Start your morning off right with this creamy quinoa porridge topped with home made jam. The extra energy boosting ingredients makes it a great alternative to oats!

Breakfast has always been my favourite meal of the day.  Usually because I wake up famished.  There’s often something waiting for me in the fridge – be it overnight oats or some type of baked oats – especially these peanut butter ones which are rarely not in the fridge or freezer!  But I’ve heard great things about quinoa porridge and being so flipping healthy I thought it worth a try.

I’ll admit, I was sceptical.  Quinoa for breakfast?  I’ve only ever had it as a quinoa salad, usually packed with bright fresh veggies and drizzled with a creamy peanut butter sauce.

I’ve used Hodmedods Two Colour Quinoa for this breakfast recipe.  It’s a combination of their Somerset Red and Essex white quinoa and has a lovely nutty flavour.

Quinoa is not only gluten free and high in protein, it’s also one of the few plant foods that contain sufficient amounts of all 9 essential amino acids.  These amino acids can’t be made by the body so must come from food.  And they’re super important because they’re vital for processes in the body such as muscle and tissue growth, energy consumption, regulating blood sugar, appetite, sleep, and mood.

Some fairly good reasons to incorporate quinoa porridge into your breakfast rotation right?

Combine this with some stunning fresh autumn fruits made into a very low sugar jam and you’ve got yourself a supercharged start to your morning!

If you’re as big a fan of breakfast as me, here’s 40 of the best vegan breakfast recipes. With everything from tofu scramble, to waffles, to pancakes and pretty much everything in between!

How to make home made jam

We’re not talking ordinary jam here.  This is not the sugar laden, mostly bland confection you get in jars from your supermarket.  Nu-uh.  It also doesn’t take hours of bubbling (just 15 minutes) and there’s little to no danger of jam splat burns.  And yet it’s still perfectly thick, spreadable and unctuous.  And very very delicious!  Oh and adaptable!  Just sub in for whatever fruits and berries you fancy or whatever is perfectly in season right now.

Start by roughly chopping the fruit.  It doesn’t have to be perfect and uniform but the smaller the pieces they quicker they’ll cook.  Put it into a heavy based saucepan (this helps prevent the sticky mixture from burning), add the sugar (or agave syrup in this case), the spice and a dash of water.  Pop on a lid, stir once or twice and bubble gently for 10 minutes until the fruit has nicely softened.  It’s then completely up to you – or your no lumps allowed jam eater – as to whether you puree it or not.

I’d personally have left it as it was but I live with a 46 year old fussy eater so lumps are banished.  Either way, it’s still delicious and very very spreadable on more than just quinoa porridge!

Because it doesn’t have truck loads of sugar in to help preserve it this jam only lasts a couple of weeks in the fridge.  But I promise you, you’ll be spreading it to your hearts content.  One of the best things about using seasonal fruit is not just their RIGHT NOW flavour, but they tend to be sweeter.  Which equals less sugar in our semi-healthy home made jam.  Healthy jam huh.  Who’da thunk!

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