Vegan overnight oats make a delicious, easy and filling vegan breakfast that takes very little effort to make. Just soak the oats overnight in your favorite non-dairy milk, add a few ingredients in the morning, and you’ve got a yummy and versatile plant-based breakfast.
No-cook overnight oats have been all the rage in the blogosphere in the recent years. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of gorgeous overnight oat concoctions on Pinterest and social media.
I’ll tell you a secret, however: I’ve been eating this stuff for over half of my life, since middle school, long before overnight oats became trendy.
To this day non-dairy overnight oatmeal is my default breakfast for those mornings when I don’t feel like making anything complicated.
Today I’ll share with you four delicious ways I love making my vegan overnight oats, and a few tips on getting them just right.
More oatmeal recipes: see my easy Instant Pot steel cut oatmeal and stovetop blueberry steel cut oatmeal recipes.
When I first started making overnight oats for breakfast before school, I used the same combination of ingredients: rolled oats soaked in water, walnuts, raisins, and a spoonful of honey (that was before I went vegan). Sometimes I ‘splurged’ by adding a splash of milk to my bowl in the morning.
Sounds boring? Not for me – I ate this version of overnight oats literally every morning for at least six or seven years! I guess I’m just immune to flavor boredom…
Those days have passed, and even though I still make overnight oats for breakfast at least 2-3 times a week, I’ve changed the recipe to make it even healthier, and found a few additional ingredients that “jazz up” the flavor and let me have a different version of this oatmeal every time.
Ingredients of My Vegan Overnight Oats + Flavor Variations
To make 1 serving:
1/2 cup rolled oats, preferably organic
1 cup non-dairy milk of choice, or enough to cover the oats
1/2 tsp chia seeds (optional)
1 Tbsp unsalted nuts of choice
2 Tbsp dried fruit of choice
1/2 tsp coconut flakes (optional)
1/4 – 1/2 tsp light miso paste OR 1-2 Tbsp plain non-dairy yogurt (optional, adds probiotics and enzymes)
1 tsp maple or agave syrup (optional)
Pinch cinnamon
Flavor Variation Add-ons:
Chocolate Overnight Oats:
1 tsp cocoa powder
1 Tbsp cacao nibs OR small vegan chocolate chips
Pumpkin Pie Overnight Oats:
1-2 Tbsp canned pumpkin puree
Dash nutmeg
Dash allspice
Green “Swamp Monster” Overnight Oats:
1/2 tsp wheatgrass and/or spirulina powder (for omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids)
Directions
In the Evening:
Add rolled oats into a bowl. Stir in chia seeds (if using).
Pour milk over the oats, enough to make the contents of the bowl soupy. You may need more than 1 cup of milk. A lot of the liquid will be absorbed by the oats overnight.
Cover the bowl, put it in the fridge for the night.
Note: You can use equal parts of milk and water to cut on calories, or use just water if you’re out of milk.
In the Morning:
Take the oats out of the fridge. If they look too dry, add a splash of milk or water.
Mix in the rest of the ingredients, including the additional ones if you’re making one of the flavor variations. Plain version (without the additional ingredients) is just as good.
Taste and adjust the flavor to your liking if needed. Enjoy!
Tips for Making the Best Vegan Overnight Oats
Measurements Are Optional
Like any genius recipe that you make on a whim, my overnight oats don’t have set-in-stone amounts of each ingredient.
In the recipe below you’ll see the approximate amounts I usually put into my oats, but you can use more (or less) to your taste.
Any Non-Dairy Milk Will Do
You can use any non-dairy milk you have on hand. I used almond milk for many years, but our family has switched to oat milk in the recent years.
I don’t recommend using canned coconut milk, however: it’s too thick to soften the oats properly, plus it will give your overnight oatmeal a way higher fat content.
No milk on hand? Use filtered water! Oatmeal made with water might be not as filling, but it still counts as a healthy breakfast.
Sweetener Is Optional
By sweetener I mean maple or agave syrup, coconut or brown sugar, honey (if you aren’t vegan), etc.
You want your oats on the sweeter side, but if you’re adding a lot of dried fruit or other sweet mix-ins, feel free to skip the extra sweetener.
I used to add a teaspoon of agave or maple syrup to my overnight oatmeal, but it seems like my taste buds are changing towards liking less sweet stuff, so I don’t add syrup anymore.
Add Probiotics for Gut Health
I’m talking about breakfast-friendly probiotics like non-dairy yogurt or miso paste.
Adding them to your cold oatmeal is an easy way to add gut-friendly probiotics and enzymes to your breakfast.
