This is my porridge ritual. It’s a refuge in the form of a warm bowl of porridge eaten slowly before the day begins, and it warms my belly and heals my soul every morning. It’s a valentine for anyone whose heart has ever been broken from overwork, burnout, and too many meals spent eating at their desk.
I was one of those sad office people with no boundaries who ate most of my meals at work and always at my desk. I knew that every time I stopped to take a bite, I was compromising my productivity, jeopardizing my ability to meet a deadline, or perhaps revealing myself as an undesirable hire who could be replaced with someone younger, hungrier and all too eager to sacrifice their health just to have my job. If anything, eating in this way is perversely celebrated as a badge of honor in the average American workplace.
Years of this lifestyle took its toll. It seemed that I had been conditioned to believe that stopping to eat was a sign of weakness and that it should be hurried through as quickly as possible. Everything in my life became contaminated with the pressure to rush. I changed. I was irritable. I was bitchy. I drank too much. I was chronically constipated. I was so used to feeling terrible for such an extended period of time, it had become my baseline, and I didn’t know how intensely depressed I was.
The link between our psychological state and our digestion is real. I was in a constant state of fretting and contraction, and it is no wonder my digestive system was failing me.
I tried all the things. Gluten free. Dairy free. Raw diet. Vegan diet. Elimination diets. All meals pre-digested in a blender. Colonics. Digestive enzymes. Essential oils. Supplements. The list goes on. Nothing was working, my digestion was becoming more and more sluggish, and I was getting scared.
I sought out the care of a naturopath in the hope that she would be able to treat my chronic constipation. One thing she recommended for me was to have only cooked, hot food to warm and relax my digestive system. She also coached me on having the right mindset for eating. That I should set aside plenty of time for having a meal. For chewing. For breathing. For pausing between bites. For calming my nervous system. Eating was to become like a restorative yoga class. It sounded glorious, but I wasn’t sure how achievable it would be in the busy newsroom where I was working at the time. But breakfast, which at this point in my life consisted of me rushing around the apartment doing 17 things at once while I gulped some swampy Vitamixed concoction out of a mason jar – breakfast I thought I could manage.
And so the porridge ritual arose. I decided to wake up half an hour earlier each morning so I could have this space. It was a place where I could go slow and take my time. And it became a source of comfort to know that even if every workday to come would be full of pressure, of frantic rushing, of faster pussycat, kill kill – before the terrors began, I would be fortified by this ritual: a sacred meal that provided me with a level of nourishment that went beyond mere biological sustenance, that nourished my soul and my broken heart.
On a perfect day, that extra half an hour looks like this: I’ve just finished my morning yoga on the living room floor. The porridge is ready and waiting for me because I set it in my rice cooker the night before, so there is no need to rush, no schedule to adhere to. When I am ready, it will be ready for me. I prep my toppings and I take my time about it. I reach into the hot oven for my favorite porridge bowl, which I’ve been warming, and set it on a towel. The porridge sizzles as I pour it into the bowl. I add my toppings according to the season and my mood, but I always aim to romance myself: I scatter petals, I drizzle oils, I fleck bits of salt, I make it pretty. This is an opportunity for unsupervised, free form creative play time, and I let loose. If it’s a dark and dreary morning, I’ll light a candle while I take my porridge. If the morning sun is streaming through a window somewhere, that is where I set up camp.
And then I sit down with my bowl. I eat slow. This is not a quickie. This is a long, slow, tantric affair to be lingered over by the luscious spoonful in a state of near trance. I try not to think about anything else, but rather, to become lost in the sensuality of this activity. The warmth of the bowl cradled in my hands. Swallowing hot tea as it fills and coats my throat. Drinking up the morning sunlight, slowly spooning the sweltry, soupy porridge into my mouth and feeling the heat travel deep into my belly. Taking long, luxurious pauses between bites to rest in stillness, closing my eyes as I chew and taste. No one can touch me here. There is no pressure to pick the bowl back up and continue shoveling food into my mouth in a rush to get to the next thing. This is the only thing.
I leave for work without dread, feeling like I’ve just had some leisurely hotel breakfast, like I’ve been on vacation. The rest of the day might be a curtain of fire, but I’m blissfully unaware of that right now. And I’m better all day long because of it.
I believe in taking a break to eat. That the pause is just as nourishing and essential to our survival as the food itself, body and soul. The food tastes better, it digests better, and we are truly satiated, not dissatisfied and grasping for the next meaningless fix of junk food set out in the office break room for us to take back to our desks and self-medicate with. I share this ritual because I hope that it might provide a sanctuary for you as well. A refuge for every day, that you always have, no matter what the work day and it’s force-fed meals inhaled in haste might present – you have this. And no frightening deadline or over-eager manager breathing down your neck can take it away from you.
And on that note, I encourage you to be bold and to take the porridge ritual philosophy from breakfast to lunch. Enforce boundaries at work and refuse to eat at your desk. Launch a mutiny and coax a friend away from their desk to join you. You deserve better. And this toxic work culture needs to change. So let’s start the revolution. I want to see your porridge rituals on Instagram and I want you to show me the lunches that you don’t eat in front of your computer screen: #myporridgeritual #donteatatyourdesk
And now, away from the manifesto and on to the recipe.
