A good start

I don’t like to admit it, but when it comes to breakfast, I can be really quite difficult. Many mornings, the thought of even a slice of toast is too much to stomach. Juice is great, fruits are great, everything else, not so great. Problem is, it can be hard to get properly going on just some fruit and juice, especially if your idiosyncrasies extend to a dislike of ripe – as in, twelve hours beyond green – bananas. So for a long time, I lived with a breakfast predicament. Until one morning, after I’d stayed over at her place, Anne made me the perfect breakfast.

It’s a simple breakfast, but it has a lot going for it. It has plenty of fibres, it has dairy, it has fruit. And it adds up to a wonderful bowl of solid morning nourishment. It is: oats, yoghurt and grated apple. (Or rather, oats, fromage frais and grated apple, but while French and all, that’s not nearly as catchy.)

The secret of this muesli lies in the grating of the apple. Chop the apple, and the textures and flavours are uneven. Grate it, and they come together perfectly. What you end up with is a bit like Bircher muesli, except it’s simpler, both to make and in terms of ingredients. The fact that the juicy and liquid ingredients far outweigh the chewy bits makes it easy to eat, but the grated apple and oats still accomplish a satisfying bite. There are no nuts that can get soggy, and no overly sweet dried fruits, yet because of the apple, it is sweet enough to require no extra sugar or honey. I’ve made this with a cute freckled Forelle pear as well, which worked too, although I still prefer a tart apple.

So whether you’re breakfast-fickle or not, make this some time. It presents in big juicy mouthfuls that make you feel you’re being good to yourself. It tastes clean and fresh, yet it comes together in a moment, and it is filling and gets you ready to go. It’s a good start.

Oats, yoghurt and grated apple (or pear)

I like eating this with fromage frais, as it is a bit thicker than yoghurt (close equivalents are fromage blanc or quark – the kind with a consistency like thick yoghurt, not the salted set type). It would work with full-fat quark or even Greek yoghurt as well, in which case a tart apple would contrast nicely with the creaminess of the dairy.

1 large, hard apple or firm pear

fromage frais or thick yoghurt

whole rolled oats

Coarsely grate the apple. You want to make sure not to lose the juices, so either grate it directly over your bowl, or if you have a box grater, get the hang of grating the apple over a chopping board and sliding it into the bowl without ever lifting the grater, so that the juices are trapped and transported inside it. Add yoghurt and oats. I tend to use more or less equal volumes of yoghurt, fruit and oats, but other proportions work too – whatever you feel like. Mix, eat. And you’re off.

- Naomi