Raspberry and Chocolate Tahini Oatmeal

Vibrant and fruity oatmeal topped with a fudgy scoop of tahini? Oh, yessss.

What you’ll need:

• • 3/4 cup milk of choice, or water*
  • 1/4 cup quick cook steel cut oats (I used BetterOats)*
  • 1 cup fresh raspberries
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional, makes it less tart)
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt

• • 2 tbsp plain tahini
  • 1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
  • pinch of salt
  • sweetener (I used maple syrup), to taste

How to make it:

1. Bring milk (I use 1/4 c almond milk and 1/2 c water) to a boil, add oats, and reduce heat to medium. (If you’d like to add a teaspoon of flax or chia seeds, do so now.)
2. Add half of the raspberries to the oatmeal right away and stir occasionally.
3. While you wait, prepare the Chocolate Tahini by mixing together ingredients in a small bowl. Taste; add more sweetener and/or cocoa powder if desired.
4. Back to the oatmeal. Once more of the liquid has absorbed, add vanilla extract, optional cinnamon, and salt. Stir.
5. When you’re pleased with the consistency of the oatmeal, stir in a few of the remaining raspberries (maybe 1/4 cup). Then, transfer to a bowl. Add a splash of your milk of choice, Chocolate Tahini, the remaining raspberries, and any other additional toppings (shredded coconut, chocolate chips, nuts, etc.).

Just an FYI:

If you’re on the fence about tahini, making a chocolate tahini can be a great way to mellow out tahini’s bitterness. It’s perfect if you generally like the flavor of tahini, but you want to take some of the edge off.

Obviously, you can always use a different nut butter, but if you love nut butter as much as I do, there are health benefits to varying your nuts (or seeds, in this case). Cashew butter, almond butter, sunflower seed butter, and tahini all have slightly different nutritional profiles, so you get unique perks from each of them.

Nutrition aside, this raspberry-chocolate-tahini combo is a beautiful match. The mix of tangy raspberries, sweet chocolate, and bitter tahini all come together to mellow each other out. And really, could it be any prettier? [/chandler]