066 / 75 · Make the Most of What Is Left
Savory Porridge Cakes with Tomato-Bean Sauce
8 small porridge cakes with tomato-bean sauce; 2 cakes and one-quarter of the sauce per serving · Active 30 min · Total 1 hr 20 min
Print recipe · PDFPlain, thick cooked oatmeal can become a savory meal without being disguised as something sweet. Egg and a little flour hold the chilled porridge in small pan cakes, which develop browned surfaces while remaining tender inside. A separate tomato and white bean sauce gives each portion substance. The essential extra ingredient is time in the refrigerator: a warm, loose mixture is much harder to turn.
Begin with the right porridge
This recipe uses plain oats cooked in water, without sugar, fruit or flavored milk. The porridge should already be thick enough to hold a spoon track when cold. A very watery bowl cannot be corrected simply by adding a large handful of flour; that makes a heavy flour cake with a little oatmeal inside. Stir any separated surface water back in only if the mixture remains thick. If the porridge is loose, save it for an ordinary reheated bowl and start this recipe another day with a firmer batch.
Small cakes turn more easily
After the egg and flour are mixed in, the refrigerator rest lets the flour take up moisture. Portion the mixture into eight modest mounds instead of two pan-sized pancakes. A lightly oiled spatula can flatten each mound without dragging the top across the pan. Let the underside form a real crust before turning. A cake that immediately bends around the spatula probably needs another minute on its first side. Keep the heat at medium: very dark patches outside do not tell you whether the middle has heated through.
Give the sauce its own texture
The tomato sauce should contain whole beans, not become a second puree. Cook the onion until soft before adding tomato, then reduce the sauce until it lightly clings to a spoon. The cakes already have a soft interior, so the beans give the meal useful contrast. Spoon the sauce beside or partly over them just before eating. Smothering every surface in advance removes the browned edges you spent time making. This is a practical use for a known amount of plain porridge, rather than a catch-all for unrelated breakfast leftovers.
Ingredients
- About 1 3/4 cups cold, thick plain oatmeal cooked in water (400 g), refrigerated promptly
- 1 large egg (50 g without shell)
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour (60 g)
- 2 scallions (30 g), finely sliced
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt (3 g), divided
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (0.5 g)
- 2 tablespoons neutral oil (30 ml), for the cakes
- 1 tablespoon neutral oil (15 ml), for the sauce
- 1 small onion (100 g), finely diced
- 2 garlic cloves (6 g), finely chopped
- 1 can chopped tomatoes, 14 oz/400 g, with their juice
- 1 can white beans, 15 oz/425 g, drained and rinsed (240 g drained)
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano (0.5 g)
Set out
Mixing bowl, Refrigerator, Large nonstick skillet, Medium saucepan, Spatula, Food thermometer
Allergens
Egg, Wheat. Check labels and substitutions.
Make it
- Mix cold porridge, egg, flour, scallions, half the salt and pepper in the bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. The mixture will be thick and spoonable rather than a dough that can be rolled.
- During the chilling time, heat the sauce oil in the saucepan over medium-low heat. Cook onion for 7–8 minutes. Add garlic for 30 seconds, then tomatoes, beans, oregano and remaining salt. Simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring, until lightly thickened. Keep hot on low heat.
- Heat 1 tablespoon/15 ml cake oil in the skillet over medium heat. Spoon in 4 equal mounds, using half the mixture. Flatten each to about 3 inches/8 cm wide and 1/2 inch/1 cm thick. Cook for 4–5 minutes without moving, then turn and cook for 4–5 minutes more, until browned and 165°F/74°C in the center.
- Transfer to a warm plate. Repeat with the remaining mixture and 15 ml oil. Serve two cakes per portion with one-quarter of the hot tomato-bean sauce.
Save a plain portion before adding breakfast toppings
If you deliberately cook extra oatmeal, put the extra plain portion into a shallow container and refrigerate promptly before adding fruit, sugar or milk to the breakfast bowls. Label its original cooking date.
Ingredient labels
Oats can have wheat cross-contact; check the product if that matters to your household.
A useful detail
The 80-minute total includes the 30-minute mixture chill, with sauce cooking during that wait. It begins with already cooked, cold porridge. Only plain water-cooked porridge is specified; sweetened or flavored oatmeal changes the dish.
Another way
- Replace the white beans with the same drained weight of canned kidney beans. Use canned kidney beans, not uncooked or partially cooked dried ones.
- Replace the two scallions with 30 g very finely diced onion, softened first in a teaspoon of the measured cake oil; cool before mixing it into the cold porridge.
Keep it well
Use porridge that was cooled promptly, refrigerated at 40°F/4°C or below and made no more than 2 days earlier. This meal reheats it to 165°F/74°C; make the cakes needed and eat promptly. Any unused cold mixture must stay refrigerated and be cooked within the porridge’s original 3-day window. Cooked cakes do not receive a fresh storage period. Freshly made tomato-bean sauce can be cooled promptly and refrigerated separately for up to 3 days.