Vegan blogger is the queen of oat cuisine

THE world’s porridge-making championships have been won by a vegan food blogger who hails from the Netherlands.

The annual competition, traditionally held in Carrbridge, Invernessshire, has been run virtually since the pandemic hit last year.

Miriam Groot, 25, who writes a blog called The Veggie Reporter, was crowned the winner of the Virtual Spurtle 2021, with her oat arancini. She used pinhead oatmeal in place of rice, combined with mushrooms, white wine, vegetable stock, lemon zest and pepper, before being rolled in breadcrumbs.

Those taking part were asked to submit videos of themselves making a favourite oat dish. The ‘Porridge Committee’ then judged dishes on presentation and originality before choosing ones they wanted to try.

The top ten winners included two Americans, two Australians, one from Germany, two from England and one from Scotland.

Coinneach MacLeod, known as the Hebridean Baker, was joint runnerup with Aaron Leung from New Jersey, in the US.