Chocolate Cherry Oats and Millet Bowl WFPB Gluten-Free

A sweet, satisfying and energizing way to start your day. Dried cherries and cocoa are a match made in flavor heaven, while millet adds a hearty chewy texture. This hot breakfast bowl is packed with protein and gets its sweetness from whole dates. Don’t have millet? You can use quinoa instead or just more oats.

WHY I LOVE IT

If you’re a chocolate lover and haven’t tried chocolaty hot cereal, you’re in for a treat! This bowl goes a bit further than just adding a tablespoon of cocoa powder to your oatmeal, it’s based on the classic cherry/ chocolate combo. Think, Black Forest cake or chocolate covered cherries.

The texture of millet is very different from oats, chewier and more satisfying. Chia seeds add even more texture and thicken the consistency while introducing a powerhouse of nutrients. Deglet Noor dates, my favorite whole food sweetener, also help with texture and thickness. The dates are thinly sliced so that their flavor and sweetness can ooze out and infuse the other ingredients during the cooking process. All of these components stand in sharp contrast to the tangy fruitiness of the dried cherries.

Finally, I love how this bowl adds variety to my whole food plant-based life. In order to maximize the health benefits of this lifestyle, I try to eat as many different whole plant food as possible. But like everyone else, I tend to fall back on a handful of staples. Having a hot breakfast bowl that includes grains like millet or quinoa is a nice addition to my repertoire.

MILLET AND OTHER OPTIONS

Millet is probably the most ancient of all the ancient grains. There are actually many different millets but the one most commonly used to feed humans is pearl millet. All millets have a mild pleasant taste. If you’re avoiding gluten, millet is a terrific gluten-free option.

benefits of pre-soaking millet

The most important advantage to pre-soaking millet for at least 6 hours, and up to 12 hours, is that it significantly shortens cooking time. But there are other benefits. Some people find millet hard to digest. A long pre-soak, preferably for 6 to 8 hours, usually solves this problem because soaking breaks down the phytic acid in the millet. Breaking down the phytic acid may also make it easier to absorb nutrients. Although a 6 to 8 hour soak is what’s most recommended, any amount of soaking is better than none.

don’t have time to soak millet?

You can make this recipe without pre-soaking your millet, but the cooking time will be longer and you’ll need to add more liquid. I’ve made this recipe without pre-soaking the millet and it worked. The other ingredients won’t be hurt by the extra cooking time. Again, keep in mind that some people experience an upset stomach from millet that’s not pre-soaked. But this doesn’t happen with everyone and, for what it’s worth, it did not happen to me.

use quinoa instead of millet

Quinoa is a great substitute for millet in this recipe and, like millet, it is gluten-free. The cooking time for quinoa is about the same as for steel cut oats and you don’t need to soak it. If you choose to substitute millet with quinoa, you should use a little bit more quinoa than the amount for millet in the recipe. Instead of 1/3 cup of millet, use 1/2 cup of quinoa. This is because quinoa doesn’t expand as much as millet after it’s cooked

use more oats instead of millet

Another option is to skip the millet, and the whole multigrain concept, and just use more oats. This recipe also works as a steel cut oats only breakfast bowl. As with the quinoa option, I’d substitute the millet with a bit more oats, using a total of 1-1/4 cup steel cut oats for the recipe.

COCOA POWDER IS A WHOLE PLANT FOOD

Rejoice! Cocoa powder is a whole plant food with a number of nutritional benefits. Although processing is involved, cocoa powder is derived from whole seeds of the cacao tree, and retains many of the nutrients present before processing including fiber, antioxidants and minerals like iron, magnesium, copper and zinc. There are two types of cocoa powder: natural and Dutch-processed, a.k.a. European-style cocoa powder. If you want to maximize the nutritional benefits of cocoa powder, go for natural instead of Dutch-processed because in removing some of the acidity, the Dutch processing technique also decreases flavanol content. And flavanols are powerful antioxidants with a variety of medical benefits. But that doesn’t mean that Dutch-processed cocoa is bad for you, only that it’s a little less good. Natural cocoa powder will always be more acidic. If the tang bothers you, then go with Dutch-processed.

PREPPING AND MEASURING DATES

My favorite dates are pitted Deglet Noor because they are sweet, flavorful, widely available and usually soft and moist. You can also use medjool dates by prepping and measuring them in the same way as you would Deglet Noor.

When I use dates in recipes I always begin by slicing them. I have found that dates that are supposedly pitted are, in fact, usually not all pitted. Pre-slicing my dates gives me the opportunity to remove any hidden pits and hard stems that may still be attached to the dates.

In this recipe, sliced dates are the only sweetener. Slicing them into cross-sections no wider than a 1/4 inch allows the sweetness to infuse the other ingredients

Last but not least, slicing dates allows for greater consistency in volume measuring. Once the dates are sliced they can be pressed into measuring cups or spoons.

PECANS AND OTHER TOPPING OPTIONS

Pecan pieces make a wonderful topping for this bowl. To me, pecans are a little sweeter than most other nuts and seeds. That’s helpful in this recipe where I’m avoiding all refined sweeteners but still have to counteract the tartness from both the cherries and the cocoa, as well as the potential bitterness from the cocoa. Almost any kind of nut or seed can work with this flavor combo. Pumpkin seeds or slithered almonds would be at the top of my list for pecan substitutes, but it’s completely up to you, your preferences, and what you have on hand.

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