This Savory Baked Oatmeal with Bacon, Mushrooms & Caramelized Onions is an amazingly hearty breakfast. For a vegetarian/vegan option, simply omit the bacon!
This recipe is 100% inspired by the food photography retreat I attended over Memorial Day Weekend. I’ve never been a fan of sweets for breakfasts so I was delighted when we were served savory oatmeal and savory french toast. I knew I wanted to recreate the oatmeal as soon as I got home. Savory oatmeal is the best, you guys. It’s my new thing and I don’t understand why it’s not a thing everywhere. It should be.
You can bake this oatmeal in any oven safe dish- a skillet, a dutch oven, even a brownie pan will work. Just try to use something that’s reasonably close to 12 inches in diameter to keep the cooking times accurate.
Savory Baked Oatmeal with Bacon, Mushrooms and Caramelized Onions
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
- 2 medium yellow onions, sliced into thin half moons (approximately 4 cups)
- 3 slices thick cut hickory smoked bacon, diced
- 3 cups shiitake mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cups water
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 2 tablespoons packed fresh parsley, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (see note)
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over low heat. Add the onions and a pinch of salt. Have a measuring cup full of water nearby. Cook the onions, stirring frequently, until they begin to brown. Turn up the heat to medium and continue caramelizing the onions, allowing a glaze to develop on the bottom of the pan. Add a few tablespoons of water and scrape up the brown bits, incorporating them into the onions. The heat will cause the water to evaporate. Repeat this process until the onions have turned a dark brown color and are both bitter and sweet in flavor, approximately 20 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.
- In the same pan (or a different pan if you’re cooking multiple dish components at once), cook the bacon over medium-low heat to render out the fat. Once the fat has mostly melted down, turn up the heat and brown the bacon until it's caramelized and crunchy, approximately 5 minutes. Set aside to drain on a paper towel. Remove all but two tablespoons of the bacon fat from the pan. Add the sliced shiitake mushrooms and cook over medium heat until soft but slightly chewy, approximately 3-5 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. In a medium saucepan, bring the 2 cups of water to a boil and then add the steel cut oats and reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook until the liquid has completely absorbed, approximately 8-10 minutes (this will take less time than normal steel cut oats since it’s a smaller water ratio).
- Lightly grease a 12-inch skillet or casserole dish. In a large bowl, stir together the cooked oats, caramelized onions, bacon, mushrooms, parsley, salt and pepper. Gently press flat into the prepared baking dish. Baked for 10-12 minutes, or until the top has browned slightly.
Notes
Please read my full post for additional recipe notes, tips, and serving suggestions!
Nutrition
Recipe Troubleshooting
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Yessss. This looks delicious and familiar! Hope I win because I really need one of these gorgeous pans :)
Savory oatmeal is pretty genius!
I postiively adore my Lodge Cast iron cookware – and this is beautiful set against that cobalt blue! I’m off to search their site, I foresee gorgeous things!!
I have never had savory oatmeal before. I don’t know why, but it kind of scares me. That being said, I much prefer a savory breakfast too, so I should probably give it a try.
When I first read about savory oatmeal I didn’t like the sound of it at all and probably wouldn’t have tried it had it not been served to me. But that’s when I fell in love with it. I don’t think it would be good at all with regular rolled oats; it needs steel cut oats for texture. But it’s kind of like savory grits. It works!
I love the idea of a savory baked oatmeal. And I love, love, LOVE my Lodge Cast Iron cookware!!
I love the idea of savory oatmeal! Gorgeous cookware!
What a paradigm shift. Savory Oatmeal. I need to try this!
I’ve never tried savory oatmeal, I’m looking forward to trying the recipe it looks/sounds delicious
Savory Oatmeal, this looks interesting! I wonder if the onions could be left off or cut back considerably, but then again, I have had onions in breakfast casseroles before……will just have to give it a try. Would love to win the MightyNest cookware!
You could definitely cut them back or omit them. I think they add a really wonderful flavor to the dish so I would leave in some or maybe find a similar substitute.
Thanks for this recipe. Although the idea is a little unusual it’s completely delicious. I added a little chicken stock powder to the oatmeal as it was on the hob, drained all but a tiny bit of bacon fat when cooking the mushrooms (low cholesterol diet) and combined the oatmeal with the bacon and vegetables in the frying pan to get as much flavour as possible. The result was great. My wife who is Canadian Born Chinese said it reminded her of sticky rice in the leaf from dim sum and I’m sure you could use Chinese sausage and dried mushrooms for an alternative version or even a vegetarian version with a variety of mushrooms and thyme. Anyway give it a try you will enjoy it.
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed it!