Chai Oatmeal is a lightly spiced with the exotic spices of Chai tea ~ it’s guaranteed to warm up the chilliest of mornings!
Here’s a simple little recipe for the best oatmeal I’ve had in ages…just in time for the latest nor’easter! It all started the other morning when we woke up and arbitrarily decided that we needed to treat ourselves to breakfast out. I’m glad we did because we found a great little place in our new neighborhood, the kind with rambling rooms, comfy couches, and good strong coffee. Best of all I discovered a fabulous new idea…Chai Oatmeal.
The chai spices add a richness to the oatmeal without overpowering it ~
and I liked the idea so much I went straight home and recreated it. The restaurant uses chai powder to flavor the oats, but there are several different ways to do it at home… with or without black tea, using whole or ground spices. They’re are all good, and they will give you slightly different results. One way is to make your oatmeal using your favorite chai tea in place of water. Just steep the tea in the required amount of water, and then make your oatmeal as usual. I went a bit further and steeped whole spices like cardamom pods, fennel seeds, star anise, cloves, black peppercorns, and cinnamon, along with black tea. Then I strained it and made my oatmeal,  A third way is just to use regular ground Chai tea spices as a flavoring, — ground cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, etc. add an exotic edge to an otherwise bland breakfast.
Chai Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups water
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp fennel seeds
- 6 green cardamom pods lightly crushed (don't lose the seeds!)
- 3 whole cloves
- 5 black peppercorns
- 1 star anise
- 1 bag black tea
- 1 cup regular rolled oats
- 1 Tbsp brown sugar
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
for serving
- sliced banana
- brown sugar
- walnuts
- almond milk
Instructions
- Put the water and all the spices in a pot on the stove and heat just to a simmer. Turn off the heat and add the tea bag. Let it steep for 10 minutes.
- Strain the water, and then put it back into the pot. Add the oats and bring back to a simmer and cook for about 10 minutes until the oats are done. Add the brown sugar and vanilla and serve hot with almond milk, bananas, more brown sugar, and walnuts.
Stay warm!
17 Comments
Stephanie
April 4, 2014 at 4:33 pmThis was tonight’s dinner! Perfect for a stormy eve. I used steel cut oats. Delicious and filled with the aroma and taste of warming spices.