Maple Roasted Butternut Oatmeal W’ Jammy Cardamom Blueberries

It’s a mouthful, I know. This is the breakfast I consider my reward at the end of a long week, because it’s ridiculously luxurious. But “luxurious” does not imply an eternity bent over the stovetop—the only time you’ll linger, or, luxuriate, with this recipe is while eating it.

There’s oatmeal recipes and then there’s this oatmeal recipe, piqued with the contrasting textures and flavours of creamy, mellow butternut, smoky-sweet maple syrup, jammy blueberry, fragrant cardamom, and the buttery crackle of toasty pumpkin seeds.

It’s a three-parter, but you can time each section of the recipe so you have all three components ready at the same time (see my instructions for the timings). No faffing when you’re hungry, right?

You can also roast and blend your butternut the night before breakfast, and make the blueberry ‘jam’ up to three days prior…keep in the refrigerator until you’re ready to start cooking your oatmeal.

Is a pepita the same as a pumpkin seed?

A lot of the time, you’ll see these two terms used interchangeably. But, a pumpkin seed actually refers to the seeds you scrape out of the Jack-o’-lantern pumpkin, replete in their white shells, or husks. Pepitas are the husk-free green seeds. This recipe uses pepitas, but you can totally go frugal and use the seeds you scrape out of your pumpkin before carving this Halloween—check out this ace tutorial for getting rid of the pumpkin seed husks.

MAPLE ROASTED BUTTERNUT OATMEAL W’ JAMMY CARDAMOM BLUEBERRIES

Prep Time: 15
Cook Time: 50
Total Time: 65
Yield: 2 generous bowls 1x

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Description

The royalty of oatmeal recipes—swirls of maple roasted butternut and jammy cardamom blueberries, topped with the buttery crackle of toasty pepitas.

Scale

Ingredients

For the butternut—

1 small butternut squash / sub for 200g (roughly half a can) natural pumpkin purée
1 tbsp rapeseed oil/ coconut oil, melted
1 generous pinch cinnamon
1 pinch sea salt
Maple syrup, to taste

For the oatmeal—

1 cup rolled oats (GF, if you prefer)
2 cups almond milk
2 tbsp cinnamon
2–3 tbsp maple syrup, plus a little extra, for drizzling
1/2 cup pepitas (‘green pumpkin seeds’)
A dash of soya cream, to taste

For the blueberry cardamom sauce—

200g frozen blueberries
2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp cornstarch

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F/ 180 C/ Gas Mark 4 and line a baking sheet with unbleached parchment paper.
Peel butternut using a vegetable peeler. Slice in half. Scrape out the butternut seeds and strings using a large spoon. Chop butternut into 2cm by 2cm chunks.
Arrange butternut chunks on the baking sheet. Brush with oil, then sprinkle with cinnamon and salt. Drizzle with maple syrup.
Bake for 45-50 minutes or until a fork easily pierces the skin. Let cool for approximately ten minutes.
Once the butternut is halfway through its baking time, get started on the oatmeal. In a small saucepan, use a wooden spoon to stir together oats, almond milk, maple syrup and cinnamon. Simmer on a medium heat, stirring every now and then, until the oats are tender (around 5 or so minutes). Add dashes of more milk if the oats aren’t yet cooked, but the liquid has been absorbed.
Taste the oatmeal. Add more maple syrup if you desire. Set aside.
Into a saucepan, add blueberries, maple syrup, vanilla extract and cardamom, then bring to a simmer over medium heat. Continue to stir and cook for around 5 minutes—the blueberries should be bursting and fragrant. Turn down heat to low and briskly stir in corn starch, mixing until sauce becomes thick and shiny. Remove from heat. Set aside.
In a small saucepan, switch on the heat medium-high and tumble in your pepitas. They will start to toast quickly—do not step away! Stir every 20 seconds or so. Once the green ‘skin’ starts to audibly split—or ‘pop’, like popcorn—and turn a little golden, around 4-5 minutes, remove from heat immediately and set aside.
Blitz cooled butternut until smooth using a blender or food processor. Set aside.
Spoon still-warm oatmeal into bowls, swirl through the butternut, then the blueberries. Drizzle with maple syrup for shine. Add a splash of soya cream. Tumble over pepitas.
Bliss.