When you have a large crop of oats from the garden or market, you don't have time to casually include them in complicated recipes or to frantically figure out how to use them up before they go bad without getting sick of them. You want to make the most of your harvest and to actually enjoy it.
Here at Plant to Plate, we like to keep things simple! Here are some of my favorite ways to use or preserve oats:
- Make oatmeal. You can keep it simple or add sweet or savory toppings. A few topping ideas for oatmeal are as follows:
- Lavender and blueberries or blackberries
- Apples, pepitas, and almond butter or peanut butter
- Leeks and sweet potatoes
- Chicken and cilantro
- Dill and chives
- Bananas and peanut butter or cashew butter
- Make your oatmeal part of an Interesting Hot Cereal by pairing it with a nut butter or sauce, a sweetener, a spice, and a fruit.
- Make overnight oats. Any of the above flavor combinations can be used with overnight oats as well.
- Add them to smoothies.
- Make oat milk by combining them with water in a blender.
- Make infused vinegar with oatstraw. Oatstraw, the grass of the oat plant, can be infused in vinegar on its own or with other herbs such as lemongrass, garlic, or rose petals. Infused vinegar makes a good salad dressing or dressing base, among other uses.
- Make a tea. Both oats and oatstraw can be used in herbal preparations like tea. They are best as infusions.
- Add them to a tea blend such as one made with St. John's wort, lavender, rose petals, and chamomile.
- Make a tincture. An herb:solvent weight ratio of 1:2 at 75% alcohol is suggested for an oat tincture.
- Make a soothing facial mask with oatmeal and aloe vera to take advantage of oats' emollient properties.
- Dry them for later use. Oats are best when harvested at the milky stage and then screen-dried. See our How to Dry Your Herbs articles here for more information.
Further Reading
Growing oats? Check out these quick facts like their best growing conditions, companion plants, and expected yields.
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