Prune and pistachio porridge

Name: Prune and pistachio porridge
Total time: 10 min
Yield: 1 servings
Ingredients: Rolled oats 1/2 cup (40 g); Milk 1 cup (200 g); Prunes 5 (50 g); Pistachios a small handful (20 g); Ground cinnamon a little; Salt a pinch

Five prunes is the daily dose that worked in the trial. The pistachios go on after the heat is off, or they go soft.

1 servings10 min

Ingredients

Rolled oats1/2 cup (40 g)
Milk1 cup (200 g)
Prunes5 (50 g)
Pistachiosa small handful (20 g)
Ground cinnamona little
Salta pinch

Method

Quarter the prunes. Left whole, the sweetness sits in one spoonful and the rest tastes of nothing.
Put the milk, oats and a pinch of salt in a pan and cook five minutes over low heat, stirring. On high heat the milk catches.
Add the cut prunes and cook two minutes more. They take up liquid and break down, and the sweetness spreads through.
Take it off the heat. Cover for two minutes so the oats absorb what is left.
Roughly crush the pistachios and add them last. Dust with cinnamon.

Cooking note

There is a reason for five prunes. In a 12-month trial following 235 postmenopausal women, 50 g a day preserved hip bone density. The 100 g arm of the same trial showed nothing — because 41% of it dropped out. The sustainable amount was the effective amount.

If you are new to them, start with two or three. Prune sorbitol draws water into the gut: that is why it works on constipation, and why it causes gas if you are not used to it. Build up week by week.

Keep the pistachios off the heat. They are 45% fat, which oxidises faster when hot, and more to the point the bite disappears. They are the only crunch in this bowl.

No sugar needed. Fifty grams of prunes already carries 19 g of it. If it tastes underdone, cut the prunes smaller rather than adding more.

Oat beta-glucan only works with liquid. Do not cut the cup of milk. Thickened up it looks richer, but it behaves differently going down.

Ingredients used here

Grains & legumes

Strong evidence

Oats

Three grams a day of oat beta-glucan lowers LDL cholesterol — a claim regulators have actually approved.

Fruits

Moderate evidence

Prunes

In a 12-month trial in 235 postmenopausal women, 50 g a day preserved hip bone density and 100 g did not — because 41% of the 100 g group dropped out.