This recipe and I go way back; a bowl of savory, freshly ground whole oat groats has been my favorite snack for years. It takes only 3 minutes to make, is cheap and comforting as hell , full of fiber (aka fuel for your gut bacteria) and oats are also one of the most sustainable crops you can eat. As someone who is *super into* this dish right here, I have absolutely no interest in steel cut oats (they’re stale and much more less creamy) and I’d never in a million years think of eating a bowl of instant oatmeal. Whole groats or the highway. *Edit, this has since changed due to sheer convenience and frugality, as seen in my Cranberry Gingerbread Instant Oatmeal Mix here haha.

Most people swear by freshly grinding their coffee beans at home, me included, and the same principles apply to oatmeal (maybe even more so considering a bag of groats will likely stick around in your pantry longer than a pound of coffee). This method makes for the freshest bowl of oatmeal possible, plus grinding them yourself allows you to have full control of your grind size. I grind mine with just a few short pulses, where some pieces are completely pulverized and others barely affected. The end result is full of texture while still being a level of creaminess you can’t get from any other form of oatmeal. And again, takes only 3 minutes to make thanks to the overnight soak.

*Low/no oil doesn’t mean low fat. The difference between eating tahini, like in this recipe, instead of sesame or coconut oil is the same as eating a raspberry or apple instead of refined white sugar. Having fiber, plant cells and vitamins along with the fat means your body responds to it much differently.  I learned so much about the consequences of eating oil from Mic the Vegan videos (like this one), the books How Not to Die by Dr. Greger, Whole: Rethinking the Science of Nutrition by Howard Jacobson and T. Colin Campbell and The Starch Solution by Dr. McDougall.