Cooking steel-cut oats in a rice cooker
I started to put this post together about my winter morning ritual of steel-cut oats last night. This morning I was sitting down to eat a bowl full of warm oats and as usual I opened up my blog reader to catch up on the happenings of other potters. I discovered that Keith Kreeger had blogged this morning about his morning bowl of steel-cut oats. What are the odds?
At least now I know that I’m not the only one who loves waking up on a cold winter’s morning to a warm pot of steel-cut oats. Usually that would require someone else getting up early and spend an hour cooking the oats (they take much longer than rolled or quick oats). That’s just not going to happen at our house. I used to cook a big pot of oats on Sunday afternoon and then reheat it in the mornings. Still too much work. Then I discovered something great. You can cook them in a rice cooker, set the timer and wake up to a fresh warm breakfast. Here’s how I do it…
You’ll need:
- A rice cooker. One with a timer is best. If you don’t, I think you can still set it up with a plug in timer. I haven’t actually tried this, but I think it’ll work.
- A rice cooker measuring cup. All rice cookers come with their own measuring cup. Even the $15 ones. They aren’t equivalent to a cup.
- Steel-cut oats. They’re really cheap if you buy them in bulk. Even from Whole Foods. But you can also get them at a regular grocery store.
- Cinnamon. I go through a lot of cinnamon in the winter so I buy a big thing from Costco.
- Salt & water.
The night before, pour 2 cups (the rice cooker kind) of steel-cut oats into the pot of the rice cooker.
Add cinnamon to taste. I like a lot of cinnamon. I don’t ever measure, so I can’t tell you how much. But it’s probably several tablespoons of cinnamon.
Add salt to taste. Every once in a while I will forget to add the salt and you can really tell it’s missing. Mix up the oats, salt and cinnamon well. Cinnamon is a fat soluble spice so it doesn’t mix well in just the water. If you mix it up and sort of coat the oats before adding water, it works best.
Add water up to the 5 cup mark. On my cooker, that’s as high as I can go. It gives me a thinner consistency but I usually make enough for a couple of days, and thinner is better if you’re going to reheat. You can play around with the ratio of oats to water and figure out what works for you. I imagine it’s not the same as mine, but you can use it as a starting point.
I then set it to the “porridge” setting and set the timer for the next morning. If you don’t have a porridge setting, I’m sure it’ll work on the default setting. And again, the timer is something that you could set up if it’s not built into your cooker. The key is that the oats have to soak overnight. You could also set up the cooker and let it sit overnight and then turn it on manually in the morning if you’re not going to eat it first thing after you wake up.
Our rice cooker is kind of a fancy one, but we use it almost daily between steel-cut oats and brown rice for dinner. You can also make quinoa, your own pilaf and other types of grains. To make quiona, you do the same proportions of quiona to water as you would do rice to water and press start.
In the morning you’ll wake up to a nice pot of oats that only took a couple of minutes of actual prep time! I like to add raisins, but I usually add them directly into my bowl. If you add them too early, they’ll bloat and lose flavor and texture. And if I have leftovers, I wait until the oats have cooled down before adding raisins and refrigerating the leftovers.
I have two favorite bowls that I always gravitate towards for my morning oats. They’re a bit over sized, but I like how the size and shape prevent any spillage when I carry a bowl from the kitchen to my computer where I eat my breakfast while reading through everyone’s latest blog posts. What’s your morning ritual?
Any guesses on who made these pieces? (There are 2 different makers.) If you’re the maker, it’s ok to guess yourself… oh wait, was that a hint for one of them? I’ll give people some time to guess before revealing the makers in a day or so. Start guessing!
Michael Kline on the left? No idea on the right. Don’t have a morning ritual short of getting the monkey (Rosie) up and fed. After that it’s all doing dishes, making formula for the day, and sneaking peeks at everyone’s blogs. Ah, the life of a stay at home parent…
You are correct!
I love this blog! Two of my favorite things, oatmeal and rice, but I’ve been doing it the hard way. I have been thinking a lot lately about getting a rice cooker and this has surely convinced me. Being a girl from SC I gotta have rice every day. Thanks for the tips!