Recipe: Cardamom rose porridge with tart green apple, blackberries, sprouted pumpkin seed butter, matcha dust, and golden dawn drizzle
Nutty steel cut oats kissed by cardamom and rosewater play nicely with sprouted pumpkin seed butter, and all combine to have a flavor profile reminiscent of baklava, but much healthier. The sprouted pumpkin seed butter is wonderfully pistachio-eqsue, and turns into a magic, molten pool of goo nestled in the heat of the porridge that makes you feel like you’re having dessert for breakfast. Green apple brings crunch, brightness, a bit of sweet, a bit of sour, and looks very pretty set off by all the pink rose petals. The matcha brings a touch of earthiness, and pairs beautifully with the blackberries. The mild olive oil brings a bit of grassiness, some fat to help to carry you through the day, and shatters into a million glowing golden fragments when you drizzle the warm rose milk over the porridge to finish, like a psychedelic liquid light show. It is a light in the dark. A little sun peaking through the clouds that shines into your warm bowl, into your belly, and lightens a heavy heart.
Recipe Notes
On temperature safety:
Please use caution if you decide to warm your bowl in the oven like I do, as it will be dangerously hot. Use a pot holder to remove it, and don’t set it directly on a cold surface, as it could shock your bowl and crack it. I like to wrap a pot holder in a cloth napkin and set the bowl on top. I never touch the bowl, but rather, lift it towards myself using this makeshift porridge cozy whenever I go to take a bite. Warming the bowl in the oven allows you to really take your time with eating because it keeps the porridge piping hot for a long time, so there’s no rush to hurry up and gulp it down before it becomes lukewarm and sad.
On the cooking method:
I like to make this in my rice cooker for convenience, but these instructions are for baking the porridge in the oven to make the recipe more broadly accessible. Oven baking your porridge draws a nuttier flavor out of the oats and leaves them with a better texture, and it’s a lot easier than cooking it on the stovetop. You can just plop it in the oven and forget about it for a nice long chunk of time. Alternatively, if you have a rice cooker and want to give it a try, you’ll need to follow the instructions specific to your rice cooker. I have a Zojirushi rice cooker and I use the porridge setting. It’s definitely not as tasty as oven baking, but it’s easy and still quite good.
On the ingredients:
Be sure to use certified GF steel cut oats if avoiding gluten. For an optional boost of protein, I like Collagen Peptides by Vital Proteins. For the pumpkin seed butter, I like Dastony sprouted pumpkin seed butter, but you could also make a big batch of your own in a Cuisinart if that sort of thing is fun for you. I opt for pumpkin seeds because I’m nut intolerant, but if you can tolerate nuts, pistachios would be outstanding alternative and would also provide additional textural interest. My favorite milk to use in this recipe is Oatly, but any milk will do, so long as it is without any added sweeteners or flavorings.
INGREDIENTS
Serves 1 (cost per serving approximately $3.40)
1/3 cup (79 mL) steel cut oats, soaked overnight
1 cup (237 ml) filtered water
1 serving collagen protein
1/4 tsp pink Himalayan salt
1/4 tsp whole cardamom seeds (you will freshly grind them)
1/2 tbsp mild olive oil, for drizzling
1/3 cup (79 mL) milk of your choice, heated
3/4 tsp culinary rosewater
Scant 1/8 tsp matcha powder
1 tbsp sprouted pumpkin seed butter
A few flecks of chunky sea salt
1/2 tart green apple, such as granny smith
Small handful blackberries
Dried culinary rose petals, to taste
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350F (175C).
Place 1/3 cup (79 mL) steel cut oats, 1 cup (237 ml) water, 1 serving collagen protein, and 1/4 tsp salt into a small saucepan.
Run 1/4 tsp cardamom seeds through a spice grinder, then stir it into the oats.
Put the lid on the saucepan and place it on the middle rack of the oven for 40 minutes, until liquid has reduced and oats are tender to the bite.
When oats are nearly done, warm 1/3 cup (79 mL) milk of your choice on the stovetop over low heat. Once milk is warm, remove from heat, and stir in 1/4 tsp rosewater.
Pour the porridge into your favorite bowl. Drizzle the porridge with 1 tbsp mild olive oil. Then drizzle the warm rose milk over the porridge. The oil will separate from the milk and it will be beautiful.
Place 1/4 tsp matcha powder in a small sugar duster and sift across porridge in artful streaks – have fun with it.
Tuck 1 tbsp sprouted pumpkin seed butter into a spot of your choosing within the porridge, but do not stir. Let it hang out there and get all gooey and sexy in that warm porridge bath. That’s where the magic happens. Fleck a few bits of chunky sea salt on top of that pumpkin seed butter.
Chop tart green apple into bite sized chunks and top your porridge, arranging as the fancy strikes you. Add the small handful of blackberries wherever you think they look pretty. Finish with a romantic scattering of dried culinary rose petals. Take a moment to admire your beautiful creation.
I hope you enjoy the porridge ritual. I’ll be back soon with a more stripped down version of the porridge ritual for those days when you’re craving something more spartan, so please subscribe if you don’t want to miss it.
Peace and Love,
Courtney
