One of the trickiest aspects of implementing the traditional method of soaked oatmeal in order to maximize nutrition, eliminate anti-nutrients, and considerably improve digestibility is getting used to the slightly sour taste.
Some of you are even going so far as to rinse the soaked oatmeal after cooking, for example, in an attempt to lessen that slightly sour taste that some find unpleasant. Unfortunately, these efforts are not working very well for those of you that have emailed me about it.
I’ve got a better idea!
In the video below, I talk to you about the single easy step required to quickly adjust your family to soaked oatmeal.
I also talk to you about the huge benefit to your backside of soaked oatmeal and tell you the story about my 3 kids and their experience eating unsoaked oatmeal versus soaked oatmeal.
If you ever doubted the need for soaked oatmeal before, after hearing this story, you may find that you change your mind!
For those of you who want to take the plunge and prepare your first batch of soaked oatmeal, check out my recipe plus video lesson on preparing overnight oats.
How you cook the oatmeal is the critical step that most people completely miss and which determines how much nourishment and benefit you will actually derive from the experience.
Preparation also determines how long the oatmeal will fill you up. Â What good is a bowl of oatmeal if you are hungry again and ready for a donut by 10 am?
Preparing your oatmeal the traditional way as practiced for centuries by ancestral societies will take a little planning on your part, but you will be greatly rewarded with a much more nourishing, digestible breakfast that will stay with you all the way to lunchtime!
Traditional peoples knew through observation that grains were very hard to digest and caused health problems over time for those who consumed them without careful preparation.
Throwing out those toxic boxed breakfast cereals that are at least twice as expensive per serving and replacing them with a simple, nutritious bowl of soaked oatmeal will also help your food budget considerably with no loss in pleasure or enjoyment particularly on chilly winter mornings!
How to Easily Adjust to the Taste of Soaked Oatmeal
In this short video, I explain how to adjust to the unique flavor of overnight oats without any loss of enjoyment.
The process simply involves soaking with water only at first and gradually moving toward the most beneficial soaking medium. The speed of transition depends completely on your unique set of taste buds.
More Information
Soaked Oatmeal Benefits Without the Soaking?
Why ALL Boxed Breakfast Cereal is Toxic
Thank you for your wonderful website, Sara.
I just watched the video on soaking oatmeal. We are oatmeal fans,too. After I discovered steel-cut oats at our Mennonite bulk food store, I decided to try making my own. I grind my own flour, so I always have oat grain on hand to use in my bread.
I simply blend the raw grain in the blender – one cup at a time – for about 10 seconds, which partially cuts the grain, leaving some whole. I add it like that to my whole grain bread.
For breakfast, I soak the “steel-cut” grain the night before, just as you described with a measure of ground flax seed and the result is delightfully textured. BUT until I watched your video e-mail a few minutes ago, I was appallingly ignorant about adding the acid. Could I use my raw milk kefir?
Thank you again for all the great information. Roma Y
My son loves cream of wheat which I cook up like a pudding with milk and butter. Has anyone tried to ferment cream of wheat/farina? I currently have a bowl sitting with grain, water and a spoonful of yogurt, a very thick lump. My room temp is about 25 C, so will be interesting to see what happens to it after a couple of days at least. I’ve tried all filmjölk (store-bought) before, for 24 hrs and nothing really seemed to happen. The filmjölk taste wasn’t to my son’s liking either.
Also, does anyone know where the idea of using an acidic medium came from? It seems that the traditional recipes I’ve managed to come across either call for the entire liquid to be buttermilk/yogurt (in Indian recipes, as well as Lebanese Kishk), plain water with nothing added, or water and an inoculum added (esp in southeast Asian recipes). But never water mixed with a bit of sour.
Sarah, I noticed on another post about whole grains causing cavities that you quoted Ramiel on soaking in buttermilk, yogurt etc not being effective. But then there are recipes I mentioned above, kishk, and Indian concoctions that do use this as the only liquid, so assuming these guys ‘knew’ what they were doing, what could be happening with that? I know that for kishk, the mixture has to be kneaded every day, for 10 days. Could that be the difference? Just some thoughts, would be interested in hearing what others have to say about it.
