Wheat-free Japanese pizza is just a recipe away!

There are two things that you need to know about our Japanese language reporter Go Hatori — he loves 100 yen shops and he loves oatmeal, so much so that he’s considering changing his name to Oatmeal Hatori. Recently, his love of oatmeal has got him experimenting in the kitchen — after all, oatmeal is simple and healthy, and if you blend it up into a powder, you could use it as a substitute for flour (perfect for those with a gluten-free diet!)

But what could he use this oatmeal powder to make? Oatmeal sushi? It’s not the strangest idea for sushi we’ve ever heard… What about oatmeal ramen? Again, we’ve seen less likely combinations. In the end, Go settled on oatmeal okonomiyaki.

You might have heard okonomiyaki referred to as a ‘Japanese-style pizza’ or a ‘Japanese-style pancake’ — whatever you want to call it, it’s comforting and delicious, but usually made using flour. It was here that Go decided to use some oatmeal instead, for a healthier, more nutritious version of okonomiyaki.

▼ What you’ll need

Ingredients
Oatmeal (5 tbsp/30ml)
Water（10tbsp/150ml）
Dashi powder（a little）
Thinly sliced pork（about 70-80g）
Egg (1)
Shredded cabbage (250g)

Add as much or as little of these ingredients as you wish:
Spring onions
Pickled ginger
Shrimp (Sakura shrimp)
Okonomiyaki sauce
Mayonnaise
Bonito flakes
Aonori seaweed flakes

Step one — blend the oatmeal into a powder. Go used his mixer for this.

Step two —  add the dashi powder, egg and water to the blended oatmeal and mix well.

Step three —  mix in the shrimp, spring onions and pickled ginger and mix well.

Step four – mix in the shredded cabbage, a few handfuls at a time to ensure an even coverage.

Step five — add the mixture to a frying pan.

Step six — add the pork on top of the mixture and cover with a lid, cooking on a medium to high heat for five minutes.

Step seven — once the pork is nice and steamed, flip the mixture over and cook it for five minutes on the other side. Transfer it to a plate, add your toppings (mayonnaise, bonito flakes and so on) and you’re done.

▼ Ta-da!

Those of you who are a dab hand in the kitchen may have noticed that the cooking method doesn’t differ too much from that of regular okonomiyaki, but how does it fare taste-wise?

According to Go, the taste is completely the same as that of regular okonomiyaki. The oatmeal acted in the same way as the flour would have done, and Go couldn’t taste any difference at all. Even if you changed the toppings around and used seafood instead of pork, for example, the result would be the same.

▼ And be honest, who wouldn’t take cooking advice from a man who looks like this?

If you want to have a go making this yourself, Go recommends using a smaller pan to fry it in. For reference, Go’s frying pan was around 20 centimeters (7.8 inches) in diameter. A smaller pan will give you a thicker okonomiyaki, and who doesn’t love something thick in your mouth? (yes, that link is safe to click.)

Images: SoraNews24
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