I’m one of those people who loves breakfast. Like, I could eat two or three breakfasts each day. I love eggs and bacon and all the fluffy carbs — pancakes, waffles, scones, biscuits. While I believe it’s important to get a healthy start to the day with a good breakfast, I only rarely indulge in the carb-fests of my youth. Losing 70 pounds seven years ago kinda cured me of that.
My weight loss journey taught me about cutting down on sugar and increasing fiber and protein. My favorite breakfasts now, the ones that keep me full until lunchtime (have I talked about how much I love lunch? The answer is: almost as much as I love breakfast), involve whole grains and lean protein. The one breakfast I turn to again and again, especially as the weather turns cold, is steel cut oats. I often eat these nubby, creamy grains with a spoonful of peanut butter, or a handful of dried fruit like cranberries. But when I’m looking for an extra nourishing breakfast, I treat the oats like a rice porridge and top with soy sauce, cracked black pepper and an over-easy fried egg.
High fiber + protein = satisfying breakfast.
Make Steel Cut Oats in Instant Pot Recipe
I make steel cut oats in my Instant Pot. It’s super simple. I follow a technique learned from Melissa Clark in her first book on cooking with electric pressure cookers, “Dinner in an Instant” (Clarkson Potter):
- Turn the IP to the saute function and melt about a tablespoon of butter and saute one cup of steel cut oats for a couple minutes, stirring all the while, until the oats are toasty.
- Pour in a 2 1/2 cups water and add about a 1/4 teaspoon of salt. I give it a stir, then seal the cooker and set it for 12 minutes.
- When the oats are ready, use the manual release technique. (Sometimes, I get busy doing other things and leave it release on its own, and TBH, the oats come out fine.)
Sometimes, when I open the cooker, I’ll find that the oats are too soupy or too tight. If more liquid is needed, I add a 1/4 cup of water, stirring until the oats are the correct texture. If the oats are too loose, I’ll stir in quick oats or rolled oats and give the mixture a few minutes for the oats to absorb the liquid. Taste the oats and season as desired.
To try my variation, to each portion, add an over-easy egg and a generous drizzle of soy sauce and a shower of cracked black pepper.
Make Ahead Tip for Steel Cut Oats
This recipe is asking a lot of folks who need their coffee before cooking in the morning (even if it’s passive cooking). This my trick for having home-cooked oats ready super-fast for breakfast — I make a batch of oatmeal, put it in a container, label it and heat up individual servings throughout the week. A cup-sized portion of oats heats up in the microwave in about a minute. An egg takes about 3 minutes. Et, voila. A nourishing breakfast in the time it takes to start the coffee pot. And if you’re feeding kids, it’s a snap to customize individual portions of oatmeal — the sugar junkies can have brown sugar and cinnamon on one, strawberry jam on another. Maybe you’ll have a savory breakfast lover who likes an egg on their oatmeal, too.
This method, also, is just as easy as any of the pre-packaged oat products, and isn’t nearly as processed.
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