/or almond flour. Roll into
balls in the palm of your hand, then put
into the fridge for a couple of hours. You
can melt dark chocolate and pour it on top
or dip the balls in it before returning to the
fridge to chill and set.

Quick and easy flapjack


Grease and line a 20cm square baking tin.
Melt 175g unsalted butter in a pan with
100g demerara sugar and 50g golden
syrup. In a separate bowl, put 250g large
rolled oats with a mixture of chopped fruit/
nuts (optional) such as apricots, raisins,
hazelnuts, flaked almonds or sesame
seeds. Stir the melted butter and sugar mix
into the dry ingredients. Bake in a pre-
heated oven at 190C/gas 5 for 20 min for a

10 ways with oats: easy recipes for cakes,


biscuits and bread By Harriet Addison


GETTY IMAGES

Oat muffins. Below:
tomato quiche with oat
pastry; porridge bread

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for all


ages

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