So far in this feature we have ran in Storm Dennis and taken on teabags. However since we attempted to eat cauliflower for breakfast we have been overwhelmed with alternative porridge suggestions and were alarmed to see so many different types. Perhaps the time has come to take it on again?
The book
The book that topped the list when it came to alternative porridge was, The New Porridge by Leah Vanderveldt. It contains porridge recipes a plenty but also granola, nut butters and, quite interestingly seed butters useful for those with nut allergies.
Without doubt it’s full of pretty as a picture porridge. On browsing I wasn’t sure my skills were up to a fair few of the porridge creations however the savoury recipes caught my eye. Surely not cauliflower again?
The challenge
The recipe we settled on was full English breakfast porridge. Now I like a full English and I like my porridge but together? The recipe was quite labor intensive requiring soaking over night and the making of shiitake ‘bacon’ (it was a vegetarian recipe). With the addition of veg stock, hot sauce and tomatoes it was definitely savoury. It was also full of buzz health words such as quinoa, kale and avocado. But was it actually going to be nice?
The exclusion of oats in the actual recipe immediately removed the sense of porridge. It felt a bit like eating a healthy fry up with a random bit of grain underneath it which, in reality, it was. There wasn’t too much joining up of the ‘porridge’ and the ‘fry up’. Mostly though it was far too labor intensive for a morning. It’s a weekend recipe to say the least and I kept thinking I could have eaten a full fry up or a bowl of proper porridge by now. Whilst I won’t be repeating the recipe I have taken on one or two ideas from the book. The rhubarb crumble porridge sounds amazing, whether I make it or not remains to be seen.
Bring on the challenges!
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