The Wholefoodie

South Korean dalgona, Irish-style

Coffee creme will transport your morning oats to another galaxy. Without it, your oats will only hit the clouds. This creme recipe is called dalgona in South Korea, and has fuelled today’s coffee hipsteria from Seoul to Slane. If you’re a purist like me, you can get your thirsty mitts on sensational instant coffee online from 3fe — a small Irish roasters. Your local health store may also stock Clipper organic instant coffee, which is a mighty fine thing (and has saved multiple code-red situations during months of home-schooling).

Apart from their wad of soluble fibre, oats also carry insoluble fibre, which causes giddiness among food scientists. Insoluble fibre is talented at policing our bowels, improving traffic jams and reducing transit time. Maybe this is what gives oats their superstar status?

The soluble fibre, specifically betaglucan, is thought to gift our bodies with immune-loving polysaccharides similar to those found in medicinal mushrooms such as shiitake. These naturally-occurring polysaccharides can also benefit heart health by latching onto cholesterol in the bowels and shoo-ing it out the back door before our body gets a chance to reabsorb it. Nifty, eh? And at 99c per kilogramme, oats are one very special food.

We’re using cup measurements here because I squirm at the idea of getting out a weighing scales to make my breakfast. Any tea cup will do.

And if it’s all rather too much, then keep an eye out for Iswari Irish brand of wholegrain breakfast mixes in Supervalu stores nationwide. We love them. Add milk and leave overnight — perfect fodder for camping.