No photo this time. I really need to remind myself to take pictures of this stuff. Ah well. I might edit one in later, next time I make this dish!

As part of what seems to be a budding series on Inappropriate Breakfasts, I thought I’d try something a little different with my usual oatmeal this morning. Now, I am very, very conventional when it comes to certain foods. For instance, a bowl of grits, for me, is grits, butter (or nowadays, “butter”), salt, and black pepper. That’s it! Cheese grits? WRONG. Sweetened grits? DOUBLY WRONG. Things that are normally sweet, should stay sweet. That which is savory, remains savory. Some people grew up putting salt on their watermelon. Not me, so I never will.

On the other hand, never say never. Oatmeal, for me, is something to be eaten sweet: brown sugar and cinnamon, and some fruit. Walnuts are about as far towards savory as I’ll go. But when I read about Mark Bittman recommending savory oatmeal, I was intrigued. I tried it a while back, and liked it quite a bit. I had it again this morning, adjusting some things to suit my tastes.

As usual, my “recipes” are pretty much just “a handful of this, a shake of that.” But I’ll share what I did.

Ingredients:

• Oatmeal, Steel-Cut (1 cup) cooked in a rice cooker on “porridge” setting with water (3½ cups) and salt (½ teaspoon)


• Scallions (Green Onions) (¼ cup or a small handful)


• Eden Organic Seaweed Gomasio (a couple of shakes, to taste) Gomasio is a Japanese condiment made from sesame seeds ground with salt. The seaweed gomasio I use contains ground dried sea vegetables for extra flavor and nutrional goodness! However, regular sesame seeds are just fine.


• Nama Shoyu (1 tablespoon) Nama shoyu is raw, unpasteurized soy sauce; regular soy sauce works, too.


• Misc. seasonings: I added a shake of granulated garlic (garlic powder if you don’t have that) and a bunch of black pepper (I am a fiend for black pepper).
  
  I also added sea salt, which was a mistake because the nama shoyu and gomasio made the dish plenty salty. I wouldn’t do it again, but if you’re using regular sesame seeds, you might want to taste the dish and add salt at the end if needed.

To assemble this dish, you take a bowl of cooked oatmeal and stir in all the ingredients except for a bit of the scallion to sprinkle on top as a garnish. If you like, you can also sprinkle a little olive oil on top for a bit of richness. Make sure everything’s well-combined.

I find the flavor of savory oatmeal a little unusual, since I’m so used to the flavor of my usual sweetened oatmeal, but it helps to think of it as akin to a rice porridge, which (at least in Asian cooking) is generally a savory dish. But it’s really good. If you have any leftovers, you can refrigerate them and make fried cakes out of them later.

Like I said, I’m not normally the most adventurous eater. One terrific side effect of going vegan has been to open my eyes (and taste buds) to new kinds of flavor combinations that never would have occurred to me before. My diet is actually a lot more varied and interesting than it was when I was still eating animals. So much for the idea of a vegan diet being “limiting.”