Rhubarb Roast Walnut Overnight Oats

I haven’t always been as aware of food waste as I am now. It was a change that happened gradually after the council started a food waste collection service. The weekly collection made it very apparent how much food we were throwing away and it made me uncomfortable. A lot of it was leftovers that we didn’t get to and another large proportion was fruit or veg that had gone bad. I realized the change in attitude is well underway in our house when I made the rhubarb syrup for this drink and panicked when I thought the leftover rhubarb pulp had been thrown away.

Don’t get me wrong, the food waste bin still has something in it every week but I do make a real effort to minimize what goes in there. These overnight oats are a perfect example. If you haven’t made the rhubarb syrup, you can cook down some rhubarb with that recipe anyway and then you have what you need for these oats. More importantly though, the very existence of the leftover rhubarb pulp created this recipe in the first place and, to me, that kind of kitchen management is exciting. It feels good to be able to find a use for something I would have, not that long ago, considered useless.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has estimated that if global food waste was a country it would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China. That is shocking. In high income countries households are responsible for more than 50% of all food waste in Europe. Also mind boggling. The food we eat and, more importantly, the food we throw away has an incredible environmental impact.

As I’ve said before, (croutons, people, croutons!) often when we’re presented with overwhelming problems like climate change and food poverty it’s easy to think there’s nothing one person can do. This is actually a case where what you can do is so easy you’re not doing something. You’re not throwing it away because what’s left over can become a whole new thing you didn’t even know existed before.

Making

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1 jar for one person but I suppose you could share

6 minutes and one sleep

Ingredients

The Night Before

1/4 cup jumbo rolled oats

1/4 cup water or milk of your choice

Shake of ground cinnamon

Pinch of salt

The Next Morning

2 Tbsp plain greek yogurt

3 Tbsp rhubarb compote

Small handful of roasted walnuts (or something else crunchy that you love like granola or Special K)

Instructions

As with all my overnight oats, I’ve found that the key to consistently having this lovely thing to wake up to is connecting it to my dinner clean up the night before. So now when I want this in the morning I load the dishwasher, put these together and pop them in the fridge. If I wait until I’m on my way to bed I always forget.

Take your trusty jam jar and put the JUMBO ROLLED OATS in the bottom. Use the same measuring cup and add the same amount of WATER or MILK. It doesn’t have to be 1/4 cup (that’s just about the right amount in my jam jar) as long as you use the same measure for the oats and water/milk. Give it a stir.

Add in a PINCH OF SALT and a good shake of GROUND CINNAMON. Give that a good stir again. Put the top on and stash it in the fridge.

Get a good night’s sleep. It’s so important.

The next morning, get your jar out of the fridge and give it a stir. The ratio I use keeps it pretty loose but if it has gotten too firm you can add some more water/milk.

Add your toppings! Doesn’t matter in which order or how much. Remember that the perfect formula is something a little sweet, something a little creamy and something a little crunchy. Make it look like something you want to eat and dig in.

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