This Poached Pear Porridge Recipe Contains A Third Of Your Daily Fibre

2 months ago 9

Poached pear porridge on the right: cooking on the left

I’d like to apologise for banging on about fibre to all my loved ones. I’m obsessed with getting enough of the stuff (though in my defence, it is linked to better heart and brain health, as well as a decreased likelihood of developing bowel cancer).

That preoccupation has led me to create my beloved overnight chocolate chia oats recipe and “marry me” butterbean lunch, the combination of which gets me to 24g of my recommended 30g daily intake before dinner.

But I am human and I’ve grown tired of my former favourite brekkie. Which is why I’ve recently become obsessed with making a poached pear porridge – and, bonus, it gets me a third of the way to meeting my daily fibre intake before I even start work.

Porridge is great for your heart health

I’ve previously shared my chai latte porridge recipe, which infuses the milk with cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

I missed the flavour of it, but to be honest, I couldn’t be bothered cooking the milk separately every morning.

Still, I know how great for us the staple brekkie is – speaking to HuffPost UK previously, Dr Frankie Phillips, a dietitian at The British Dietetic Association, said: “There isn’t a single dietitian who would consider oats to be anything but a valuable food for all ages.”

He added: “The fibre component alone is a nutritional wonder as it is a type of fibre called Beta-glucan, which studies have shown to be effective in helping to lower blood cholesterol levels and may also help to reduce rises in blood glucose levels after a meal.”

I use 50g of oats which provides 6g of fibre, along with about 4-5g of fibre from the pear. When cooked, by the way, pears release gut-healthy pectin, a special kind of fibre.

I’ll often add about 10g of rosemary-toasted walnuts to the mix too, though this only bumps up the fibre content by about a gram. Both the poached pears and the nuts make great additions to your other meals too: I ate both with bread and chestnut paste a couple of times this week.

Poached pear bread on the left; porridge on the right

Poached pear porridge recipe

For the record: I do not make the poached pears every day. I cook them all at once and store them in an airtight container in their liquids for the working week.

I also toast the walnuts at the start of the week and store them in a jar (I recommend you do the same).

This is therefore not all meant for one serving.

Poached pear ingredients (five servings):

5 pears, peeled (I core and quarter mine to speed this up)200g sugar500ml water 5 cracked cardamom seeds3g ground ginger1 vanilla pod, if you have them (1 tsp vanilla extract if you don’t)Splash of lemon juice.

Walnuts ingredients (five servings):

50g walnuts Sprig of rosemary 10g honey5g flaky salt 5g olive oil

Porridge ingredients (one serving):

50g oats 250ml milkPinch of salt.

Method:

For the poached pears: boil the water, lemon juice, sugar, cardamom, and vanilla together on a medium heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Add the pears and simmer for about 20 minutes, ideally with a cartouche (a circle cut from baking paper laid on top of the cooking fruit). Cook until fork-tender and leave to cool; store them in their liquid in an airtight container in the fridge, and sprinkle with a tiny amount of ginger before serving.For the rosemary walnuts: preheat the oven to 200°C. Place all ingredients in an ovenproof pan, peeling off rosemary sprigs from the plant, until the liquids become runny and coat the nuts (about two minutes). Place them in the oven for about seven minutes until toasted; you’ll smell when they’re done. They should appear slightly darker brown. Store these in a jar or an airtight container. For the porridge: add 60g of oats and heat on medium heat (stirring often) until the porridge is boiling. Then, lower the heat and set it to simmer for five to 10 minutes.Add a poached pear, sprinkle of ginger, and 10g roasted walnuts. Enjoy!