A winter breakfast in Stockholm – Chai spiced millet porridge with nuts and blueberries

For the first time in a few years, it has been a real winter in Stockholm. A lot of snow and temperatures below -15°C. I love the crisp air, the sound of your shoes touching that ice cold snow, and the way the world looks when dressed in white. I wanted to celebrate this amazing winter weather, and not just by taking long walks around the lake and photograph the surroundings. Don’t get me wrong, I love to do that as well, but I felt that I wanted to bring the winter ”indoors” somehow. It’s not the easiest thing to do, so I thought – why not have a winter picnic instead?

Said and done – I made some warming porridge, brewed some coffee and took a chair and a lantern with me. I decided to have my winter picnic under the large chestnut trees in the garden, but I ended up taking so many photos that both the coffee and the porridge had cooled before I got the chance to enjoy any of it. But somehow, I think that everything tastes great when you eat outdoors, so it wasn’t that much of a problem. Not really.

On the weekdays, oatmeal is our go-to breakfast. It’s ready in about three minutes and it tastes great. To be honest, neither me nor Kalle has the energy to prepare different breakfasts each day, so a bowl of oatmeal, a slice of bread, a green chlorella shot, and a matcha latte has become our breakfast routine and we’ve been sticking to it for years now. And we love it. During the weekends, when we have more time and energy, we sometimes prepare something different. Well, we never skip the matcha latte or the green shot, but it can be nice to make something that’s not oatmeal. You can come a long way by just switching oats to quinoa, buckwheat or millet. It’s still porridge, and it’s still filling, but the taste is pretty different and sometimes that’s all that’s needed.

During the winter months, I love to use Christmas spices for more or less everything. Matcha latte, golden milk, tomato soup – everything’s better with some cardamom, vanilla, and nutmeg. And so is millet porridge. So for my little winter picnic, that was exactly what I made – chai-spiced millet porridge. Topped with blueberries it even got a little touch of Swedish summer. I also added some nuts and seeds on top, because who can say no to that? Now let’s look at the recipe, shall we?

Chai spiced millet porridge with nuts and blueberries

serves 1 hungry person

1 1/4 dl | 1/2 cup millet (hirs in Swedish)
2 1/2 dl | 1 cup oat drink
1 dl | 1/2 cup water
1/2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground vanilla
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
pinch of nutmeg

to serve

a tbsp cashew butter
handful of blueberries
a handful of nuts of your choice (pecans, cashews, pistachios, walnuts, almonds)
a splash of plant milk

Directions

1. Rinse the millet and place all the ingredients in a small pot.

2. Bring the porridge to a boil, then lower the heat and let simmer for about 15 minutes. Add some more plant milk if needed.

3. Pour the porridge into a bowl and serve with all the toppings you like.