Bask & Co Porridge
Posted: April 19, 2024 Updated: October 28, 2024
As part of celebrating Bask & Co launching in Woolworths Metro around the country I’m going to review their oat-free porridge. I’m always doing reviews of gluten free products but it’s not every day that I see a product I know coeliacs are desperate to know more about.
Why are they desperate to know about gluten free porridge? Well, for many many years (actually decades), oats were considered not suitable for a coeliac following a gluten free diet.
Bask & Co have supplied me with their products at no cost (gifted). In return I’ve offered to review some of their range. As always, my views are my own – and absolutely honest!
In 2023 Coeliac Australia changed their position on oats, so coeliacs may now consider undertaking a medically supervised oat challenge. It’s a long process and one that costs a bit of money with pre- and post-scope testing recommended.
A lot of folks aren’t keen to do that, and that is absolutely fair, it’s a very individual decision!
This post contains affiliate links, if you choose to buy I may earn a small commission. It’s not much, it doesn’t cost you any extra, and it helps me afford to run Kati Keksi.
Oat alternatives on the market that are gluten free
There’s a few oat alternative options on the market, with different ones used depending on what you’re doing, like making a bowl of porridge or doing a bit of baking.
Rice flakes have been around for a long time, however the biggest retailer Forbidden Foods stopped selling them and there’s been a big hole in the market. Happy Tummies bought up the last of their stock but that’s already been exhausted.
Orgran makes a range of porridge using quinoa that comes in plain, bush honey and berry. I’ve got their honey flavour in the cupboard, I thought it would be rolled quinoa flakes but it’s not. Looking at the ingredients it’s a combination of rice flour, pea flour, and then quinoa flour at just 11% 🤔.
If you’ve had a good look around the cereal aisle you may have come across the brand Bob’s Red Mill. They make three different hot cereal products, brown rice, buckwheat and a blend using rice, corn, sorghum and buckwheat.
Preparing Bask & Co porridge
A small flyer was included with my parcel, it’s got tips to get the perfect porridge consistency. One tip is soaking the porridge mix with liquid (water or milk) for five to ten minutes. This helps to soften the rice flakes to give a “fluffier consistency.”
I’m definitely not a fan of hard rice flakes (ask me about Qantas granola in the 2010s some time 😅) so I’m going to give a full ten minute soaking before cooking.
Like with oats you can cook on the stove top for three or four minutes over a low heat. You can also put it in the microwave for 90 seconds, with additional 30 second bursts to get to your desired consistency.
I’m going to microwave the porridge, read on and you’ll see why.
The taste
I’m doing something a bit different here, not only will I review the Bask & Co porridge, I’ll compare the taste and consistency with what we’ve got in the cupboard.
At home we’ve got Orgran bush honey quinoa porridge and we’ve got some regular oats. Reviewer two, my husband, will sample the oats to give some feedback.
Orgran straight out of the microwave got the following dialogue.
“Smells like porridge.”
“Looks a bit gross.”
“Yeah….”
There’s an aroma that is perhaps honey from the ingredients. The flavour is alright, you can pick up a bit of cinnamon and honey and it’s not particularly sweet. This is a prepackaged, pre-portioned product, so you’re often stuck with the amount of sugar the company adds in.
And the texture? It has a really gelatinous mouth feel, I can’t think of any other way to describe it. My husband said it reminds him of overcooked pasta.
Bask & Co took a bit of extra cooking, after 90 seconds the rice flakes are still too chewy for my liking. After another 30 seconds and some extra liquid I got it to my ideal porridge consistency.
The thing I noticed when I opened the packet and when I got the bowl out of the microwave is the slightly earthy smell, I grabbed a bag of quinoa from the cupboard it smells the same so that makes sense.
The consistency is pretty similar to oats, particularly to traditional oats (rather than quick oats), the individual grains are visible and there’s a chewiness to the rice flakes which is similar how whole oat porridge turns out. There’s a slight graininess in the mouthfeel, but it’s very fine, perhaps from the almond.
Oh and it’s definitely not gelatinous 😂.
I asked my husband for his thoughts, he said that is has “a nice rice porridge vibe” and that it’s “not very sweet which is good, you can always fine tune it.”
