Bircher Muesli or Overnight Oats?
Bircher is the OG. Everything else is just soaked oats.
In a nutshell, a Swiss guy soaked some oats in sweetened condensed milk (probably all he had in 1900), lemon juice, grated apple and chopped hazelnuts. There are now a million recipes, and the only common theme is the soaking of oats in some kind of milk-based liquid.
You do hear a fair bit of crap talked about oats and other grains, but for me, it’s a whole food, and we should just get on and eat it. Raw oats are quite chewy, and cooked oats can be a bit of an effort, so this method is a really nice option.
Whatever your additions, it's probably better to soak the oats overnight in the fridge, but to be honest, if you leave them out for 20 minutes or half an hour, they are pretty much the same. When you are starving, though, that 20 minutes can feel a lot like 3 days.
I have to keep tabs on my blood glucose, and porridge can send it skyward, while soaked oats don’t seem to have the same effect. Once I've made all my additions, I find this dish extremely sustaining. You can really balance out the nutrients, and as the oats haven’t been cooked into a pulp, they are much slower to digest than with porridge.
How are we customising our soaked oats?
Jamie Oliver gets pretty extravagant with his recipe - he starts in a traditional way with grated apple, but then gets a bit carried away:
a grated pear
the juice of an orange
2 tbsp cocoa powder
a whole banana
a splash of milk - 600ml
Some Medjool dates
Hazelnuts
Seeds
Fresh berries
Greek yoghurt.
He uses 200g of rolled oats, so I presume he is making at least 4 portions, although Jamie doesn’t commit. There’s probably the best part of 3000kcal in his bowl by this stage, so I sure hope it is.
Gordon Ramsey takes a rather different approach. He finds his oats become a bit too “heavy” if he soaks them overnight. He advocates mixing the ingredients 10 minutes before serving so they don’t become stodgy. He kicks off with a tub of yoghurt and mixes in a generous 2 tbsp of apple juice. Then it’s in with the oats - he likes to mix ⅔ of his oats first and then the last ⅓. Apparently, this gives a variety of textures (he’s lost me here - the first ⅔ were literally in the yoghurt for about a minute longer). Then it’s toasted almonds and berries. A very nice breakfast for sure, but I think calling it bircher is a bit of a stretch - no soaking, no apple, no lemon, no hazelnuts. Let’s call it what it is: “Oats and Yoghurt”.
HOLD THE PRESS! Gordon must have had a rethink about this and realised that 99.9% of the Bircher-eating population eat it because the oats have been soaked and the mixture has melded together. So, the recipe from The Gordon Ramsay Academy has no mention of yoghurt but 400ml of milk, dried fruit, seeds, goji berries and most strikingly advocates soaking for 2 to 3 hours. Mmmm, nice and stodgy. Thanks, Gordon.
As a runner, I have found that soaked oats provide a fantastic base for a very versatile breakfast or snack. This means that I can dress them up depending on what exercise I have or haven’t been doing. I’ve played around with a few combinations and found that my favourite combo really could be classified as Bircher Muesli:
40g Rolled (Jumbo) Oats
100ml Milk - Oat or Dairy
40g Greek Yoghurt
65g Grated Apple
Squeeze Lemon Juice
Pinch Cinnamon
Pinch Sea Salt
Mix it all together and leave covered for 30 minutes. Such a great balance of texture and flavour, and plenty sweet enough for me. It also seems to sit so well in the stomach - no bloating or lethargy, which porridge can sometimes bring on.
If I’m back from a long run, I can increase the quantities and build up the energy with peanut butter, protein powder and chopped dates or raisins. Chopped nuts and seeds are also a good option, but I like to toast these first.
The internet is littered with different recipes for Overnight Oats, so here are a few ideas…
Chia Seeds
Ground Almond
Pineapple
Dessicated Coconut
Mango
Blueberries
Banana
Honey
Maple Syrup
Like most recipes online, a meal as inherently sensible as overnight oats is quickly turned into a pudding. The first website I clicked on had Apple Pie Overnight Oats, PB & J Overnight Oats and Chocolate Banana Bread Overnight Oats. Turning a healthy breakfast on its head is incredibly simple, and starting your day with a truck-load of carbs and refined sugar is not good.
At least they didn’t call it Bircher…
