Savory Oatmeal - Yes or No?

I eat quite a bit of oatmeal now that I'm in maintenance. In fact, steel-cut oats are the only grain I generally consume. However, when I eat oatmeal I tend to add some Splenda, and I try and keep my use of artificial sweeteners to a minimum. I also don't do a great job getting a lot of protein with my oatmeal (I often add almond slices, and have tried adding some peanut powder). This brought me to savory oatmeal as an option.

I had never considered eating this way, so yesterday I made up a batch of steel cut oats using chicken broth, and added in some green chiles and jalapenos. I then added a soft-boiled egg to the top with a couple of dashes of Tabasco. It wasn't bad. I don't know that's I'm ready to eat it regularly, but it was a very nice, and different, change of pace.

So I was just curious if any of you OHers eat savory oatmeal? If you do, is there a particularly good way you prepare them? Always looking to broaden my horizons!

In the months leading to surgery I discovered steel cut oats. I had never been able to eat regular oatmeal. The texture just would not go down... Slimy Lumps... Uck!

I found that steel-cut oats however to be quite tolerable. Not being up for sweet first thing in the morning, I tried using the oats as a base for a Oriental style breakfast. The oats, some kim-chi, an Umeboshi plum, and a fried egg. I really enjoyed that breakfast. After I had started having that as an occasional breakfast, I read an article about a restaurant here in the Boston area that specializes in Oatmeal. They have a variety from sweet to savory. I think one of theirs was a pulled pork over steel-cut oats.

But there is no reason you can't have shrimp, or chicken or what ever else that you might put on rice. The oats are higher fiber and high protein for a grain.

Best of luck!

Good to know! I agree about texture. I actually was ok with rolled oats prior to surgery. In fact, that was the only kind of oat I had ever had, and ate it occasionally. Then my surgeon said I should introduce Steel Cut Oats once i was in maintenance (and he is generally anti-grain, which is why this is the only grain I eat). I was hooked immediately! The texture is SO MUCH better. I have had rolled oats once of twice since then on vacation when options were extremely limited) and I can not stand them anymore. Seriously disgusting texture, just slimy and mushy!

I'm still working on the savory oatmeal. I started out with a Mexican themed Green Chile / Jalapeno with a soft boiled egg. Not bad. Now I made up a batch that is Indian themed - it's a curry with chicken variety. It's pretty good, and I'm getting used to the idea. It's much better nutritionally (I reduced the amount of oats I eat to account for the chicken which is a better, lower calorie source of nutrients). Plus it reduces my usage of artificial sweeteners, which I am supposed to avoid, but don't do too good of a job of!

Getting off artificial sweeteners in my breakfast has me down to 2-4 packs of Splenda a day, just for sweetening tea. I drink my coffee black and my Oolong black, but when I have Black Tea, Herbal Tea or Yerba Mate, I really like a little Almond Milk and sweetener.

I've been making protein oat muffins (I make them with greek yogurt, oats, premier protein (instead of milk) etc.) I make them sweet, but they could easily be made savoury (go back to using milk or an almond milk or something) and I bet they would be good especially with some sharp/savoury flavours/cheese (like feta/olives/and red peppers with sun dried tomatoes) .

I'm not a fan of savory wet grains (grits are so gross) but grains in a muffin or something..yum.

I don't eat grains anymore, but before surgery I had a huge container of oats and wanted to try savory as well. Wasn't bad, but they weren't steel cut; the texture was a little weird but overall, I'd have had it again. I remember I made them with Mexican seasonings and some onion (as I recall). If you Google savory oatmeal recipes, there are quite a few out there.

I don't know, but think they could be similar to a farro texture and you can do many things savory with that kind of texture? I also think of risotto with it, or using it like a much more coarse bulgar for vinaigrette type salads. There is an old cookbook called Silver Palate. A lot of times you can find it in the Half Price Books store. They have a recipe for Rice Salad that is so fantastic--flavor profile. I think you could likely sub out the steel cut oats (cooked) for the cooked rice and it would taste incredible.

Huh, I hadn't really thought of using it along the lines of farro, risotto, rice. Seems obvious now that you point it out. I'll see if I can hunt down this Rice Salad you speak of

I believe I found it here. It seems the dressing is key, but I am very anti-mustard, so I may have to substitute a different vinaigrette....perhaps a balsamic?