Amaranth tastes just like Cream of Wheat and is a really nice grain-like seed that you can also soak first overnight.
Where did Oliver go? Sarah- he raised some interesting points, even if they were only partial truths.
Like the “facts of chemistry and physics”… Since he was so fond of quoting famous scientists, I think it was Eistein who said, “a thousand experiments could never prove me right, a single experiment could prove me wrong..” The “facts” of science are evolving all the time! Chemistry and physics are only a few fields of science where most variables can be isolated and controlled, and what is learnt is often confused with “fact”. Most areas of science understand that the interconnectedness of variables means it is much more difficult to progress past “theories”… certainly the case in biology!
And as for his idolising raw, in-tact proteins- what happens to said proteins when they are ingested? They are attacked by acids and enzymes etc, which are designed to “degrade” them- they cannot be used in-tact by our bodies! When whole proteins are absorbed by our digestive systems, we have major health issues!
And Oliver, proteins are not the only nutrients! Starch, you have mentioned, but fat you have done nothing but deride! Cut all fats out of your diet, and tell me how long you will be able to have healthy babies for! Although, this isn’t an experiment that could be conducted in a lab with all variables controlled, perhaps it isn’t worthy of your consideration…
Hi Jaime, folks were emailing me to complain that Oliver was dominating the conversation and they were annoyed. I don’t mind different points of view, but excessive commenting by one person intend on monopolizing the conversation peppered with occasional rudeness will not be tolerated.
Fair enough. 🙂
Absolutely right! Oliver, get your own blog and stop co-opting others……
I’m sorry, it’s fair to say that I am partly to blame for engaging in his conversations. And I was probably not always polite… I’m a newbie here so wasn’t aware of what level of discussion is welcome/tolerated.
Love your blog by the way!
My grains seem to be sour only sometimes, usually when the weather is hot. I have access to 100% grass fed vanilla yogurt. Is it okay to soak grains in it, or does it have to be plain yogurt?
Do you soak quinoa or rice before using them? I like to eat quinoa with pear butter or jam in the morning or Rice with cinnamon and stevia. I was just wondering if you would soak these two grains also? (i usually use brown rice so it has the tougher outside)
Your repeated reference to “the slightly sour taste of soaked grain” is quite the understatement. Two tablespoons of agent per cup of grain is EXTREMELY sour.
I sometimes rinse the oats after soaking, if they are a little too tangy! Kifer and lemon juice are strong, yogurt gives a nice milk taste.
Sarah, is there any way to soak your oatmeal and cook it in a crockpot overnight at the same time? As you know, it takes a crockpot quite a long time to become hot on the low setting. Is that long enough to soak the oatmeal before it begins to cook?
thanks,
Joyce
I’ve been making oatmeal in the crockpot for a while for my husband…He leaves at 5am and doesn’t have time to make his oatmeal before he leaves for the gym…and I’m a slacker wife and don’t get out of bed before he leaves. I went to the store and bought one of those plug timer things and have it set to turn the crockpot on 1 hour before he needs to leave (different crock pots might take longer/shorter). The crockpot I use is pretty small so it doesn’t take very long to heat up. When I first started doing this I put enough oatmeal for him and for me, he took his, and then left the crockpot on until I got up…which was around 7…cooking it that long was not very good, so I would not suggest just cooking it overnight…the timer has been great for us 🙂
HI Rochel,
thanks for the info; can you please tell me your “recipe”–how much water and how much oats? also, do you set the crockpot on high or low? You are certainly not a “slacker!” everyone needs their sleep. Maybe your husband could just turn off or unplug the crockpot when he’s done and you could reheat the oatmeal if needed…
thanks a bunch!
Joyce
sorry one other question. With oatmeal do you just stir some butter or cream in after it has come off the stove?
Sarah
GREAT video . My kids dont mind soaked grains except for oatmeal that they taste the souriness much more so I will try this with them. Can I ask you a question re oats. If I grind oats and make your cold cereal with oat flour not spelt do I need to increase the whey/lemon juice I use to soak . I thought I read somewhere that oats were harder to break down the antinutrients in.
Thanks again