This is a delicious and colourful way to perk up brilliant but bland oats: load ’em up with tangy cranberry sauce, creamy yogurt – coconut is particularly good – and crunchy pistachios. I’ve added a pinch of mixed spice and garnished with pomegranate seeds as I can never resist an opportunity to Christmas things up. I love Greek yogurt but if you are vegan or dairy free, just sub with a non-dairy yogurt of your choice and ditto with gluten-free jumbo oats if you are gluten free.
Get ahead by making the cranberry sauce the night before but it doesn’t actually take long to knock together: around 10 minutes simmering to wither the cranberries and probably the same amount of time to cool down – less if you pop it outside in the cold like I do! Or depending on how soft you like your oats to become as they absorb the yogurt and grated apple, you could mix these three ingredients up first and leave to one side whilst you make the sauce.
The compote recipe here will yield 4 servings, especially if you add more water to make a sauce to swirl over the top of your breakfast, whereas the amounts for the oats and yogurt should suit one averagely hungry person.
My children love mixing a teaspoon of the compote and a few dried cranberries with their oats and yogurt to turn it pink. I then add some warm water to the compote to thin it down into a sauce for them to swirl on top before they go crazy decorating with the dried fruit, nuts and pomegranate seeds.
Ingredients
Cranberry compote – 4 servings
200g fresh cranberries
8 clementines/satsumas or 4 oranges – juiced
3 teaspoons coconut sugar
½ tsp mixed spice/cinnamon (optional)
35g jumbo oats – gluten free
120-150g yogurt of your choice
1 small apple
Dried cranberries
Pistachios
Pomegranate seeds
Method
- For the cranberry sauce, pop all of the ingredients into a saucepan along with 4 tbsp of water. Stir over a low heat to dissolve the sugar.
- Simmer for around 10 minutes, adding a splash more water to stop it sticking or to achieve the sauce’s desired consistency. Stir in the mixed spice and leave to cool. Taste and add some honey if it’s a bit tart for your liking.
- Mix the oats, grated apple and yogurt together; leave to soften if you like.
- To serve, add the cranberry compote/sauce to the yogurt mix and decorate with the dried cranberries, pistachios and pomegranate seeds.
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