Fruits of the summer

I’m a big believer in breakfast. That old adage ‘eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like pauper’ is a great way to develop healthy eating habits. Of course, I make deliciously huge feasts for dinner sometimes, but I also make sure to eat in the morning.

The abundance of fruits this summer makes it easy to come up with lots of good fruit options for breakfast -- like strawberry mango smoothies, berry pancakes or French toast with peach compote. This morning I wanted to combine fruit with something slightly unusual.

A few years back one of my best friends and roommate at the time introduced me to brown rice in the morning -- not a common thing to eat in the morning but nevertheless delicious. Instead of the usual oatmeal, brown rice offers a unique take on standard porridge.

I cook the rice as I normally would and then add soy milk and lots of warm spices like ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and a little clove. For a touch of sweetness I add maple syrup (the real stuff -- no corn syrupy imitations please!).  In keeping with my ‘fruits of summer’ theme I add a bunch of berries, peaches and bananas, some flaked almonds and dried currants. I promise that mornings won’t be the same after this!

brown rice porridge

serves 2

½ cup brown rice – I use a long grain rice like basmati

star anise

soy milk – 1-2 cups

1 tsp each ground cinnamon, cardamom, ginger

¼ tsp ground clove

1 tbsp maple syrup

fresh fruits - strawberries, blackberries, peaches, nectarines - anything!

dried fruits like black currants

First, place water and star anise in a pot and bring to the boil.  Add rice and cook (takes approx. 25 mins). Drain and leave aside. In the same pot, add cooked rice and cover with soy milk – If you like your porridge more watery add more milk as you go along. Add spices and maple syrup and cook on a low heat so that the rice absorbs the flavour.  After 10-15 minutes your rice should be thick and creamy – taste and add more milk/maple syrup as needed.

Top porridge with fruits – both fresh and dried, and nuts.

Options: you could use frozen fruit if you don’t have access to fresh berries, figs, homemade jam/preserves

You could use any other type of milk – cow, almond, rice...