bittman

Rice Cooker Steel-Cut Oats

The rice cooker's second job. Oats and water go in at night, the porridge setting and the delay timer do the forty minutes of stirring you were never going to do, and breakfast is hot when you walk in. The top is the same bowl equation as the yogurt bowl. Field-tested as the weekday default.

62 minutes · Low cleanup · Uses rice cooker · serves 4 · ~7g per bowl on its own; ~20g with a scoop of Greek yogurt or a swirl of peanut butter and milk

Ingredients

Equipment

rice cooker with a porridge setting · a bowl · a spoon

The steps

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3

Cook Mode walks these one at a time, with timers and a way out when things go sideways.

The idea

The rice cooker works nights. Set the timer before bed and the slow simmer you'd never do at 6am happens without you.

Substitutions

  • water → half milk, half water. Richer and creamier. Whole milk only in the cooker — skim scorches, and plant milks can foam.
  • steel-cut oats → rolled oats. Then 1 cup oats to 2 cups water on the regular rice setting — much faster, softer, less chew.
  • Greek yogurt on top → cottage cheese, a poached egg and hot sauce (the savory road), or a swirl of peanut butter and milk
  • berries → a chopped apple cooked in with the oats overnight, banana coins, or thawed frozen anything

Tomorrow

  • Tomorrow's bowl is the same pot, topped fresh — the top is where the variety lives.
  • Cold oats with yogurt and honey stirred through is a legitimate overnight-oats situation and needs no reheating.

Freeze: Portion into a muffin tin, freeze, pop out into a bag. A puck with milk covers the mornings the pot is empty.

Keeps 5 days in the fridge in a covered container. It sets firm when cold; that's starch, not spoilage. Milk, not water, is the splash here. Reheat with a splash of water and a lid; starches want their water back.

How long things keep →

Make ahead

This recipe is make-ahead. Sunday night's pot is the week's breakfasts; the delay timer is the only step that matters.

Keep it safe

  • Don't leave cooked oats on 'keep warm' past a couple of hours — refrigerate the extra.