Hearty Hemp Heart Porridge – keto, gluten-free, grain-free

If you live a keto lifestyle and have missed your warm and satisfying oatmeal or morning porridge, worry no more: this Hearty Hemp Heart Porridge will pamper your digestive system from the mouth to the gut — without gluten, grains, or excess carbs. Even this simple porridge is super satiating and tasty, be sure to check my “Tips for Variations” section at the end of this post for numerous tweaks on how you can jazz up this marvelous morning meal even more!

How to make this Hearty Hemp Heart Porridge

You need hemp hearts, aka shelled hemp seed, and chia seeds for the base of this porridge.

I recommend soaking the seeds overnight for the best digestibility and absorbance of nutrients. That actually doesn’t need much effort from you as the water does the job when you sleep. So, in the evening, you just quickly rinse the seeds and let them soak in half a cup of water overnight. Next morning, you regularly cook the porridge for about 5—10 minutes. That’s it!

So, let’s take a look at how to prepare this cozy keto porridge:

Pour 1/2 cup (120 ml) hemp hearts into a fine-mesh strainer.

Add also 1 tablespoon chia seeds.

Rinse the seeds well and pour out all the water. Transfer the rinsed seeds into a mug or glass.

Pour in about 1/2 cup (120 ml) water.

Stir with a spoon.

Cover with a plastic wrap and let soak at room temperature overnight.

Next morning, remove the plastic wrap.

Transfer the contents into a small saucepan.

Add 1/4 cup (60 ml) coconut cream…

…5 drops (or to taste) vanilla stevia…

…and 1/2 teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon.

Cook over medium heat, all the time stirring…

…until the porridge has thickened to your liking. This takes about 5 minutes.

Serve hot, topped, for example, with Ceylon cinnamon, erythritol crystals, crushed nuts, or seeds like sunflower seeds. Fresh, frozen, or freeze-dried berries make a tasty topping, too. I have freeze-dried raspberries here. They are deliciously tart and flavorful!

Yum!

How I came up with this easy keto porridge

A couple of weeks ago, I suddenly started thinking of keto porridge as we are developing new Ketokamu products to delight Finnish keto consumers. There is no good clean keto version of any porridge in the market, so I could actually develop one, I thought.

I do have some keto porridge recipes, one almond butter-based and one egg-based here on my blog and a couple of other keto porridge recipes in my books. However, I thought hemp hearts would make an excellent base for my new porridge. Either chia seeds or psyllium would work as a perfect thickener.

I have a text file about porridge ideas (I always write my ideas to text files arranged by topic). To my big surprise, I had already written an idea about hemp heart-based porridge a couple of years ago. My new idea was just to cook the raw ingredients until thick, but my old idea included soaking the seeds before cooking — which actually is strongly recommended, as soaking improves absorbability remarkably and reduces antinutrients like phytates. So, I was definitely going to soak the seeds for the porridge.

My old porridge recipe idea had hemp hearts, sunflower seeds, and chia seeds cooked in water and seasoned with salt. Well, that’s how you make the Finnish version of oatmeal, just flavored with salt, no fancy spices like sugars, sweeteners, or spices.

After quick thinking, I thought I’ll omit the sunflower seeds and use only hemp hearts and chia seeds. Moreover, I wanted to get a milky — or in fact, creamy — mouthfeel to the porridge but without dairy. Coconut cream would be just the perfect ingredient for the creamy feeling, although my first thought was to add almond milk. Well, almond milk is really thin, and there is no creamy mouthfeel there, so coconut cream was the ideal option.

I also wanted to make my porridge sweet. For sweetening, I chose vanilla stevia as that would lend both a delicious vanilla flavor and sweetness. I thought of powdered erythritol first, but I was so fascinated by the vanilla flavor, so vanilla stevia was the number one sweetener for this keto porridge recipe.

But, I wasn’t completely satisfied with my idea yet. There was still room for one ingredient to fill my five-ingredient quota. Moreover, I had all the time thought of adding Ceylon cinnamon since I wanted to make the porridge really flavorful.

Now, I got all the ingredients, and next, I calculated the measures. My old recipe idea had only about 3 tablespoons of hemp hearts, but I wanted to use more, especially now when I had dropped sunflower seeds from the recipe. I decided to use 1/2 cup (120 ml) hemp hearts.

I wanted to keep the amount of chia seeds the same: 1 tablespoon. In addition, I opted for 1/4 cup (60 ml) coconut cream, 5 drops vanilla stevia, and 1/2 teaspoon Ceylon cinnamon.

I soaked the seeds overnight in 1/2 cup (120 ml) water. My first idea was to pour out the soaking water, but then I realized the chia seeds would thicken the water into a slimy consistency. So, I certainly wanted to use this yummy slime rather than throw it away.

So, I poured the seeds with the soaking water (which was actually almost non-existent as the seeds had absorbed it) into a saucepan, added coconut cream, stevia, and the cinnamon, and started cooking. I was a bit hesitant if my already thickish mixture would still thicken more and form a thick porridge.

After about 5-minute cooking, the porridge was thick and hot. Marvelous! I tasted a bit of the porridge, and it indeed had everything I had hoped: mouthwatering cinnamon, elegant vanilla, sweetness from stevia, and creamy mouthfeel from coconut cream. Moreover, the porridge was hearty and satisfying — with a whopping amount of 618 kcal and only 3.5 grams net carbs per serving! Mission accomplished!

