I’ve eaten oatmeal every morning since December 2024, and I ate it every day for years prior to the beginning of that fall semester. This is not overstated; I have a solid grasp on basic oat-making.
Given my experience, I wanted to try something that restaurants do to change things up: toast the oats before boiling them for a gourmet oatmeal experience.
This meal costs anywhere from $2.39 to $3.83 per portion. This is because yogurt prices vary greatly based on the brand. Always buy in bulk for meals like this, so you can actually match these prices instead of overspending upward of 30 percent.
This is gourmet-ish; I regularly use peanut butter instead of walnuts and butter, and I often use raisins instead of frozen berries. Doing that will make the meal significantly cheaper — anywhere from $0.50 to $1 cheaper. If you use peanut butter, then do not use butter, as it will make the texture unfavorable and the nutrient profile unbalanced.
Ingredients:
60 grams or 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons Rolled/Old-Fashioned oats ($0.38 to $0.48)
1 1/4 cups of milk ($0.25 to $0.36)
1/2 cup of Skyr/Greek yogurt ($0.50 to $1)
1 tablespoon of (unsalted) butter ($0.12 to $0.15)
Small handful of crushed walnuts ($0.30 to $0.55)
3/4 to 1 cup of frozen berries ($0.80 to $1.25)
Pinch of cinnamon (~$0.04)
Directions:
The toasted oats are the base — I’d use either rolled or old-fashioned oats. For the toppings I chose crushed walnuts, frozen berries — to taste — cinnamon, and (Greek/Skyr) yogurt. You will also need milk and butter, or otherwise if you’re vegan, grain/nut milk, and some oil that works well in pastry dishes. I’d recommend cashew or almond milk for vegans.
I used a bit less than a 1:5 gram ratio of oats to milk. I’ll typically use somewhere between 60-65g of oats and 280 to 310 grams of water, so I just mimicked that ratio for oats to milk. In cups, this is an overfilled 1/2 cup of oats and 1 cup of liquid and an extra, solid splash (or 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons).
These measurements don’t need to be precise; they’ll just influence the texture.
To begin, I toasted my oats on medium on the stovetop with a tablespoon of butter until they started smelling really good — this took about 3 to 4 minutes. I used a bigger pot instead of a whole separate pan for this. Immediately after they were toasted, I poured my milk (or water) in and set the stovetop to high.
While I waited for the oats to boil, I filled my bowl with the toppings. I usually put a bit less than 100 grams of yogurt in (or 1/3 to 1/2 cups) and frozen berries — to taste, really, so anywhere from ¾ to 1 cup. Here, instead of my usual peanut butter, I chose to put in chopped walnuts.
Once the oatmeal is boiling, pour some cinnamon in, turn the heat to low, and stir. Proper heat here should have the oatmeal bubbling occasionally. If you added more milk/water at the start, your oatmeal might simmer proper instead of belch.
Once the oatmeal has sat simmering for a little over a minute, pour it into your bowl, mix up your creation and eat.
Review
The gourmet-ish addition of butter didn’t do too much for the oatmeal. To make it better, I’d replace it with peanut butter. The butter did make the oatmeal’s texture smoother, however. It did succeed in mimicking the base of restaurant oatmeal.
What the butter also did was make the frozen berries and walnuts pop a little more. I can say, in any case, I certainly felt like a 14th-century Irish farmer; it tasted very earthy, not as much so as replacing the oats with barley, but it was stark, in any case.
Photo by Lex Griffin.