Warm Winter Breakfast, in Half the Time!

Steel cut oats are a form of oatmeal in which the grains have been chopped into little bits, instead of rolled flat, like most oatmeal. Sometimes you will see this sold as Scottish or Irish oats, but few people buy it because it takes about 30 minutes to cook. You can cook them in a slow cooker but when you wake up on a cold winter morning and want a warm breakfast, it's too late to plug in the slow cooker. Pressure cooker to the rescue! Cooking steel cut oats in the pressure cooker cuts the prep time in half! If you have young children, let them know that this is the porridge they read about in fairy and folk tales like Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

Pressure Cooked Steel Cut Oats

1 cup whole grain steel cut oats
3 cups water
1 cinnamon stick (optional)

Dash of salt

Combine ingredients in pressure cooker pot. Close lid and heat on high. When pressure is up to high setting (two white rings on Fissler Vitaquick pressure cooker) reduce heat to medium and let cook at high pressure setting for 4 minutes.  Turn off heat and allow pressure to reduce naturally (this will take 10 to 15 minutes). Once white rings on pressure indicator are no longer visible, unlock and remove lid. Stir to blend water and oats

Remove cinnamon stick and serve, topped with milk, fresh or dried fruit, chopped nuts and/or your favorite sweetener – brown sugar, maple syrup, honey or agave syrup.