Mealtime Breakfast & Brunch Cereal Oatmeal 12 Savory Oatmeal & Porridge Recipes for a Filling Breakfast By Lauren Wicks Lauren Wicks Lauren Wicks is a freelance writer and editor with a passion for food, wine, design and travel. Lauren currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama, with her husband, Price, and spends her free time haunting her favorite natural wine shop, reading cookbooks like novels, exploring the best food and wine destinations in the country, and hosting dinner parties for friends and neighbors. If she's not pouring over a cookbook, she's likely working through a stack of historical fiction from the 19th and 20th centuries. EatingWell's Editorial Guidelines Updated on September 23, 2024 Close These savory oatmeal and porridge recipes put a new spin on classic preparations. Combine the warm, creamy tastes and textures with your favorite savory breakfast ingredients, like fried eggs, bacon and scallions. Recipes like our Savory Oatmeal with Cheddar, Collards & Eggs and our Sriracha, Egg & Avocado Overnight Oats are healthy, filling and so flavorful. If you're wondering about the difference between oatmeal and porridge, oatmeal is a type of porridge—but not all porridge is oatmeal. In this collection, we're spotlighting some delicious oatmeal recipes as well as porridge recipes made with grains such as rice, barley, cracked wheat and some ancient grains like quinoa, farro and fonio. If you haven't had the chance to try out a variety of grains at the breakfast or dinner table, keep reading! 01 of 12 Savory Oatmeal with Cheddar, Collards & Eggs View Recipe Have you tried savory oats yet? It's a nice change-up from the sweet way oatmeal is typically served, plus you get a full serving of vegetables. Serve with hot sauce, if desired. 02 of 12 Shrimp & Chicken Congee View Recipe This recipe for savory rice porridge comes from EatingWell's Test Kitchen manager, Breana Lai Killeen, who shared it for Father's Day because it is one of her father's favorite dishes. "In the U.S., this dish is called congee, but in Hong Kong, we call it jok," she says. "My dad's version was always pretty bland, but this recipe is adapted from one in the cookbook A Place at the Table from a Laotian chef who, just like me, is a first-generation Asian raised in North Carolina." Congee can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner, and leftovers freeze well. 03 of 12 Savory Oatmeal with Tomato & Sausage View Recipe Oats get a new life in this savory dish, serving as the backbone for a satisfying combo of sausage, greens, tomatoes and herbs. 04 of 12 Sriracha, Egg & Avocado Overnight Oats View Recipe If you love avocado toast, give this savory overnight oats recipe a try. The oats soak overnight for easy "cooking." In the morning, just top with a fried egg, avocado and Sriracha for a satisfying, healthy breakfast. 05 of 12 Slow-Cooker Overnight Barley Porridge View Recipe Ted & Chelsea Cavanaugh At 6 grams per 1-cup serving, barley is high in fiber compared to many other whole grains. And it has high levels of prebiotic fiber, making it great for promoting healthy gut bacteria. Like oats, barley contains beta-glucans, a type of soluble fiber that's been shown to improve blood pressure and cholesterol levels. 06 of 12 Slow-Cooker Overnight Fonio Porridge View Recipe Ted & Chelsea Cavanaugh Fast-growing and drought-resistant, this ancient grain is an important crop in West Africa. It's a type of millet, making it gluten-free. Fonio's light and fluffy texture and mild flavor make it work equally well with sweet and savory toppings. 07 of 12 Slow-Cooker Overnight Brown Rice Porridge View Recipe Ted & Chelsea Cavanaugh Using a slow cooker makes it easy to cook up almost any whole-grain porridge while you sleep. Short-grain brown rice slow-cooks to a soft and sticky texture reminiscent of rice pudding. Brown rice stands up to the long cooking time better than white, plus this whole grain contains some magnesium, phosphorus, thiamine and niacin (which get stripped from white rice). 08 of 12 Arroz Caldo View Recipe Joy Howard Arroz caldo, a bowl of comforting rice porridge seasoned with plenty of ginger and garlic, has countless variations throughout the Philippines. The porridge can have a variety of toppings, such as hard- or soft-boiled eggs, crispy tofu, crispy garlic bits or crispy shallots, lime, lemon, nutritional yeast and so much more. For a change of pace, you can swap cubed smoked tofu for the chicken. Quinoa, wild rice, cauliflower rice and other grains can also be substituted for the jasmine rice. Feel free to increase the amounts of garlic and fish sauce for an even more flavorful porridge. 09 of 12 Bubur Ayam Betawi (Jakarta-Style Savory Rice Porridge) View Recipe We cut down the cooking time for this healthy chicken stew by fortifying store-bought broth with chicken and aromatics and then using the flavorful liquid to both simmer the rice and make the gravy. Try subbing five fresh curry leaves if you can't find the Indonesian bay leaves. 10 of 12 Kinche (Cracked Wheat) View Recipe This Ethiopian buttery grain porridge recipe is often served for breakfast, but you can also top it with other dishes like messer wot (spiced lentils) or gomen (Ethiopian-spiced collards) for lunch or dinner and eat it in place of the traditional flatbread, injera. 11 of 12 Slow-Cooker Overnight Quinoa Porridge View Recipe Ted & Chelsea Cavanaugh This slow-cooker porridge recipe features quinoa. Quinoa is a gluten-free pseudocereal (it's a seed!) that is a nutritional powerhouse and a complete protein. It contains a wide array of vitamins and minerals, including phosphorus, manganese, zinc and iron, many of which Americans don't get enough of. 12 of 12 Slow-Cooker Overnight Farro Porridge View Recipe Ted & Chelsea Cavanaugh Originally from Mesopotamia, farro is a type of wheat with a wonderful nutty flavor and toothsome texture. It's packed with plant-based protein, niacin, magnesium and zinc. Ancient wheat strains have also been found to have higher levels of antioxidants and carotenoids, which are important for eye health. Updated by Leah Goggins Leah Goggins Leah Goggins is a lifestyle reporter with three years of experience fact-checking, chatting with sources and scoping out the best celebrity recipes. Her work has appeared in EatingWell, Food & Wine, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple, Shape and MyRecipes. Leah has a degree in news media and English from The University of Alabama. EatingWell's Editorial Guidelines Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Tell us why! Other Submit