Oatmeal and cinnamon are both supposed to lower your cholesterol. I like a little honey on mine. I always add the cinnamon after mine is cooked, I’ll have to try it this way. Sorry about your fall, hope you’re not too sore.
Nice! I have the same kind of rice cooker. I will try this. Thanks for posting to Facebook to remind me to take a peek here. ;)
mmmm…. i may try that. michael kline and warren mackenzie.
Brandon – You right on both bowls. Nice job :)
It’s a little like having a mom who has your hot breakfast ready for you when you wake up . . . I love oatmeal, but I eat it at night with apple, dates and kefir – like a late dessert. Beautiful bowls.
My morning ritual is walking, but I don’t have to contend with ICE!
Anyone have more grain recipes for rice cookers…proportions and what settings work the best??
I believe all rice cooker measuring cups are the same size. I know all the Japanese ones are 180ml. That is just shy of 3/4 cup.
Great idea, I am going to try it tonight.
Thank you so much for posting this and for posting the link to the type of rice cooker you have. I’m looking for ways to save money and this will definitely keep me from wasting money on breakfast every morning!
I was very interested in what you had to say re:rice cookers and I’ve done pottery for years but I’m actually a R.N. and work in Intensive Care. I started to do Pottery in College. Love throwing on the wheel and have sold my work in the past. Looking to go back to this again.
Ok, I am on Weight Watchers so whole grains is emphasized as part of the Program and yes it’s working.
I have a dinky 3 cup rice cooker that was free at Walgreens. You probably are laughing at this but let me tell you something, this little dinky rice cooker makes the most incredibly tasting rices, quinoa,barley,amaranth,spelt and any grains so far be extraordinarily good!
Today is my first day I’ll be buying some steel cut oats. I make grains one way. First of all I don’t use the rice measuring cup anymore. Someone at work who is a Vegan told me you cook grains this way…
1 standard cup of grains to 1 1/2 cups liquid. Ok, foolproof!
If you want more, it’s 2 cups grains to 3 cups liquid. This makes perfect grains. Now I don’t know steel cut oats at all. I haven’t ever tasted them but this is what I’m going to do with them because I want to make them into a side dish… and btw, I’m not a vegetarian so if you want to sub veg broth for chicken broth, try this idea out.
I’m going to cook those steel cut oats in chicken broth. This is going to be a pilaf dish instead of a breakfast so keep an open mind.
After the oats are done, I’m going to have a stir in healthy addition to make this into a side dish.
The stir in is going to be:
sauteed spinach with olive oil and garlic,golden raisins,mushrooms,and chopped walnuts. Another idea I have planned will have oil packed sun dried tomatoes,walnuts,onion and mushrooms. If this doesn’t work with the steel cut oats, and I hope it does, I’ll toss it and add to brown rice. I have both brown basmati or brown jasmine, not sure which one I’ll try with this.
Anyways, if interested in more discussion, I’d like to know because I do want to buy a good large rice cooker anyway but my dinky guy so far has been my hero for my new food Program as well as my cooking buddy. I have never had one flop yet. I’ve even made omelettes in this thing. Did you know you can do that? I found that out in a rice cooker group on Yahoo.
Thanks for the blog! I have the same rice cooker! What is the setting you use to cook your steel-cut oats?
Great idea! Thanks for posting this, I will try this! My husband leaves early in the morning for work and this would be a nice breakfast waiting for him in the am.
Ok I Did what you said to do. I hope I wake up to some great oatmeal. I like oatmeal but don’t really have the time to make it in the morning. I will let you know how it went.
Awesome!! Thanks for sharing. I have the same rice cooker, isn’t it awesome? I do have a question though, how long does it take to actually cook, not sure what time to set it to turn on in the morning. Thanks!
It’s a “smart” rice cooker- so if you want it done at 7am, just program it for that and it’ll done at 7! No need to do math!
You think I would know that after having the “smart” rice cooker for a year. I am can’t wait to try it out. Now I just have to get one of those nice pottery bowls to make eating oats even more fun. Thanks for the tip Emily!
Which type of steel cut oats? McAnns 5 minute quick or slow cooking in the can?
Thank you.
The slow cooking kind. I always get mine in bulk. My local grocery store chain has a bulk section, and you can also get them at whole foods. It’s significantly less expensive than buying the can- even at whole foods.