All the warmth of carrot cake, in a bowl you can have on an ordinary Tuesday morning.
Why does carrot belong in porridge?
This recipe comes from The Grateful Gut, the 14-day meal plan KÄLLA Sports Nutritionist Matt Jones wrote for us, and it is one of the breakfasts we keep coming back to. The idea is simple: everything that makes carrot cake taste like carrot cake, minus what makes it a cake.
Grated carrot melts into the oats as they cook. It adds a gentle sweetness and a little extra fibre, and turns an everyday bowl of porridge into something that tastes of autumn. Sultanas and a little honey carry the rest of the sweetness.
What does each ingredient bring?
| Ingredient | What it brings |
|---|---|
| Porridge oats | Beta-glucan, a soluble fibre, and slow-release carbohydrate that keeps you full through the morning |
| Carrot | Natural sweetness, colour and beta-carotene |
| Cinnamon, ginger & nutmeg | The carrot cake flavour, warm and fragrant |
| Sultanas | Sweetness from whole fruit, with the fibre still in it |
| Pecans & pumpkin seeds | Crunch and healthy fats, plus magnesium and zinc from the seeds |
| Yogurt | Protein, and a cool, tangy contrast to the warm porridge |
Nutrition per portion
| Calories | Carbs | Protein | Fat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 275 kcal | 19 g | 23 g | 9 g |
Values from Matt Jones's original recipe, for one portion.
How much protein is in carrot cake porridge?
23 g per bowl, which is a good start to the day. Protein at breakfast helps you stay full until lunch, and the need for it grows with age: from our forties, the body needs a little more protein to hold on to muscle.
If you want to take it a step further, porridge is also an easy home for creatine. Pure Creatine is tasteless and heat stable, so a level scoop stirs straight into the pan without changing a thing. Creatine is one of the most studied supplements in the world, and a daily intake of 3 g increases physical performance in successive bursts of short-term, high-intensity exercise.
Short on time in the morning?
Then make the cold version the night before. Matt's carrot cake overnight oats use the same flavours, with no cooking at all.
Looking for dinner too? From the same book, try his roasted red pepper, tomato and lentil soup.
Who is it for, and who is it not?
A warming weekday breakfast for one, and easy to double. It is vegetarian as written. For a dairy-free version, Matt's swaps in the plan are almond milk instead of milk, coconut yogurt instead of yogurt and maple syrup instead of honey. The same swaps work if you are sensitive to FODMAPs. Oats are not automatically gluten-free, so choose certified gluten-free oats if you have coeliac disease.
Pure Creatine is for healthy adults. It is not suitable during pregnancy or breastfeeding, for children, or for people with kidney or liver disease. And as always: supplements are there to support a varied diet and a healthy lifestyle, never to replace them.
Ready to make it? Ingredients and the step-by-step method are below.
Ingredients
- 100 ml water
- 100 ml semi-skimmed milk
- 50 g porridge oats
- 50 g yogurt
- 2 tbsp pecan nuts
- 1 Medjool date
- 1 large baby carrot
- 15 g sultanas
- 10 g pumpkin seeds
- 5 g honey
- 1 tsp ground nutmeg
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground ginger
Instructions
- Pop a heavy-based saucepan on a set of electronic weighing scales. Weigh in and add the oats, milk (or alternative) and water along with a pinch of salt.
- Wash and grate the carrot into the saucepan, then add the sultanas, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.
- Cook slow and low for around 10 minutes until a thick, creamy consistency is formed. Add a splash of water if a runnier porridge consistency is desired.
- Serve the porridge into a bowl and top with crushed pecan nuts, pumpkin seeds and your favourite honey or maple syrup. Finish with a generous portion of yogurt for a boost of protein.
