Hug in a Bowl

My mother was a fantastic cook and baker and loved to share her recipes with me. Some days when I’m not quite sure what I want for breakfast, and toast, eggs or pancakes just don’t appeal or maybe I’ve had them too frequently and am bored, I make mum’s ‘Hug in a Bowl’. It’s easy to make and uses a handful of ingredients that can be substituted for those with dietary restrictions and takes less than 5 minutes to make.

It all started several years ago when I was back on one of my visits to London to see mum and she made what I fondly named as ‘Hug in a Bowl’. I recollect her literally cupping her red cereal bowl with her hands. It was winter and she said that she was going to make something different for me for breakfast, something comforting. Her options were usually toast with marmalade, toast with egg or porridge with bananas. I was intrigued, eager to find out what this ‘Hug in a Bowl’ was. If it didn’t contain chocolate or ice cream I didn't consider it comfort food, and I just couldn’t see mum having ice cream in the morning. I, on the other hand, could eat ice cream and chocolate at any time of day. When I first moved into my apartment and was living alone, I remember stocking up my freezer with Häagen Daz ice cream and on weekends would often indulge in an ice cream breakfast.

I digress, back to mum’s ‘Hug in a Bowl’. It turns out that mum had concocted a recipe that was both sweet and savoury; a porridge comprising of oats, spinach, soya sauce, maple syrup, chilli flakes, tahini, nutritional yeast and water. I gave it the name ‘Hug in a Bowl’ as one spoonful of it made my stomach feel as though it was being hugged. When she taught me how to make this, she was still able to cook simple meals but preferred to use the microwave as opposed to the stove. She had arthritis in her hands so light weight bowls (as in the image above) and cookware were key to her being able to maintain her independence with respect to cooking. She continued to have the 'Hug in a Bowl' for breakfast not every day, but several times a week even towards the end of her life.

Recipe for ‘Hug in a Bowl’

Serving size: 1

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup porridge oats

• 2 nuggets of frozen spinach/handful of fresh spinach

• 1 cup of water

• 1 Tbsp soya sauce

• 1 Tbsp maple syrup/honey

• 1 Tbsp tahini

• 1 Tbsp nutritional yeast

• Chilli flakes to taste

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a microwaveable bowl.

2. Microwave on full power for 3 and a half minutes, stirring after 2 minutes.

3. Rest for a minute before enjoying!!