A bit of an odd one in my porridge series this morning. I had coconut milk left over from making pineapple and coconut porridge yesterday. I wanted to use it again, but had no fresh pineapple left. I’d bought quite a few random ingredients in M&S yesterday (still going with my yellow sticker hobby) so I had a few options to choose from. I was drawn to the pea shoots as I had an idea that their slight sweetness might work in porridge. I also had some large red apples I’d got with a yellow sticker too.
I was a bit sad not to have any pineapple to pair with my coconut, and then I remembered that we had some dried pineapple that was past its date – bought as a treat for the kids but they weren’t that into it. Not strictly a whole food as it’s got sugar and preservatives in it, but anyway I went for it.
So I did my, now normal, microwaving oats with coconut milk for 4 minutes (with a bit of water too). I then added the grated apple, a small handful of chopped up pea shoots and some dried pineapple.
I stirred them in and microwaved it all for another minute.
The verdict: this is a tricky one to call. I’m enjoying eating it. But I’ve concluded there are some foods you need to focus on. It requires thought to disentangle the flavours. Maybe this is the opposite of a comfort food – sort of like an audiobook that you have to really listen to, rather than one that you can just let drift on in the background.
But with that complexity comes interest too. I’d say the peashoots blend quite well with the coconut and apple if you’re OK with some savouriness about your porridge. If there’s something that’s slightly discordant, it’s the pieces of still quite crunchy pineapple in amongst the general creaminess. They wake me up each time I get to one. But they do give it a bit of a party food feel, which is cheering me up on a low energy morning, and they bring it back to my favourite “colada” theme.
I’m certainly not sorry I tried this. Would I do it again? Maybe if I happened to have these ingredients lying around, which seems unlikely. I can’t imagine anyone else will do it, but it felt worth recording for posterity. Definitely a progression in my porridge “journey”.
Thanks for reading. Let me know if you’re inspired to try any interesting food combinations. You can read more of my porridge adventures here.