Sometimes the simplest recipes are the best, and this oatmeal is one of them. I’m on a seasonally-appropriate apple kick, you see. When I was trying an applesauce filling for last week’s apple tart, I wondered if I could cook homemade applesauce and steel-cut oats in the same pot at the same time. Their cooking methods and timing are similar, so why not? That was a very good question, and the result was so delicious that I wondered why I hadn’t thought of it before.
Why didn’t I think to cook apples in my oatmeal before I added orange zest and a swirl of cranberry sauce? Or carrots? You really think I would have come up with the concept when I featured my maple cinnamon applesauce on steel-cut oatmeal nearly four years ago. Head smack.
We finally have apple steel-cut oats on the blog today, in 2016, and I believe they are worth the wait. First, you’ll toast the oats to enhance their flavor (in a little butter, if you want to make them really luscious). Then, add apples (I didn’t peel mine, since the skins get super soft during cooking), water and a pinch of salt. Cook until the mixture is ultra creamy and the apples are so tender that they almost disappear into the oats. It’s nearly perfect after a 5-minute rest, but I liked mine even more after I added a little maple syrup and a swirl of almond butter. Pecans are great, too. I almost always add cinnamon to apple/oat combos, but I preferred the clean taste of sweet fall apples this time around. What fall recipes do you guys want to see next? I’m working on a savory recipe for later this week, but here are more apple recipes if you’re on an apple kick like me.
