‘Comfort in a bowl’: porridge enjoys a renaissance as fibremaxxers and nostalgia drive demand

At 26 Grains, a porridge-focused restaurant in central London, this month's special is a five-grain bowl topped with fig and red grape jam and a dollop of whipped cream. Across town at Oatis in west London, the toppings run from caramelised banana and tahini to mushrooms and pesto. The clocks go back in the UK this weekend, and the dish long taken as the sign of winter's arrival is having a second life.

Porridge has been a staple for centuries, traditionally made from oats, water and a pinch of salt or sugar. What is changing is the ambition of the bowl. On social media, recipe creators are trying miso versions and toppings such as sour cherry and pistachio butter. Two forces are credited with driving the revival: a growing movement built around fibre, and plain nostalgia.

The numbers at the shop-shelf level point the same way. Searches for organic jumbo oats at Ocado are up 98% year on year, and sales of White's jumbo oats are up 56%.

The fibre movement goes by the name "fibremaxxing". Protein mania is not slowing down, but more people are now trying to raise their fibre intake. The NHS recommends adults eat 30g a day, yet the British Dietetic Association says the average is only 18g. Oats supply soluble fibre, which is essential for gut health and can help reduce cholesterol. So some people who might once have reached for protein-rich eggs are going back to porridge.

Alex Hely-Hutchinson, founder of 26 Grains, calls porridge "comfort in a bowl" and says it offers a "moment for pause in a busy world". Most people also already know how to make it. She blends jumbo and rolled oats for creaminess with rye, barley and malted wheat for texture and "a slight fermented note". Other recipes drop oats entirely for rice, amaranth or quinoa. Her own preference is softer porridge, made the way her mother made it. "It all depends on the person," she says, likening it to how much Marmite someone spreads on toast.

Hedié Rhodes, founder of Husk & Honey in south London, the UK's first dedicated cereals bakery, points to personalisation as the spark. Her brand began in 2015 with granola and now sells porridge blends too, with cinnamon bark and cranberry and a spiced apple version among the bestsellers. "You can make a big pan of it and everyone in the family can still have a different style," she says. Alex Hayes, co-founder of the food innovation studio Harris and Hayes, likens porridge to salads and smoothies: a canvas for toppings suited to particular tastes and nutritional needs, from nut butters to functional additions like psyllium husk.

On the Isle of Skye, Café Cùil serves a "wee porridge" of pinhead oats soaked overnight in oat milk. Founder Clare Coghill, a chef and writer, finishes it with seasonal toppings, currently hazelnut praline brittle and poached pears. Coghill recently tasted 86 bowls as a judge at the world porridge-making championship in the Scottish Highlands. She says purists favour coarser pinhead, or steel-cut, oats over softer rolled ones, because they were the original oats and a way of celebrating Scottish heritage. Her advice against gloopiness is to warm the pot slowly and keep the spurtle moving.

The next step is beyond breakfast. Hely-Hutchinson says customers get annoyed when porridge is not available after 3pm. Hayes expects more savoury options inspired by Chinese congee and Indian kitchari, made with yellow split mung beans. Rhodes compares oats to wheat, saying bakers are only now exploring their potential. The one drawback, the piece notes, is washing up the pan.