How to cook porridge? 3 simple and (not boring) recipes plus secret microwave method

After a long week and greasy outside meals, won’t it be nice to enjoy some home-made porridge with simple dishes over the weekend?

We are sharing 3 simple recipes: Cantonese Scallop and Peanut Congee, Teochew Style Porridge with Omelette and Stir-fried Baby Cai Xin and, Mushroom Five Grain Porridge (using rice cooker) for our vegan friends 🙂 And for the night owls, we have a super simple microwave sweet porridge that would make your stomach warm and full before going to bed.

1. Cantonese Scallop and Peanut Congee

I like to order this congee from Chinese restaurant with Dim Sum, but I always feel that restaurants don’t use enough scallops and it’s often too salty. So when I cooked last weekend, I used a full cup of rice with 20 grams of scallops, without any salt and the taste is perfect!

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 1 hour

Total time: Around 1 hour

Servings: 5 – 6

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of rice (try to use Japanese or Chinese rice that have rounder shape. Avoid Jasmine and Basmati rice of which the grains are harder and more suitable for rice dishes)
• 6 cups of water
• 20 grams of dried and broken scallops
• ½ cup of peanuts
• 1 sprig of spring onion
  
  

Instructions:

1. Wash the rice in the pot (just rinse and remove the excess water, 2 times)
2. Add water to the pot and start boiling (large flame)
3. After the liquid is boiled, stir the liquid and turn the stove flame to low/medium, let it continue to boil gently (small bubbles)
4. Add dried scallops and peanuts
5. Let it cook for another hour or so, stir every 20 mins to ensure the rice doesn’t get stick to the bottom of the pot. Add some water if you find the congee is too thick to your liking
6. Add chopped spring onion before serving
   
   

Tip: if you want a more silky texture, you can add 2 teaspoons of oil (any cooking oil is fine) to the washed rice (without water) and wait for half an hour (you can also leave it overnight in the fridge) before cooking.

2. Teochew Porridge with Omelette and Stir-fried Baby Cai Xin

Teochew porridge is the easiest in terms of porridge because you just need to increase the water to rice ratio to 2x compared to cooking rice, but the accompanying dishes are the stars here. I recommend making a simple omelette with chai po (what hawkers add to carrot cake) and stir-fried green vegetables (I picked baby cai xin because it’s super simple to prepare, no cutting required 😉

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total: 40 mins

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

1. Plain porridge

• ½ cup of rice
• 3 cups of water
  
  

2. Omelette

• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp of chai po (dried radish)
  
  

3. Stir-fried Baby Cai Xin

• 1 packet of baby cai xin
• 2 green bird eye chilli
• Pinch of salt and pepper
  
  

Instructions:

1. Wash rice, add water to the pot and start boiling
2. Wash the baby cai xin, let it dry on the side
3. Beat eggs and mix with cai po (do not add salt as cai po is quite salty!)
4. By this time, the porridge should start to boil, lower the flame and let it boil gently, stir too
5. Add 3 tbsp of your choice of cooking oil to a pan (do not cut the oil here, otherwise the eggs would stick to the pan), when the pan is hot (1 min), pour egg liquid in
6. Wait for around 3 mins when the side is hardened and you can slightly move the egg as a whole in the pan. Fold it into half and flip on the other side and cook for 1 min. Ready to serve
7. Wash the pan quickly and dry it
8. Add your choice of cooking oil to the pan, when the pan is hot, pour the cleaned and dried vegetables in. If there’s water in the leaves, you would get some smoke and loud sizzling noise when adding the vegetables in the pan
9. Stir fry the baby cai xin for about 5 mins, until you see liquid at the bottom of the pan and there’s a refreshing aroma of the cai xin
10. Add salt and ready to serve
11. Check on the porridge, it should be ready by now

3. Mushroom Five Grain Porridge

I love mushrooms but they tend to come in a big pack and fresh mushrooms’ shelf life is only a few days. So when I had 2 mushrooms left in the fridge, I decided to try cooking a new one-pot dish with my rice cooker. The result is really good! Although the color is a little dark, the rice has absorbed the mushroom’s aroma and it’s very tasty.

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 45 mins

Total: 50 mins

Servings: 2

Ingredients:

• ½ cup of five grain rice
• 2 – 3 cups of water
• 2 mushrooms (most mushrooms would be fine, but I think oyster mushroom and shitake work well)
• 2 tbsp of concentrated vegetarian stock (mushroom flavour)

Instructions:

1. Wash the mushrooms, remove stem and cut the mushrooms into slices
2. Wash the rice, add water and sliced mushroom in the rice cooker
3. Add concentrated vegetarian stock
4. Start “Cook Porridge” mode
   
   

Tip: If you find the porridge not cooked enough after the rice cooker indicates ready, press “Cook Porridge” mode again and stop when you find the thickness is to your liking.

Looking for more low GI porridge? We recommend the Spiced Brown Rice & Chicken Porridge by our friends from The Little Rice Company. This Singapore-based company offers the first certified low GI brown rice! You can buy their rice on their website and Honest Bee.

4. Super simple microwave cooked sweet porridge

When I was little and not feeling so well, my go-to food would be sweet porridge and nowadays I like to make this whenever I crave for simple and clean food. I used pre-cooked rice and microwave to make this really quick in less than 10 mins.

Prep time: 1 min

Cook time: 6 mins

Total: 7 mins

Servings: 1

Ingredients:

• ½ pack of pre-cooked rice (100g)
• A large bowl ¾ filled with water
• 2 tbsp of white sugar

Instructions:

1. Add half pack of the pre-cooked rice in a large bowl
2. Add water to the large bowl with water (3/4 filled)
3. 2 mins in microwave: high heat
4. Add sugar, another 2 mins in medium heat (stay near to the microwave so if you see the porridge boiling, you can pause for a few seconds before continuing. Otherwise the water may overflow the bowl)
5. Stir and add another 2 mins in low heat
   
   

If you’re feeling a little tired and crave for something warm and light, porridge is definitely a good option. You can also try other pairing dishes like Lemongrass Ginger Patties and Braised Pork (Shanghainese Style). Please try the recipes and let us know your thoughts.