My last post was titled Vegetable Fortified Nigerian Solids (click HERE to see how) In that post I showed you examples of blending vegetables, which can then be added to our starchy solids, not just for the fun colour element, but introducing additional vegetables to your diet. I wanted to give this a different twist because my days of drinking raw veggie smoothies kind of turned me off adding pureed vegetables to anything.
So, this time, I decided to look at the problem from another angle. Instead of blending the vegetables, I would use it whole, but in chopped form. I am using chopped Kale. You can use chopped spinach or even ugu. Since The Tangerine Oatmeal post (click HERE) was about cooking oatmeal in its original form, I thought, I may as well show you the other side of cooking oatmeal i.e. milling it into a powder. If you are worried about losing the fibre that using oatmeal whole provides, well here comes adding chopped veggies (kale, spinach, collard greens etc) to save the day. Fibre sorted.
You will need
Your choice of chopped vegetables - spinach, kale, ugu, collard greens etc
Oatmeal - either powdered or whole
Hot water
How To
1. Grind the oatmeal into a fine powder using a dry mill
2. Heat up water in a kettle till it boils and blanch the vegetables. You can either pre blanch the vegetables to get rid of the raw vegetable taste, or you add the vegetables to the water from scratch. whichever you decide is fine.
3. Place enough water to cook the oatmeal powder in a pot and let it boil.
4. Pour in the oatmeal powder and start to stir immediately, just as you would with Amala
5. Once you start to turn in circular motions and the water has absorbed most if not all of the oatmeal powder, add the chopped vegetables
5. Keep turning and turning in circular motions, and you will notice the chopped vegetables spreading through the oatmeal
6. You may need to add a little water, if you feel the oatmeal is too stiff.
7. Keep turning till you get the consistency that you are comfortable with. The oatmeal is properly cooked when you notice it has turned slightly brown
Scoop out of the pot and serve
I was planning on shaping it into an Oatmeal Roll, then I remembered someone who used the natural crescent curve of the “igbako” to make indentations on her Eba on Facebook.
So, I moulded the oatmeal back together into a ball, being inspired by that image, but this time, I took it further making it my own, by going deeper than just an indentation but making it into well-defined ridges like Crescents. I can’t remember your name now, I have been hunting down for that picture for hours now. To you, I say thank you. If you can come out, I will like to reference you by mentioning your name.
So, lets call this Oatmeal Crescents shall we? Loool
Kale Fortified Oatmeal Crescents served with Mama Adeola Stew and Buka Ewedu
Recipe for Mama Adeola Stew, click HERE
Add the powdered oatmeal to the pan and keep stirring until it thickens. Stir very fast to prevent lumps
Joy Obiajulu
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