Mushroom Oat Lugaw by Zosima Sewell - 5 Amazing Cheap Recipes From Pro Chefs to Sustain in Lockdown

This piece was written by our Community Ambassador, Food publisher, writer and advocate Riaz Phillips. You can find out more about Riaz here

At the start of the first COVID-19 lockdown when news began to trickle out that the communities that were being negatively impacted the most were the ones closest to me, I wanted to do something positive that helped those in need and at the same time shone a positive light on underrepresented food cultures in the UK.

The result was Community Comfort, an incredible array of recipes inspired by a global palette of cuisines. The following recipes are a handful that I have picked due to their ease to make, relatively cheap ingredients and for how long each cook can last especially given these winter days!

Mushroom Out Lugaw
Mushroom Oat Lugaw


Recipe Two
Mushroom Oat Lugaw by Zosima Sewell

I have never actually had a savoury oats dish in my life so when Zosima donated this Mushroom oat Lugaw inspired by her Filipino heritage we had to try it. We were blown away, not only by its simplicity but the variety of flavours packed in. Not only that but a 1kg bag of oats can be really cheap and stored for a long time so this dish is perfect for breakfast, lunch or a snack. 
 

Method

  1. Before you start make sure you have a boiled egg ready and if you are using dried mushrooms- soak it in a bit of hot water or hot stock for at least 20 mins as this will be added to the Lugaw when cooking for flavour. Ignore this if you are using Porcini powder. 
     
  2. In a small sauce pan fry your mushrooms with a little bit of oil until they are brown. Once cooked, take out of the pan and keep to one side. 
     
  3. Add your chopped garlic and onion into the pan. When you start to smell your garlic cooking, add half the sliced ginger. Sauté for a minute or so. 
     
  4. Now add your Oats, mixing the onion garlic and ginger mixture well, before topping with stock. Add your Porcini powder/ soaked Porcini mushrooms/Mushroom stock in the pan too. Turn the heat down and stir the oats, adding water if you feel it is too dry. This won’t take long to cook so keep an eye on the oats as it will only take about 10-15 mins to cook. 
     
  5. Once the oats are cooked take off the heat and assemble.
     
  6. Put half of the cooked mushrooms in and the other half of sliced ginger into the pan and mix. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed. 
     
  7. In a bowl, put your Lugaw in and top with your soft-boiled egg, leftover mushrooms and garnishes of your choice. I love spice so a splash of chilli oil is recommended and crispy onions for texture! 
     

Ingredients

Serves one (V)

Handful of Chestnut mushrooms 

1 egg (soft boiled)
90g of oats
400ml of hot stock
Dried Porcini mushrooms or 1 tsp Porcini

Garnish

Chopped spring onion
Dried crispy onion Chilli oil
Toasted sesame seeds 

With food poverty unfortunately on the rise, at the moment, it’s very understandable that affordability is a shifting scale given the uncertainty of COVID-19. Spark & Co has a host of resources for financial support including a variety of food banks and monetary aides that are searchable by gender, age, region location and Ethnic background or race.

You can read Riaz's next recipe Coco Granola by Kindima Bah here.