While the idea of adding yogurt is pretty straightforward, adding miso paste will probably seem odd to you if you’ve never tried it.
In fact, I can see that most people aren’t going to like miso in their overnight oats: it’s salty and hard to dissolve, so you end up with little chunks of saltiness in your otherwise sweet oatmeal.
But think of it this way: we add salt to cookie batter and even caramel to bring out their sweetness. This is why miso paste in your oats may actually help them taste better.
Go Beyond Rolled Oats If You’d Like
Rolled oats work best for overnight oats, but you can also use the instant variety – or even steel-cut oats.
Believe it or not, but those hard steel cut oat grains get softer if you soak them overnight.
However, you’ll need to play around with proportions to get a decent-sized bowl of oatmeal: add too much, and it’s too filling; use too little, and your bowl of oats will look like a ramekin of oats 😄
Speed Up the Soaking Time
The biggest secret of all: overnight oats don’t have to be soaked overnight!
In fact, you can speed up the soaking time of your overnight oats without using any tricks. As long as you soak them for 30-40 minutes, they’ll taste just as good as oats soaked overnight.
Lately I’ve been forgetting to soak them the night before. When that happens, I soak them in the morning, then go for a 30-40 min run, and when I came back, they’re soaked perfectly.
The only exception is steel-cut oats: those guys have to be soaked overnight, the longer, the better.
And now – the recipe! Use these guidelines to make the basic plain version of overnight oats, or add pumpkin puree, cocoa powder, or even spirulina/wheatgrass for a Swamp Monster Oatmeal! (Never heard of Swamp Monster-style breakfast? Check out my Swamp Monster Smoothie recipe.)
Easy Vegan Overnight Oats Recipe: 4 Flavor Options
Easy vegan overnight oats make a delicious, easy and filling breakfast that will bring lots of nutrition to your mornings. Make the basic plain version, or use additional mix-in ingredients to make chocolate, pumpkin pie, or green "Swamp Monster" no-cook oatmeal.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup organic rolled oats*
- 1 cup non-dairy milk of choice (see tips above), or enough to cover the oats
- 1/2 tsp chia seeds (optional)
- 1 Tbsp unsalted nuts of choice**
- 2 Tbsp dried fruit of choice***
- 1/2 tsp coconut flakes (optional)
- 1/4 - 1/2 tsp light miso paste OR plain non-dairy yogurt (optional, adds probiotics and enzymes)
- 1 tsp maple or agave syrup (optional)
- Pinch cinnamon
For Chocolate Oats:
- 1 tsp cocoa powder
- 1 Tbsp cacao nibs OR small vegan chocolate chips
For Pumpkin Pie Oats:
- 1-2 Tbsp canned pumpkin puree
- Dash nutmeg
- Dash allspice
For Green "Swamp Monster" Oats:
- 1/2 tsp wheatgrass and/or spirulina powder****
Instructions
In the Evening:
- Add oats to a bowl, stir in chia seeds (if using). Pour milk over the oats, enough to make the contents of the bowl soupy (you may need more than 1 cup of milk). A lot of the liquid will be absorbed by the oats overnight.
- Cover the bowl, put it in the fridge for the night. Note: You can use equal parts of milk and water to cut on calories, or use just water if you're out of milk.
In the Morning:
- Take the oats out of the fridge. If they look too dry, add a splash of milk or water.
- Mix in the rest of the ingredients, including the additional ones if you're making one of the flavor variations. Plain version (without the additional ingredients) is just as good.
- Taste and adjust the flavor to your liking if needed. Enjoy!
Notes
*Feel free to up the amount of oats to 2/3 cup if desired.
**Nuts or seeds that work well in overnight oats: chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, pumpkin seeds, etc.
***Dried fruit options: raisins, cranberries, cherries, apricots, prunes, etc.
****Spirulina contains omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, plus it has all essential amino acids (protein building blocks). It adds a bright green color to your bowl of overnight oats - the reason I call this flavor variation a green "Swamp Monster".
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
1Serving Size:
1 bowlAmount Per Serving: Calories: 647Total Fat: 20gSaturated Fat: 7gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 11gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 179mgCarbohydrates: 100gFiber: 13gSugar: 37gProtein: 23g
Please note that the provided nutritional information data is approximate - it will vary depending on the toppings and mix-ins you add.
I hope you enjoy my vegan overnight oats as much as I do!
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Laura
Sunday 17th of December 2017
Dr Greger likes powdered chlorella but not powdered spirulena which contains toxins.