Greens for Breakfast? Savory Oatmeal Juk (Congee)

Remember juk?  I'm more familiar with it as cháo or chok--that is the Vietnamese and Thai/Khmer names, respectively.  Most people will recognize it by congee, though.

Usually, we think of this as a rice dish--in fact, today in Cambodia just as many Khmer will call this sup bi--rice soup--as chok.  It isn't just a rice dish--it can also be made with oatmeal.  Oatmeal offers high fiber and quick cooking times--neither of which are virtues of the rice usually made to use juk (since it is usually white or glutinous white rice).  And while I often make more sweet oatmeal dishes (some of which I've shared before), a savory oatmeal dish can be a great breakfast or dinner dish.  I've got about five oatmeal juk recipes I make pretty often.  A few are a little more elaborate than this one, but in my quest to work in vegetables and greens into my diet, this one fit very nicely.

Spinach oatmeal juk (congee)

3 big handfuls of fresh spinach or about 1 to 1 1/2 cups frozen spinach (or other greens)

2-4 slices of ginger 

Sliced mushrooms (2-3, and shiitake are especially good)

One sliced scallion (green onions)

A dash of soy sauce

1 cup oatmeal

Salt and white pepper (if your broth has salt in it, you may not need salt--and black pepper will work as well)

3 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock  OR one can of stock and one cup of water

Pickled Chinese greens (optional)

A tablespoon of crushed roasted peanuts (optional)

A dash or two of sesame oil

Boil 3 cups of stock with the ginger slices and the oatmeal. Wash and chop the spinach if using fresh greens and your mushrooms.  When water is boiling, add the mushrooms and then begin to add the spinach and slowly stir until the leaves become cooked, and begin slowly stirring in your oats; stir for 2-3 minutes until the oats are softened.  The dish is a thick soupy consistency--if it is much too thin, add a 1/8 cup of oats, cook another three minutes and see.  If it is oatmeal consistency, not soup consistency, add another half cup of stock or water, stir and see. 

Add salt and pepper to taste--if your stock had salt in it, you may not need to add any salt at all especially since a little soy sauce is still to be added.   Finally, garnish each serving with the scallions and add just a small dash of soy sauce to each serving. Don't eat the ginger slices, but remove them as you eat or as you are dishing out the juk. Not at all necessary, but a spoonful of pickled Chinese greens (not kim chi, but the plain pickled greens) and a dash (or a couple dashes) of sesame oil also adds another dash of flavor to this dish that is really essential for an authentic taste.  Without sesame oil it just does not taste like juk.

A power breakfast of "Green Eggs" and Oatmeal Spinach Juk
with a few slices of a Korean Pear--what a way to start the day with two
generous servings of GREENS!