Savory Cheddar and Spinach Oats
Oatmeal for people who do not want sugar at six in the morning. Cheese, garlic, and dried spinach in one pot.
- calories
- 480
- weight
- 3.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 137
- protein
- 16 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 11 min
- water
- 400 ml boiled
- cost
- $
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Breakfast
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Vegetarian
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Quick oats | 1 1/3 cups | |
|---|---|---|
| Dried spinach | 1/3 cup | dehydrated flakes or freeze-dried leaf, crushed |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | fresh cloves work if you are car camping |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Sharp cheddar | 2 oz | waxed block or shredded; keeps a day or two out of a cooler |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | dropper bottle |
Method
- Bring 400 ml of water to a boil in a pot with headroom. Oats climb the sides.
- Stir in the oat and spinach premix and drop the flame to low. Two to three minutes, stirring, until the spinach has softened and the oats have body.
- Pull the pot off the heat. Add the cheddar in small pieces and stir until it disappears into the oats.
- Pour the oil over the top and stir once. Add hot water in splashes if it stiffens while you are finding bowls.
- Scrape the pot before it cools. Dried oatmeal is cement.
Sweet oatmeal gets old around day three. This is the same base grain doing the opposite job: salt, fat, garlic, and enough cheese to read as a real breakfast rather than a bowl of porridge with fruit in it.
The cheese goes in off the heat on purpose. Cheddar left over a live flame breaks and leaves an oily slick with rubbery strings in it. Residual pot heat is enough to melt it smoothly. Dried spinach replaces the fresh leaf from the original, which needed a cooler and wilted in the bag anyway; it rehydrates in the boil and adds bulk without adding weight.
Packing
Oats, dried spinach, garlic powder, salt, and pepper go in one bag at home. Cheese and oil ride separately. The source version used fresh baby spinach out of a cooler; dried spinach hydrates in the same pot and drops the cooler requirement entirely.
Variations
- A spoonful of powdered milk or a crumbled bouillon cube gives it more backbone.
- Swap the cheddar for grated parmesan if the weather is warm. It handles heat better.
- A foil packet of chicken turns this into a dinner.
https://camprecipes.com/one-pot-savory-cheddar-and-spinach-oatmeal