I love carrot cake and this breakfast bowl of Zen is one of my favourites, with all the tastes of a crazy carrot cake, carrot, walnuts, cinnamon, rock sugar cane, along with the sweet, vitamin-rich nutritious carrots. It’s the sweetest and yummiest way to get an entire serving of vegetables in early before anything else happen. And while it may sound a little crazy, it really is just a slight creative development on the traditional flavours of breakfast oatmeal porridge, especially sweetened with rock cane sugar. Shredding the carrot and cooking it until tender relaxes its flavour and emphasizes its sweetness, making it a most welcome addition to sweet oatmeal, at least for those of us who love carrot cake.
Want to express your culinary creativity, then why not change or add some other heaven sent seeds, nuts or ingredients.
Total: 10 mins
Prep: 5 mins
Cook: 5 mins
Yield: 1 serving
Ingredients
- 1 carrot
- 100 grams rolled oats
- 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon raisins
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 tablespoon (crushed) cane rock sugar (plus more to taste)
- 1 tablespoon butter (plus more to taste)
- 2 tablespoons walnuts (toasted, chopped)
- A dash of milk
How to Make.
- Peel the carrot and grate it into a small saucepan.
- Add 1 cup of water and the pinch of salt.
- Bring to a boil over high heat.
- Stir in the oats, vanilla, cinnamon, and raisins (if using).
- Adjust the heat to maintain a steady simmer and cook, stirring frequently, until the oats and carrot are tender, about 5 minutes.
- Take the pan off the heat. Stir in the brown sugar.
- Transfer to a bowl.
- Dot the top with bits of the butter.
- Sprinkle with more brown sugar, if you like, and top with the walnuts.
- Serve hot.
The flavours and benefits of everyday foods as seen with the concept of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Carrot: Clears heat, Benefits the eyes, Lubricates the intestines, Promotes digestion. Oats: Nourish the Three Treasures, Warms Yang, Tonify Qi and Blood, Circulate Qi, Calm the Shen (mind). Raisins: tonify blood, moistening, red ones good for bones, diuretic. Cinnamon: relieves abdominal pain from cold and treats diarrhoea, builds Heart Qi and Yang, supports Spleen and Stomach Qi, builds Spleen Yang, and resolves Phlegm. Butter: calms Shen. Soothing and comforting, this recipe will delight the taste buds while regulating digestion. Cane Rock Sugar: Clear heat, Moisten dryness, Harmonize the spleen, Remove toxicity. Walnuts: Nourish the Three Treasures, Jing, Qi, Shen. Tonify Kidney, Benefits the Brain, Warm the Lungs, Moisten Intestines and Unblock Bowels.
James O’Sullivan - that's me, a people friendly practitioner and lecturer of Integrated Medicine, serving my patients, my students and the public with the positive benefits of both Conventional Western Medicine and Traditional Chinese Medicine.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to diagnose or assess. The information provided is not to be considered a substitute for consultation with a qualified health care practitioner.