Teff is a nutritious gluten-free cereal grain that makes an excellent bowl of porridge! Native to Africa, this tiniest of cereal seeds is becoming popular in the West due to the explosion of those with gluten sensitivity in recent years.
If you’ve discovered that the gluten-like protein avenin in oatmeal aggravates your Celiac symptoms, then teff is a good choice for a switch.
You can prepare teff porridge in one of two ways:
- Toasting
- Soaking
Toasted teff porridge as described in the recipe below, enhances the natural nutty flavor and is my personal favorite method.
If you have a particularly sensitive stomach, I would suggest soaking it overnight first. This will enhance digestibility a bit, although teff is not particularly high in anti-nutrients when compared to other cereal grains.
Overnight Teff Porridge
When soaking teff before cooking, follow the method below.
- Place 1 cup dry teff grain, 3 cups filtered water, and a bit of sea salt in a pot, mix well and cover. Let sit overnight.
- In the morning, add optional 1/4 teaspoon cloves and cook for about 10 minutes until the water is absorbed and the porridge is of desired consistency. As you can see from the picture, cooked teff looks very similar to Cream of Wheat, just a darker color.
- Serve with your favorite whole sweetener (I prefer seasonal raw honey) and/or fruits and nuts of choice.
I have just finished a bowl of teff porridge as I type this. It makes a great afternoon snack as well as a hot breakfast.
Already love teff porridge? Other delicious gluten-free cereal options are soaked and cooked pearl millet or amaranth porridge.
Amaranth is a slightly nutty-tasting cereal grain similar in flavor to teff that also offers an excellent protein profile.
Quinoa and cream of buckwheat are other Celiac safe alternatives that are a bit milder in flavor.
Toasted Teff Porridge
Classical recipe for teff porridge best enjoyed for breakfast hot in a bowl with your choice of healthy fat, whole sweetener and nuts or fruit topping.
Ingredients
- 1 cup teff grains preferably organic
- 3 cups filtered water
- 1 Tbl butter preferably organic and grassfed
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves preferably organic
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
Instructions
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Heat a large saucepan over medium heat, add sprouted (or unsprouted) teff grains and toast, stirring frequently until the grains begin to pop which takes just a few minutes.
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Add the water, sea salt, butter and optional cloves.
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Bring to a boil, cover and cook for 8-10 minutes stirring occasionally. Remove promptly from the heat at 10 minutes even if it looks like it should cook a bit longer. The porridge firms up a lot when it cools slightly.
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Serve warm with choice of healthy fat and whole sweetener or fruit of choice.
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Refrigerate leftovers.
Recipe Video
I made teff porridge for the first time over the weekend using your recipe, but substituted roasted beet puree for the water. I needed to add a little water to finish cooking it per the instructions. I refrigerated it overnight and enjoyed some this morning warmed with some cinnamon and blueberries topped with homemade coconut milk yogurt. The porridge tastes so good and needed no additional sweetener. Being gluten free, teff comes in handy when I bake gluten free bread, but until your post, I’d never considered its other uses. Thank you for such an easy, delicious recipe.
So glad you enjoyed it! Yes, teff is delicious and very much an underappreciated gluten free grain.
Do you have a source for organic Teff?
Thank you for the recipe!
My son and I have been experiencing stomach aches with the steel cut oat meal I would occasionally make and that sent me looking for an alternative breakfast porridge. So we tried this. It reminds me of cream of wheat. It was tasty.
Do you have a source for organic teff? Best I can find is non GMO.
I am going to try your amaranth porridge as well. I’d love a recipe that mixes the two. Any ideas?
Even better is if you had a recipe to make this in an instant pot though if I remember correctly the WAPF types eschew the use of pressure cookers for everyday meals. Maybe that’s changed?
I don’t use an Instant Pot. Here’s why. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/pressure-cooker-pros-and-cons/