BLUEBERRY PORRIDGE WITH VANILLA CREAM

Blueberry porridge with vanilla cream is my way of turning simple ingredients into a delicious breakfast. In my berry forest porridge is never boring. Although we mostly eat porridge from a bowl sometimes I like to make it fancy like this layered into a parfait.

Here’s how to never have boring porridge again

Choose Porridge Grains

It all starts with choosing the grain you like or want to experiment with. During weekdays I always choose oats, but on weekends I might go for a mixture of quinoa and oats or millet. Millet makes a very creamy porridge whereas quinoa porridge might have a little bite left. I love to combine quinoa with rolled oats to get the consistency just right and also to make my kids eat porridge (they think plain quinoa porridge is strange 🙂 ).

Rice porridge is amazing too, but takes almost an hour to make. I rarely am patient enough for that – although it is worth it. One tip for making rice porridge is to make it in the oven so you don’t have to stand on the stove for an hour :). Just mix your porridge ingredients:  porridge rice, pinch of salt and plant-based milk. Place it in a pot in the oven and let simmer for about an hour or so until the plant-based milk is absorbed and the result is a creamy porridge.

For this particular porridge I chose oats, because I wanted to show how easy and quick it is to make plain porridge a bit fancier with just a few added ingredients.

Choose Porridge Texture

Do you like thick porridge or a creamier one? I tend to cook a thick porridge first and then loosen it up with plant-based milk. I add plant milk to my porridge while it’s still on the stove. I stir as much in as I need to reach the texture I want.

If you like creamy porridge too, one tip is to add a thick plant-based milk to make it creamy. I recommend a Barista style oat drink the most, as it has the perfect mild sweet flavor from oats and also a great creaminess. I use Fazer Aito Barista, because the flavor is simply perfect (this post is not sponsored, I just like to mention the brands I use daily so you can discover them too)

Choose Porridge Flavors

Then you want to choose the flavor. I almost always opt for blueberry porridge, mostly because we have lots of wild blueberries in the freezer. The best berries to go with porridge in my opinion are:

• (wild) blueberries
• lingonberries or cranberries
• raspberries
• strawberries

One tip in the fall and winter season when you don’t have fresh berries is to make berry compote from frozen berries. It’s as simple as simmering about a cup (or any amount you have) of frozen berries with some water (to not get the berries stuck on the bottom) on the stove top in a pan. You can let it simmer with some added flavors like cinnamon sticks, star anise or vanilla. If the berries are sour or tart, add a drizzle of syrup or some sugar. That’s it! This berry compote is so good with porridge.

Adding a second flavor to accompany the berry flavor is a way of bringing your porridge to the next level!

These are some of my favorite combinations:

• Blueberries combined with vanilla, cardamom and coconut or cashew cream.
• Lingonberries or cranberries with vegan caramel sauce – it’s the balance of tart and sweet which works here so well. Here’s my lingonberry porridge with caramel.

• Raspberries, which are kind of jam like when smashed make a delicious peanut butter and jam like combo.
• Strawberries work well with any kind of cream added: it can be vegan whipped cream, creamy nut butter (my choice is cashew butter or this White chocolate nut butter, which is one of the best nut butters I’ve ever tasted), vegan vanilla sauce, coconut cream or cashew cream.

Choose your toppings

One of my favorite things to do in the morning is to check out the pantry for toppings. I usually prefer berries, nuts, seeds, nut butters, chocolate or granola or all of these if I like to make my porridge a little over-the-top.

For this creamy blueberry porridge though just a few colorful berries from the freezer was enough. Sometimes I want to keep the flavors simple.

Hope you like this creamy porridge too!

Blueberry Porridge with Vanilla Cream Recipe

• 1 cup rolled oats (to vary things up a bit, use half rolled oats / half buckwheat flakes)
• 1 cup creamy oat milk (Barista style)
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup frozen blueberries (use forest blueberries / bilberries if they are available)
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cardamom for flavor
• I also like to add shredded coconut to porridge for a fun texture and coconut flavor, usually about 1/4 cup.
• For sweetness if needed: ~ 1 tbsp maple syrup or half a ripe smashed banana

• 1/2 cup coconut cream (the solid part of a coconut milk can)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• For sweetness if needed: ~2 tsp maple syrup

1. Cook oats in oat milk and water in medium heat for about five minutes (or according to rolled oats package instructions) stirring every now and then. Place lid on the porridge pot and, take off heat and let simmer under the lid for another 5 minutes.
2. Add pinch of salt, berries, shredded coconut also if you like and stir well. You can also add more oat milk if you want a creamier texture.
3. If you have time: whip coconut cream with vanilla and syrup until you have a fluffy cream. This part is not essential, but gives a lovely fluffiness to the layers. You can also just mix the solid coconut milk with vanilla and syrup until the cream is smoother.
4. Layer the porridge with the cream in a jar or mix them up gently in a bowl.