In Colombia an oat drink that comes creamy out of the pot will be pudding by morning. The starch gelatinises while it cooks and keeps reorganising as it chills, so the drink has to be made looser than you want to serve it: at 53 g of oats per litre of liquid it looks almost watery hot and comes out of the fridge creamy. Four glasses at 265 calories.
How do you make Colombian avena fría? Blend ⅞ cup of rolled oats with 2 cups of cold water for 30 seconds. Heat 4 cups of milk with cinnamon, cloves and panela, pour in the oats while stirring and cook 4 minutes. Chill 2 hours and loosen with cold milk if needed. 10 minutes for 4 glasses.
The ratio, and why it looks too thin
Oat starch absorbs water and swells as it heats, and that is what thickens the drink. But the process does not stop when you turn off the heat: as it cools, the starch chains reorganise and keep trapping liquid for hours.
That is why the right ratio looks stingy while you are cooking. At 53 g of oats per litre of liquid — the 80 g of this recipe in a litre and a half — the pot stays almost watery and the fridge does the rest. At 80 g per litre you would have a good drink hot and a pudding the next day.
If it does set too far, loosen it with cold milk rather than water. Water thins the flavour along with the texture.
Which oats, and why you blend them
Blending rolled oats with cold water for 30 seconds does exactly what shop-bought oat flour does, and in Colombia that flour costs 15 to 25% more per kilo than the flakes.
Quick oats work with 20 seconds of blending and about three quarters of the quantity. Steel-cut oats need a 2-hour soak first and taste nuttier, though they want straining afterwards.
The one kind to avoid is instant oats: precooked and very fine, they make the drink gummy rather than creamy.
How it differs from its relatives
This is a drink, not a spoonable breakfast, which is why the oats are blended before cooking and spend only 4 minutes on the heat. Overnight oats start from the same grain and land at the opposite end, with no heat and a spoon.
Straining is optional. Blended for 30 seconds the oats are fine enough not to notice; if you want the texture of the corner shops in Colombia, pass it through a fine sieve before chilling.
Where the time goes
One minute of blending, 5 of heating the milk with the spices, 4 of cooking and 2 hours in the fridge. The cinnamon and cloves go in from the start, since their aromatic compounds need time and heat to move into the milk.
Make it ahead
It keeps 3 days covered in the fridge and thickens a little each day, which is a feature rather than a fault: loosen each glass with cold milk as you pour it. It is a better make-ahead than most drinks precisely because the flavour improves as the cinnamon settles in. What it does not take is freezing — the starch separates and never comes back together.
What goes wrong
Making it creamy while hot. It turns to pudding in the fridge.
Stopping the stirring during the 4 minutes. The starch catches on the base in under a minute.
Boiling the milk hard. It splits and leaves lumps.
Loosening it with water. It thins the flavour as well as the texture; use cold milk.
Using instant oats. Precooked, they make the drink gummy.
Variations
With condensed milk. Two tablespoons in place of the panela, creamier and sweeter.
With coconut. Swap ¾ cup of the milk for coconut milk.
With nutmeg. A grating at the end, the Caribbean habit.
Dairy-free. With almond milk, lighter, at about 180 calories a glass.
What to serve it with
This is mid-morning, corner-shop food and it is filling: an 8-oz glass is 265 calories, so it works as a light breakfast with a Colombian cheese arepa alongside.
Among the house’s cold drinks, Colombian lemonade with condensed milk is its opposite — refreshing rather than filling — soursop juice is the fruit one, and aguapanela with lime is the simplest of them all. After a proper breakfast, it follows Colombian calentado well.
Frequently asked questions
Why did mine come out so thick? The starch keeps thickening as it chills. Make it looser than you want it and loosen with cold milk.
Do I have to strain it? No. Blended 30 seconds it is smooth enough; strained, it matches the corner-shop version.
Can I use instant oats? They turn it gummy. If it is all you have, use three quarters of the amount and skip the blending.
How long does it keep? Three days covered in the fridge, thickening a little each day.
Can I make it without milk? Yes, with almond or oat milk: lighter, and around 180 calories a glass.
Nutrition
Per 8-oz glass, a quarter of the jug, calculated from each ingredient according to the USDA SR Legacy database:
- Calories: 265 kcal
- Protein: 11 g
- Carbohydrates: 33 g, 20 g of it sugar
- Fat: 10 g, 5 g of it saturated
- Fibre: 2 g
- Sodium: 115 mg
Whole milk accounts for most of the calories and nearly all the fat; the oats contribute 311 kcal across the whole jug according to the USDA, and the panela about 114. With semi-skimmed milk and two thirds of the panela, a glass lands near 205 calories and is still creamy.
In Colombian corner shops it comes in a plastic cup with plenty of ice, and it is always thicker than the homemade version because it has been sitting in the fridge for hours. That is exactly the thing to plan for: the batch that turns out right is the one that looks too thin in the pot. Josnaisis.