I understand that many people have New Year’s resolutions to lose weight and become healthier. However, tempting food can often get in the way of achieving that goal. Our environment is saturated with calorie-dense and nutrient-empty foods made with simple carbohydrates. While carbohydrates are an important macronutrient, too much of them can be harmful. The highly addictive nature of white foods, such as pasta or white rice, makes it even harder to stay healthy.
It’s important to note that not all carbohydrates are created equal. The most popular white foods in our pantry, like white flour and white rice, lack wholesome nutrients because they are stripped of bran and germ during the milling process. This means they are not whole-grain foods. If you want to learn more about whole grains, click here.
Personally, I love oats. They are versatile, delicious, and packed with nutrients. If oats were a superstar, I’d be their spokesperson, promoting their goodness to the world. This super easy, gluten-free, and yeast-free oat bread recipe requires only three ingredients: oat flour, seeds, and baking soda (no yeast required). Being yeast-free means there’s no need to knead and proof the dough, making it a quick and easy recipe.
Super healthy and Easy Recipe (100% Oat Flour & No wheat flour)
Working as a chef is far from an average job. While the world eats, chefs face their busiest moments. During lunch or dinner service, we must serve a hungry mob under immense pressure. As a result, many chefs often skip meals or eat at odd times. During these moments, they tend to resort to unhealthy options widely available in the kitchen like flour-based bread or sugary pastries, especially if they don’t bring their healthy snacks or meals.
I have always maintained a healthy lifestyle, but lately, things have been going awry. I find myself unable to resist sugary pastries and white bread, which have no nutritional value. I used to be able to ignore such temptations, but often I gave in and then felt guilty afterwards.
It was when I decided to research quick but healthy whole grain and gluten-free bread-making ideas. The problem was that I am not a big of a baker. When it comes down to breadmaking, I don’t have much patience for kneading and proofing. At the same time, I want to make a healthy and yummy bread that satisfies all my senses fully and provides good nutrients the body needs as a bonus. So white wheat flour-based bread is out of the window.
Then I came across an Irish oat bread that does not require yeast, just baking soda. So no proofing and kneading. That was the inspiration. With plenty of seeds, packed with protein, fibres, healthy fat, vitamins and minerals., I wanted to make nutrient-dense, filling and delicious bread with great texture. It was super delicious. Some of my colleagues and friends asked me for the recipe while a couple of people wanted to buy it. So, here you go!
The bread made with 100% oat is not as fluffy as regular sandwich bread. It is slightly denser in texture but super delicious. The best way to enjoy it is by spreading some butter and peanut butter on top. Trust me, it tastes heavenly!
How to store the oat bread
To store the bread, you can freeze it once it has cooled down completely. You can cut the loaf into slices and keep them in the freezer. Whenever you need to enjoy a slice, you can defrost it or toast it straight away. Freezing the bread is a great way to preserve it for a longer time and ensure that you always have a healthy snack or meal option on hand.
Ingredients, Baking Tips and Serving Suggestion
- For Vegans: The recipe can be easily vegan if you omit the egg and substitute plant-milk or and oil for egg. One of many functions of an egg in baking is to provide moisture. Put additional moisture back into the mixture when the egg is taken out of the ingredients. Otherwise, it will become too dense and dry.
- Seeds: sunflower, pumpkin, black and white sesame seeds, chia seeds are used. How much to add into the mixture and topping is at your discretion.
- Eat with butter and peanut butter (amazing flavour combination)
Video Shorts
Ingredients
Dry Mix Ingredients
- Rolled Oat - 4 cups
- Baking Soda - 2 ts
- Salt - 1 ts
Wet Mix Ingredients
- Egg 1
- Soy milk or milk of your choice - 2 cups
- Extra virgin olive oil or any vegetable oil of your choice - 1/4 cup
- Vinegar -2 tbs
- Sweetener of your choice (date syrup, honey, maple syrup or molasses) - 1 tbs.
Seeds
- Chia seeds 1/3 cup
- Roasted Sunflower seeds 1/4 cup
- Roasted Pumpkin 1 cup
- Roasted Black Sesame Seeds - 1 tbs
- Roasted White Sesame Seeds - 1 tbs
Instructions
- Roast seeds in advance (see Note in how-to or you can skip this process)
- Preheat an oven at 180C (360 F)
- Blend rolled oat roughly or finely in a food processor (see Note)
- Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl
- In a separate bowl, place wet ingredients and whisk till well-mixed (see Note)
- Combine and mix wet and dry ingredients together
- Add seeds into the combined mixture (see Note)
- Line loaf pan with baking paper
- Pour the seeded bread mixture into the loaf pan
- Sprinkle seeds on the top of the bread (see Note)
- Bake it for 40-50 mins
- Let it cool completely before slicing it
Notes
Toasting seeds prior to baking are not essential. But for extra toasted flavour, I chose to toast seeds.
Oat Flour:
- You can simply make your own oat flour by blending rolled oats in a food processor to the desired consistency. I like personally rustic and rough texture instead of fine ground.
Adding Seeds :
It is up to you how much you would like to add seeds into the bread dough and into topping.
Toasted seeds are divided into two portions
- Bigger portions of each seed for bread mixture.
- Smaller portions of seed mixture are sprinkled on top of the bread dough
Roasting Sunflower and pumpkin Seeds
- Place sunflower and pumpkin seeds on a tray in a single layer
- Roast in a preheated oven at 160-170 C (320 -338 F) for 10-15 mins till they are nicely toasted.
- Let them cool
Roasting Black and white sesame seeds
- Place black sesame seeds in a wide pan over a low and medium heat
- Stir constantly
- Reduce heat when they get burnt
- Do the the same process (1-3 steps) with white sesame seeds
- Let them cool
Warning : It takes only a couple of mins to toast sesame seeds. They get burned so quickly. So don't go away!
