When you hear the word oats, one usually thinks of a boring, bland breakfast cereal that one promises to eat every morning to get fitter. But here’s a fun fact: Oats are extremely versatile and can be used in many ways to incorporate their nutrition into your diet. From soups, smoothies, brownies to risottos, this wonder grain has more benefits under its hat than it lets on.

Packed with healthy carbs and ample protein, oats have been known to improve heart health and provide various other benefits to your health. After gaining popularity among bloggers and influencers, people have now come up with new and unique ways to prepare them, adding elements of ‘fun-and-flavor’ instead of ‘bland-and-boring’.

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If you’re ready to hop on the oats wagon (or not just yet), here are a few easy ways to show how you can incorporate it into your diet without discounting on the taste:

Smoothies and shakes

Oatmeal smoothies are a great start to the morning, better than the relatively-unhealthy cup of coffee. It works for those who are pressed for time in the mornings. Just add rolled oats, Greek yogurt (or low-fat milk), chopped fruits such as banana, blueberry, melons or strawberry, nuts, almonds, and blend. Fruits act as a natural sweetener, so skip the sugar.

For an extra zing, add cinnamon. In just five minutes, you have a protein shake, low on calories, that will energize you instantly.

Oats in Indian breakfast dishes

You don’t have to give up on Indian morning favorites like poha, Pongal, or idli-dosa to make way for oats. Instead, Indianise oats to suit your taste. Add oat flakes (slightly wetted, but not washed or soaked in water) and poha to sauteed onions and spices. For Pongal, roast the oats, and cook dal till it is mushy. Add the oats to the boiling dal, along with standard Pongal seasoning.

To make dosa, uttapam or, idli, add ground instant oats to other dosa ingredients (like rice flour) to blend the batter.

Make guilt-free sweets and cookies

This year, try including oats in laddoos. For instance, a combination of coconut and jaggery goes well with finely ground roasted oats. Experiment with sesame, dry fruits, nuts, dates, Rava, and even ragi.

You can also add uncooked oats to cookie dough, along with chocolate chips, bananas, and raisins. Swap refined sugar for jaggery (for Indian sweets) or brown sugar and for once, you won’t feel guilty to eat more than one.

As an alternative to bread crumbs

Using cornflakes as an alternative to bread crumbs for pan-frying dishes is all good, but oats are a healthier option. Bread crumbs have more sodium and half the fiber than oats. Grind rolled oats or instant oats to a fine powder. You will need a quarter amount lesser than the measure for bread crumbs. Season with thyme, pepper, or garlic powder for taste.

Store for later use, up to six months. Swap cracker crusts for pies with oatmeal crusts for an oatmeal cookie flavor.

Make cutlet and pakoras healthier

If you dread the oil and cornflour in cutlets and pakoras, oats can come to your rescue. Add dry roasted oats to your cutlet mixture of potatoes, meat, or vegetables. Use finely ground oats to replace cornflour for coating before shallow frying.

For the pakora, either roast oats or soak in water for a while and drain, before adding it to the mixture of spices and besan flour. While you can’t discount the amount of oil you consume, you can at least have a snack that’s filling and a tad bit healthier.

Oat flavored Rotis, cakes, and bread

By now, you get an idea of how versatile the simple oat is. Just as jowar or bajra is used as flour to make Rotis, oat flour can be used along with regular wheat flour. It does not affect the softness and texture of the flour and is easy to make and store.

Use finely ground instant or rolled oats and wheat flour in the ratio of 1:3 to make rotis, phulkas, or parathas. Similarly, oat flour is a healthy substitute for regular flour for baking cakes and bread. It tends to be a little sweeter than regular flour, but the overall taste remains the same.

Due to the lack of gluten in oats, you will need to add more yeast or baking powder to make the dough rise and feel elastic.

Energy bars

Skip the factory-packed energy bars with processed ingredients, and make your to-go breakfast bars. These no-bake bars can include combinations of nuts, raisins, peanut butter, maple syrup, honey, cinnamon, vanilla essence, chocolate chips, chia, flax, or pumpkin seeds.

To make the ingredients stick together, use dates (heat in a saucepan till it becomes loose) or a mix of peanut butter-honey butter honey. Press the batter into a baking tray and let it cool for a few hours. A batch of these delicious energy bars can last a week—if you can stop yourself from eating them all at once, of course.