Porridge Is Back in Britain: The Centuries-Old Breakfast Returns as a Restaurant Star in the Hunt for Fibre
The clocks may be going back in Britain this weekend, but for many the biggest sign that winter is coming is a steaming bowl of porridge on the breakfast table. Made traditionally with oats, water and a pinch of salt or sugar, the dish has been a staple of British breakfasts for centuries.
Yet the once-plain dish is now enjoying a renaissance. Transformed from drab to decadent, porridge has found its way onto restaurant menus, driven by a growing fibre-centric health movement as well as by nostalgia.
On social media, recipe creators are experimenting with everything from miso versions to sour cherry and pistachio butter toppings. At 26 Grains, a central London restaurant that specialises in porridge, this month's offering includes a five-grain porridge topped with fig and red grape jam and a dollop of whipped cream.
Over at Oatis in west London, toppings range from caramelised banana and tahini to mushrooms and pesto. Porridge, in other words, is no longer only a sweet dish — it is being served savoury as well.
Alex Hely-Hutchinson, the founder of 26 Grains, describes porridge as 'comfort in a bowl'. Part of its appeal, she says, is that it allows a moment for pause in a busy world — plus most people already know how to make it.
The trend is affecting home store cupboards too. Searches for organic jumbo oats at online grocer Ocado are up 98 percent year on year, while sales of White's jumbo oats are up 56 percent.
Hedié Rhodes, founder of Husk & Honey in south London, described as the UK's first dedicated cereals bakery, sees the personalisation aspect of porridge as an instigator of the trend. Her brand, which began in 2015 specialising in granola, now also sells dedicated porridge blends; bestsellers include cinnamon bark and cranberry and a spiced apple version.
'Porridge is a great carrier for a lot of nice things,' Rhodes says. 'You can make a big pan of it and everyone in the family can still have a different style. Some might want it just with honey, others might want to add really fancy toppings.'
Alex Hayes, a co-founder of the food innovation studio Harris and Hayes, compares porridge to salads and smoothies. 'It's a great canvas for adding specific toppings that suit specific taste and nutritional needs,' she says, pointing to nut butters alongside more functional additions such as psyllium husk.
While protein mania is not slowing down, the online nutrition trend of 'fibremaxxing' is encouraging more people to increase their fibre intake. The NHS recommends adults eat 30 grams of fibre a day, but according to the British Dietetic Association the average intake is only 18 grams. Oats are a source of the soluble fibre essential for gut health and can also help reduce cholesterol levels. So rather than eating protein-rich eggs for breakfast, many people are now reverting to a bowl of porridge.
On the menu at Café Cùil on the Isle of Skye is a 'wee porridge' featuring pinhead oats soaked in oat milk overnight. Its founder, chef and writer Clare Coghill, finishes it with seasonal toppings — at the moment a hazelnut praline brittle and poached pears.
Coghill recently tasted 86 bowls of porridge in her role on the judging panel of the world porridge-making championship, held each year in the Scottish Highlands. She says 'porridge purists' prefer coarser pinhead oats, also known as steel-cut oats, over softer rolled oats, because pinhead oats were the original oats — a way of celebrating Scottish heritage.
To avoid a gloopy porridge, Coghill says stirring is key: slowly warming the pot and constantly moving the spurtle, the traditional stirrer, creates a silky bowl. Hely-Hutchinson prefers hers on the softer side, made the way her mother used to make it for her — a matter, she notes, of personal taste, like how much milk someone puts in their tea.
Now porridge is pivoting beyond the breakfast table. People are increasingly busy and receptive to a simpler dish, Hely-Hutchinson says, adding that customers get annoyed if porridge is not available on the menu past 3pm. Hayes expects more savoury options, influenced by Chinese congee and Indian kitchari made with yellow split mung beans. There is one downside everyone agrees on: having to wash up the pan.
