This time last year, having not long left Italy, I was back in France, living peacefully in the idyllic countryside. After spending several months eating stodgy pasta at every mealtime, I'd sadly gained a hideous and somewhat uncomfortable amount of weight and was therefore full of good dietary intentions, including my commitment to being a vegan again and the deletion of processed foods from my life.
In fairness, these changes ended up being far easier to implement than I thought they would be, even living outside of Paris, where the word végétalien, seems to be a mythical word someone made up to confuse the French. With the help of Pinterest, I managed to discover a plethora of recipes and links to great food blogs and websites, that offered up an array of amazing, super healthy, super delicious, simple vegan recipes. Which, I thought at the time, would be nice and perhaps useful, to share on my own site, with other people who may be interested. Hence, the {RECIPE} tag was started.
However, as with all good intentions, moving back to a city, unfortunately meant that some things soon seemed to fall by the wayside. Like healthy clean eating, which somehow got a little fuzzy, in favour of trips to cute cafes, that served up delicious fatty slabs of cake and food trucks that sold burritos the size of small children, which left me with a smile on my face and then subsequently, three hours of soy related stomach cramps.
Anyway, I digress...A few weeks ago, a bearded vegan friend from yoga introduced me to millet. Which, I'd kinda heard of, but never actually tried before. He cooked it up with some lentils and sweet potato and a side serving of kale and I found that it was actually really tasty. In fact, I liked it so much, that after lunch, we went straight out to the store and I bought a kilo of it!
What I like about it, besides the taste, is that it's gluten free, high in protein, vitamin B, magnesium, potassium, zinc, copper and manganese and is super cheap to buy organically here in Berlin! Unlike my previously favoured grain, quinoa, which is pretty expensive here, compared to the price back in England.
With a kind of fluffy texture, slightly akin to couscous, I personally love it cooked with half a stock cube and a sprinkle of turmeric and coriander, as the base of my Buddha bowls, but lately I've discovered the joys of turning it into porridge!
Now, as a Brit, porridge for me will always be a winter staple, but, as much as I love it, my stomach isn't as keen when it comes to the consumption of oats and whilst I've experimented with boxes of organic yogi porridge, made from ground tigernuts, to be honest, it just gets a little expensive after a while and the consistency isn't really the same. So, I've been pretty happy to discover this entirely new version of porridge, which is making breakfast something worthy of getting up for!
So, as it's been a seemingly long amount of time, since I last shared anything food related and seeing as several people have recently inquired about these bowls of breakfast deliciousness, via my Instagram and Facebook page, I figured now was as good a time as any to share the very simple, very yummy, very healthy and very easy recipe! Guten Appetit!
Simple Millet Porridge
- Half a cup of millet
- One cup of hazelnut milk (or other dairy/alternative milk)
- One cup of water
- A drizzle of honey (or agave/maple syrup)
- A sprinkle of cinnamon
Combine all the ingredients together in a saucepan and bring to the boil, then reduce down to a simmer and cook for roughly 10-15 minutes, until the millet is soft and the majority of the liquid has been absorbed, depending on how runny or thick you like your porridge of course.
That's it!
Then it's just a case of choosing your toppings! Personally, I opt for half a banana, cut up, with a sprinkle of both Chia and Hemp seeds over the top and a drizzle of either organic honey or agave syrup. Some days though, I throw in a few squares of 60/70% dark chocolate into the pan, whilst it's still cooking, for a mildly indulgent cocoa version. Let's face it though, when it comes to toppings, the combinations are endless!
Ultimately, for fifteen minutes wait, you end up with a really filling, super nutritious, totally delicious, gluten free breakfast, which I find to be a really good start to the day!
If you give it a try, let me know what you think and maybe share a snap on Instagram, using #ouijetaimeaussi as a hashtag, so that I can find you! I'd love to know what you think and also what combinations/variations you go for!
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