[The following post and recipe was submitted by reader Helen.]
Oatmeal is the only thing which gets me out of bed in the morning. In the cold winter months, (we have 12 here in Scotland), a big bowl of porridge is the perfect antidote to the dreary weather outside. My only issue with oatmeal is that despite keeping me feeling full for much longer than cereal, I normally still get hungry around 11am unless I bulk it up with something. Normally I use sweet potato, as it thickens up overnight oats and for chocolatey porridges makes them taste rich and fudgy. However, recently I have including a new addition… Lentils!
Like sweet potatoes, the lentils make your overnight oats thick and fudgy. They are also massively sustaining, containing three times the fibre and six times the protein of sweet potatoes! The best thing about the lentils is that they completely blend in with the other ingredients in the oatmeal in same way that the sweet potatoes do. You’d never know they were there!
For reasons of laziness I normally boil a big batch at the start of the week, and then just scoop out what I need. The ratio I use is one cup of dry red lentils to three cups water, which lasts for a week or so in the fridge. The lentils are boiled for 20 minutes, until they form a thick paste. Some lentils may not have fully disintegrated, in which case you can grab a potato masher or blender to smooth the mixture out.
The following recipe is a variation on Lauren’s Sweet Potato Fudge Oatmeal, but lentils could be used in place of the vegetable components of any other recipes!
What you'll need: How to make it: Just an FYI: As a thickening agent, lentils work best in overnight oatmeal. The consistency becomes thinner when they are heated.
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