I’ll clarify here that he’s referring to Finnish rice porridge (riispuuro) a breakfast dish which is not at all sweet.
Regular oats (not gluten free) took a lot of extra cooking compared to the instructions, well actually it just said cook to desired texture. We did an extra 60 seconds. What I realised after a few stirs was that these were not quick oats. That’s actually handy as I think will provide a truer comparison to the Bask & Co.
I tried to get some comparison notes from my husband but he said it was hard, they “are two completely different things, oat porridge and rice porridge.” However, I think his perspective is somewhat unique. Being Finnish he’s grown up with rice porridge as it’s own breakfast item alongside oat porridge.
The Tiny tot taste
Since our daughter joined in on the range of porridges I thought I’d include her as the littlest food critic.
At first I thought we were on to something, she tried the Orgran and there wasn’t much of a reaction. She tried the Bask & Co next and we got applause! Success!
However she also clapped for the oats, and then for every spoonful after that no matter what it was.
Maybe it was just a clapping mood 😅.
The upgrade
It wouldn’t be a Kati Keksi review without a bit of an upgrade! I realised something while comparing the different porridges. I never really ate plain oats, so my memories weren’t giving me a fair comparison.
Porridge for me is something to be topped with fruit, usually berries, and some kind of peanut butter. So I came back and made another bowl of Bask & Co porridge to give a solo review with how I’d actually eat it.
Upgraded thoughts.
Naturally it tastes a lot better set up with toppings. When I had it plain I could definitely taste the subtle earthiness of the quinoa. But with everything on top it’s not as noticeable.
By the time I’ve got peanut butter and fruit on my spoon I’m not really noticing that it isn’t oat porridge.
I also prepared this bowl differently, making it on the stove top. It came together quite quickly, maybe five minutes? Like when I made it in the microwave it became gluggy / thick after sitting for a few minutes. I added boiling water (maybe 50mL) to get it back to a softer consistency.
If you want a really technical texture description I’d say this, it starts out soft and creamy like oats, there’s a bit of chew in pieces of rice flakes depending on how well they’re cooked.
The finish, and it varies between mouthfuls, is somewhat grainy (the almond?). I think the varying factor was what toppings were in that spoonful. I’m not saying it’s big negative, but if you’re going in thinking it will be exactly like oat porridge then it’s not.
One other thing, it’s suuuuper filling. Even though the serve looks a little small when you pour out the dry mix, it is definitely enough.
A thought on pricing
Bask & Co’s GF porridge costs between $14.95 and $15.95 depending on where you buy. It feels like a lot initially, but then I thought well how much do I spend on my current breakfast?
There’s ten serves to a pack in the porridge, so that’s around $1.60 per serve. I eat Chobani yoghurt (or the Aldi knock-off) every day, so I’m paying about $1.80 each morning.
I know oats (full of gluten) are cheap as, but depending on what your morning routine is like, you might already be spending a similar amount to me!
The verdict
It works! If I had a choice between Bask & Co and Orgran it’s a no brainer, this is WAY way nicer.
The price difference is hard though, the Orgran comes in at about 63 cents a serve. But if texture is your priority, you’ll go for Bask & Co.
Will I keep eating this? Time will tell, I’m pretty firmly in the yoghurt for breakfast routine. I’ve been having yoghurt every morning for six, maybe seven years (since I met my husband). I do it mainly for the protein boost.
Granola on the other hand, that goes on my yoghurt every day. So keep an eye out, I may just review the Bask & Co granolas as well 😊.
Where to buy Bask & Co products
Bask & Co have more than just gluten free porridge, they also make three flavours of granola (caramel coffee, dark chocolate and almond coconut) and a few granola bars.
You can buy their cereals in person at Woolworths Metro stores around the country, Bask & Co have a page with their stockists.
If you’re in to online shopping you can purchase through Happy Tummies (handy if you’re buying other GF products) or from Bask & Co directly – I’ve got a discount code for 20% off, just use GFG20 at checkout.
PRODUCT DETAILS
Gluten free: Legit, not detected
Vegetarian / vegan: Vegan.
Allergens: Almond. May contain: Peanut, cashew, walnut, sesame, lupin, egg, milk.
Serving size: 10 serves.
Hungry for more breakfast options? Check out some of my other cereal reviews or perhaps a few breakfast recipes.