You can make delicious and nutritious oatmeal using oat groats if you own a mortar and a pestle.

I wanted to purchase a mechanical grinder to mill grains into flour. The grinder costs more than $400.

Two years ago, I purchased many grains including whole oat, wheat berries, barley, and millet. I didn’t purchase the grinder. I made porridge with the grains. I only have few cups of millet, barley, and oat groats left. I have more than 50 lbs. of wheat berries.

The whole grains held well in my pantry without any special storage. In the past, to make porridge with hard grains like barley, oat, and wheat, I soaked overnight.

I changed water and boiled for an hour or two until the grain was soft.  Whole grain porridge has chewy texture that some of my kids dislike. Over the weekends, I wanted to make porridge with oat groats to use it up. I soaked it overnight.

In the morning, I drained the water and poured the grain in the pot. Then an idea came to my mind to pound it first using my mortar and pestle. I have tried it in the past with the dry grain but it didn’t work.

I put some of the soaked grains about 1 cup in the mortar without water. I pounded for about 5 minutes or so and poured in the pan.

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I repeated the process and pounded the grains until they broke in pieces. I rinsed the mortar and poured the water on the pounded grains. I added water to the pot and brought to a boil. I reduced the heat to medium and boiled for about 30 minutes.

My kids told me it smelled oatmeal in the house. I served them and they loved it. I didn’t even add milk. The porridge was thick. I have made enough for few mornings. To serve the next day, I scooped few tablespoon of it to a bowl, add sugar to it and warm it up in the microwave.

I am not going to say it didn’t save time. But I am glad I can cook oatmeal using whole grain without owing a grinder.

I purchased my granite mortar and pestle from Amazon.com years ago. I am not sure if they still carry the same brand. However, it was sold by Import Food. I have the 7 or 8 inches one. I use it a lot. It is heavy and just stays on my kitchen counter.

https://importfood.com/products/thai-cookware/item/mortar-and-pestle-solid-thai-granite

 

 

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