Creamy Steel Cut Oats with Apricot Ginger Compote and Pumpkin Seed Brittle

HomeClinics & ProgramsELLICSR KitchenCreamy Steel Cut Oats with Apricot Ginger Compote and Pumpkin Seed Brittle

Skill Level	Easy

Preparation Time	10 minutes	Total Time	35 minutes
Servings	4	Cost Per Serving	$1.28

Steel Cut Oats

Apricot Ginger Compote

1/2 cup	Dried Apricots (or 1 cup fresh apricots), small dice
1 tsp	Lemon Juice
2 tbsp	Water
2 tsp	Freshly Grated Ginger
1 tsp	Dry Ground Ginger
1 tsp	Cinnamon
1/2 tsp	Ground Nutmeg

Pumpkin Seed & Pecan Brittle

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium sauce pot, bring 3 cups of water to a boil. Add your steel cut oats, and reduce heat to a simmer. Continue to cook, stirring once in a while, for about 25 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in your milk.
For the compote, add your apricots, lemon juice, water, freshly grated ginger and 1 tbsp of maple syrup to a small pot. Bring mixture up to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for about 15 minutes.
For the brittle, combine the pumpkin seeds, pecans, maple syrup, ground cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a bowl. Spread the mixture evenly onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place it in the preheated oven. Bake for about 15 minutes or until small bubbles start to form. Be careful when removing the baking sheet from the oven as the hot maple syrup can be very dangerous. Allow it to cool for about 5 minutes before handling.
To serve, ladle the cooked oats into a bowl and top with a spoonful of compote and a shard of brittle.

PDF link to nutrition facts for Creamy Steel Cut Oats with Apricot Ginger Compote and Pumpkin Seed Brittle

Adding pumpkin seeds and dried apricots to your baked goods or cereal is a great strategy to increase your iron intake. ¼ cup of pumpkin seeds provides up to 4.7 mg of iron. 1/4 cup of dried apricots provides an additional 1.5 mg of iron to your meal or snack.
Oats can vary in the amount of iron they contain, as some are fortified and some aren’t. Check the label to be sure, because there is quite a difference: unfortified oats provide about 2.5 mg of iron per 3/4 cup while the fortified ones have 6.5 mg of iron. The type of iron used to fortify foods is non-heme iron, the plant-based form that is not absorbed as well as heme iron.