Hello lovelies,
when the mornings turn cooler, summer simply moves into our breakfast bowl: my coconut quinoa porridge with tropical fruit is warm, creamy and tastes like a holiday, even while the first leaves are falling outside. Quinoa and fine oats cook together in coconut milk into a smooth porridge with cinnamon and vanilla, and on top go mango, pineapple, papaya and passion fruit.
Quinoa for breakfast is nothing new in our house, my sweet quinoa with apple compote has been a regular on the table for years. This version is its tropical sister: instead of apple and cinnamon compote there is coconut milk and tropical fruit, and because part of the quinoa is replaced with fine oats, the porridge turns much creamier without you having to stir forever.
Quinoa and coconut milk
Strictly speaking quinoa is not a grain but a pseudo-grain, and it provides all 9 essential amino acids, which is rare for a plant. Together with the oats that makes a breakfast that keeps you full for a long time. Canned coconut milk brings the fat and the creaminess, thin drinking coconut milk cannot do that. I love exactly the same pairing in my sweet polenta with coconut and pineapple, just on cornmeal instead of quinoa.
The one step you must not skip is rinsing the quinoa. The seeds carry a naturally bitter coating that disappears within a minute in a sieve under running water. After that the quinoa simmers covered for 15 minutes in lightly salted water, and only then do the oats, coconut milk and spices go in. If you would rather stay with local fruit in autumn, borrow the trick from my apple cinnamon porridge with caramelized apples and fry apple or pear slices briefly in coconut oil.
I toast the coconut flakes in the small pan with no fat until they are golden. That takes 2 minutes, and in the third minute they are black, so stay right there. They give the soft porridge the crunch it needs, and I always make a double batch because they are just as good on yogurt and overnight oats.
This porridge now has a fixed spot in our week, usually on Monday, when a bit of sunshine in the bowl does the most good. If you prefer it chocolatey on other days, my chocolate banana porridge with caramelized banana is the perfect counterpart.
And at the weekend, when there is more time, the same coconut idea turns into a stack of chia coconut pancakes with figs. I am curious which fruit ends up on your porridge, tell me in the comments.
