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Vegan Overnight Oats Your Way

Spend 10 minutes pre-mixing these on the weekend and you'll have a tasty, nutritious, and filling breakfast ready when you need it. Every and all ingredients are optional: just make these vegan overnight oats your way!
Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Course batch, Breakfast, Prep-friendly
Servings 1 serving

Ingredients
  

Dry ingredients - batched

  • 1/3 to 1/2 cup rolled oats Quick oats are OK too. You can even explore other bases: rolled flakes of wheat, rye, or barley also soften overnight. Steel-cut oats will probably not soften enough however.
  • 1/2 to 2 Tbsp chia seeds If you like the taste of ground flax seeds, you can use them instead, but probably no more than 1 Tbsp.
  • 1 to 3 Tbsp nuts (chopped) or seeds Almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pumpkin seeds, hemp seeds, the choice is yours!
  • 1 to 2 Tbsp dried fruit Raising, goji berries, blueberries, even dried mango works!
  • 1 to 2 tsp dry sweetener (optional) It's better to add a whole date to your home-made plant milk (see below), but in a pinch brown sugar or erythritol will work.
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon Adventurous oat lovers may also want to try adding a little turmeric and dry ginger. Start with 1/4 tsp of both, in addition to cinnamon, and go from there.
  • small pinch salt

Wet ingredients - added to each portion 8-48 hours before serving

  • 3/4 cup plant milk Blend your own, using 1/4 cup cup nuts, seeds, cooked rice or oats per cup of water, plus 1/2 pitted date per cup. No need to strain the milk to use in your overnight oats, you won't notice or mind the difference.

Instructions
 

On the weekend or least 8 hours before breakfast

  • If you have enough small jars, prep individual portions (buffet style) by lining up your containers and adding all DRY ingredients to the jars in turn. Cover jars with airtight lids and stack on the countertop or somewhere you won't forget about them.
  • To prep all your portions together, multiply all DRY ingredients by the number of servings you need and mix in a large airtight container. Cover with lid. If you have a spare measuring scoop, leave it in the container to make the process even faster.
  • If you plan on eating this the next day, don't forget to move to the next step immediately!

The night before

  • If working from a big container, shake well to make sure ingredients are distributed then scoop out 2/3 cup of the mixture into your individual portion container.
  • Pouring slowly, add plant milk to your single-portion container. Shake or stir gently if needed to help the milk fall to the bottom. Fill all the way to the top and cover with an airtight lid.
  • If you are absolutely certain you will eat your overnight oats within 12 hours, you can leave them on the countertop. Otherwise, refrigerate.

Breakfast time!

  • The overnight oats are ready to eat after 8 hours. After 6 they will be edible but still a bit firm.
  • Enjoy at room temperature or warmed up for 1 minute on high in the microwave oven. If you have time to transfer to a larger bowl to stir, that's great. Some like to add a little extra water before reheating.
  • If you hope to eat overnight oats again tomorrow, add plant milk to your next jar right away and refrigerate.

If you forgot to soak ovrenight

  • If you forgot to soak overnight, you can transfer to a larger bowl, add the liquid, stir well, and cook in the microwave oven on high for 4-5 minutes.

Notes

Variations

Every and all ingredient in this recipe template is optional and can be substituted... although if you change every one of them you'll end up with something like curry at some point. Nothing wrong with that. Use your judgement!
You can make this with cooked rice or quinoa, however you'll have to keep the mixture refrigerated the whole time. Eat within 3-4 days of cooking the rice or quinoa. If you have a dehydrator, you can dry your cooked rice or quinoa completely and use as "instant rice" or "instant quinoa" as you would the rolled oats.