Itâs June. Mid-June. Some would even say itâs getting on towards late June. So why am I still making oatmeal?
Because itâs so ridiculously easy, thatâs why. This overnight trick (which involves a slow cooker, I must warn you) is laughable as far as an actual recipe goes: You measure water, you measure oats, you pinch some salt, and youâre there. The most complicated part of the whole process is setting up a water bath inside your slow cooker, which keeps the oats from getting crusty and dried out as they cook. What elevates it into something every time-pressed parentâevery time-pressed person, periodâshould make regularly is the ratio of blissful satisfaction to piddling effort. Imagine waking up to a creamy, chewy, fills-you-up-all-morning breakfast thatâs ready and waiting, after sixty seconds of âworkâ the night before. Uh huh, thatâs right. Sixty seconds.
If youâre not familiar with steel-cut oats, theyâre a distant cousin of quick cooking and old-fashioned rolled oats. Instead of being flaked, the oat groat (love that phrase: I hear Beavis chuckling, âheh heh, she said âoat groatââ) is chopped into two or three pieces by steel blades, hence the name. Itâs the entire grain, and itâs minimally processedâalways a good thing. The taste is more pronounced than with rolled oats; itâs oatier, if that makes sense. But itâs mostly about the texture: steel-cut oats fight you back a bit as youâre chewing them. You can feel each oat in your mouth, if you concentrate. I consider this to be a very good thing; chewy is one of my preferred textures. (I also like the heel of bread and the corner piece of nearly anything baked in a rectangular dish.) Topped with brown sugar, toasted pecans, and raisins, this is just about perfect.
Overnight Steel-Cut Oatmeal
Serves 2 adults & 1 toddler
3 cups cold water
1 cup steel-cut oatmeal
pinch of salt
Combine all ingredients in a glass 4-cup measure (or a similar heat-safe bowl that can hold at least 4 cups). Put the measuring cup inside your slow cookerâs insert. Carefully add cold water in the space between the cup and the wall of the insertâyouâre making a water bath. You want the water level to come up just slightly higher than the level inside the cup; this will keep things creamy, not crusty. Cover, turn cooker to low, and go to sleep.
Iâve set this up as early as 9PM and as late as midnight, and itâs reliably creamy-not-crusty every time.
ETA: It’s an hour or two later, and we’ve just eaten our oatmeal. June may, in fact, be too warm for oatmeal after all. Sigh.
I want to try this. Do you have a recommended brand of slow cooker?
Hi Z. I have a 4-quart Rival (it's oval, and red), which I got for $20 at Target. Hard to complain when it's that cheap! You don't need a fancy machine; all you really need are Low/High/Warm buttons.
LOVE this. We've made it every day for a week. It works over night on low (I put it on one night at 9, another at midnight, and it was great) and the night I forgot to turn it on – I put it on high from 5am to 7am and it STILL came out great.
Wow, Tracy, I've never tried the 2-hours-on-high thing. Good to know next time Harry wakes me at 5:30 (like he did today).
Oh, the solution you told me about for my "smoldering overnight oatmeal"! Hurrah! Would you shudder if I suggested a few tablespoons of cocoa mix? I love the smell of chocolate in the morning…;)
oooo, Ivy, I like the way you think!
I think I'd better give this a go. I'm trying to eat more oatmeal but have managed to murder it TWICE on the stovetop. Geez!
Just to clarify, you put the oats and salt in the glass bowl. Then fill the space between with the cold water?
Andrea, you put the oats, salt, and the water specified in the ingredients list into the bowl, then fill the space between bowl & insert with additional cold water.
I love the steel-cut oats! Have any of you tried eating them cold after preparing them? I prepare them for the week and each day I just add a cup of blueberries, a tablespoon of flaxseed meal and a tablespoon of sliced almonds and sunflower seeds as well as 3oz. of greek yougert. We had something like this when we were in England a few years ago. It was and is really good!
So you eat the oatmeal cold, with all that added in? I’ve never tried that!
I’ll try the slow cooker with the water insert. I’ve only been eating them for the past month or so – trying to reduce my cholesterol levels without statins.