The 20-Minute Table
76

Mango & Coconut Sticky Oats

One Pan Thai Serves 45 prep · 10 cook Vegetarian 15min

Mango sticky rice, rebuilt with oats so it comes together in ten minutes rather than an hour of soaking and steaming.

Why it works

Coconut milk added at the start would split and go grainy over a long simmer, so the oats cook in salted water first and the coconut goes in off the heat, where it stays glossy. Holding back a third of it to pour over cold at the table gives you the two-temperature contrast that makes the original dish work.

Method

  1. Toast the coconut flakes and sesame seeds in a dry saucepan over a medium heat for 2 minutes, shaking constantly, until the coconut is patchy gold. Tip them onto a plate; left in the hot pan they burn.
  2. Put the oats, water and salt in the same pan, bring to a simmer and cook for 6 minutes, stirring often, until the oats have swollen and a spoon leaves a clear trail across the base.
  3. Off the heat, stir in two thirds of the coconut milk and all the maple syrup and leave to stand for 2 minutes. It thickens as it sits, so loosen with water if it goes claggy.
  4. Slice the cheeks off both mangoes, peel them and cut the flesh into thin fans.
  5. Spoon the oats into four bowls, lay the mango across one half, pour the remaining cold coconut milk down the middle, and scatter with the toasted coconut, sesame and lime zest. Serve with lime wedges.

For the toddler

This one needs very little. Take a spoonful of oats out at the end of step 2, before the maple syrup goes in at step 3, and loosen it with a little of the coconut milk, since the mango does the sweetening. Keep the toasted coconut flakes off their bowl, as dry flakes are awkward to chew, and cut the mango into short strips rather than fans.

How the toddler notes work

Chef’s notes

Swap

Ripe papaya, or roasted peach slices when mangoes are hard. Frozen mango works, thawed in lime juice.

Make it faster

Quick-cook oats drop the simmer to 3 minutes. The texture is looser but the timing halves.

On the side

Jasmine tea, or cucumber slices with salt and lime.

Leftovers

Keeps 3 days chilled and sets firm. Eat it cold, or loosen with milk over a low heat.