Here’s the recipe for you to enjoy:

Continue to Content

5-Ingredient Hearty Hemp Heart Porridge - keto, gluten-free, grain-free

Yield: 1

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 5 minutes

Additional Time: 8 hours

Total Time: 8 hours 10 minutes

If you live a keto lifestyle and have missed your warm and satisfying oatmeal or morning porridge, worry no more: this Hearty Hemp Heart Porridge will pamper your digestive system from the mouth to the gut — without gluten, grains, or excess carbs. Even this simple porridge is super satiating and tasty, be sure to check my "Tips for Variations" section at the end of this post for numerous tweaks on how you can jazz up this marvelous morning meal even more!

Print

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup = 120 ml hemp hearts aka shelled hemp seed
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds
• 1/4 cup = 60 ml unsweetened coconut cream or thick coconut milk
• 5 drops (or to taste) vanilla-flavored stevia
• 1/2 teaspoon ground Ceylon cinnamon

Instructions

1. Rinse the hemp hearts and the chia seeds in a fine-mesh strainer.
2. Place the hemp hearts and the chia seeds into a glass or ceramic jar. Add about 1/2 cup (120 ml) water. Let soak overnight at room temperature.
3. Once soaked, place the soaked seeds (with the soaking water) in a small saucepan. Add the coconut cream, stevia, and the cinnamon.
5. Bring to a boil over medium heat, constantly mixing.
6. Cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, or until the porridge has thickened to your liking.
7. Serve hot, topped, for example, with Ceylon cinnamon, erythritol crystals, crushed nuts, or sunflower seeds. Fresh, frozen, or freeze-dried berries make a tasty topping, too.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases - without any extra costs for you.

• 
  Anthony's Organic Chia Seed, 2.5 lb, Gluten Free, Vegan, Raw, Keto Friendly
• 
  Manitoba Harvest Organic Hemp Hearts Shelled Hemp Seeds, 18oz; 10g Plant-Based Protein & 12g Omegas per Serving, Whole 30 Approved, Vegan, Keto, Paleo, Non-GMO, Gluten Free
• 
  Nutiva Organic Raw Shelled Hemp Seed, 19 Ounce | USDA Organic, Non-GMO, Non-BPA | Whole 30 Approved, Vegan, Gluten-Free & Keto | 10g Protein and 12g Omegas per Serving for Salads, Smoothies & More
• 
  Organic Ceylon Cinnamon Powder | Perfect for Baking, Cooking & Smoothies | 100% Raw from Sri Lanka | 16oz/453g Resealable Kraft Bag | by FGO
• 
  Frontier Co-op Ceylon Cinnamon Powder, 1 Pound Bulk Bag, Certified Organic, Fair Trade Certified, Kosher, Non-irradiated, Sustainably Grown | Cinnamomum verum J. Presl
• 
  NuNaturals Plant Based Vanilla-Alcohol Free Stevia Extract Drops - All Natural Liquid Sweetener - 2 oz (2 Pack)

Tips for variations

There are numerous ways to vary this simple porridge. Here are some suggestions:

• Add 1 tablespoon raw cocoa powder for a scrumptiously chocolatey porridge.
• You can swap the stevia for another natural low-carb sweetener like erythritol, monk fruit, or allulose.
• If you stand dairy, you can use heavy cream instead of coconut cream.
• For an especially rich and creamy consistency, use coconut manna, aka pureed coconut flesh, instead of coconut cream — or you can add a tablespoon or two coconut manna in addition to coconut cream.
• You can enjoy the porridge raw without cooking. Just soak the seeds, add your favorite seasonings, a dash of coconut cream (or 1 tablespoon melted coconut manna), and dig in!
• If you are in a hurry and forgot to soak your seeds, don’t despair. You can cook the unsoaked seeds into a delicious porridge anyway. True, your body won’t digest it as easily as soaked seeds, but the porridge is still miles healthier than grainy or starchy regular porridge or oatmeal. In any case, cooking makes the seeds better digested.
• Another easy way to get variation to the porridge is to replace part — let’s say 2—4 tablespoons — of the hemp hearts with other seeds or crushed nuts. Try pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, Brazil nuts, macadamias, pecans, or walnuts.

General prattling

This week was nicely productive but not too hectic. I was most of the time in the summer house, where I also worked on this recipe and the photos. During my one-week stay, the ice from the big lake melted completely! When I went to the summer house, the lake was still completely covered with ice, but when I left, there was no ice left. Spring is finally here, and soon it’s summer.

Well, of course, I was cooking and baking a lot. I made a slightly different version of mozzarella dough using our Ketokamu baking mix and a different type of mozzarella (the ball-shaped mozzarella). The dough turned out great, and I wondered what to bake from it. I decided to make a pie crust. It turned out really fluffy! At home, I was certainly going to make cinnamon buns from the dough. I was sure they’ll turn out fantastic, I thought. I filled the pie crust simply with homemade sugar-free raspberry and lemon jam and topped with whipped cream. I decorated the creation with freeze-dried raspberries (the same that I used for decorating this porridge) and crushed chocolate-covered hazelnuts (our Ketokamu treats). So simple, yet so delicious!

At the end of the week, I spent a couple of days in a nice spa. Of course, I was working every day, but working in a spa environment with nice company and enjoying the comforts of the spa made everything feel much more relaxed, even though I have to admit I was very productive.

I also took cryotherapy for the first-ever time in my life. Well, I love to do cold exposure either by washing myself with snow in the wintertime and other times of the year, I have a pool in my yard, and when it gets warm, I take cold showers. This, however, was something completely different: you go to a small chamber with -120 °C (-184 °F) freezing dry air (or actually steam) floating all over your body.

You spend just 1—3 minutes in the chamber as the air is so cold. I have to say it felt fascinating and much more pleasant than swimming in cold water. However, the next day, I noticed large frostbites on my legs. Nothing major, though, but I showed them to a doctor.

Oh yes, and I did the cinnamon bun experiment yesterday from the mozzarella ball dough. The buns turned out to be the best keto cinnamon buns I have ever made!

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