As I was flipping through Let Them Eat Vegan the other day (yup, still obsessed), I came across an interesting way to prepare steel cut oats. Dreena’s “Instant Steel Cut Oats” caught my eye because it claimed I could enjoy a hot bowl of steel cut oats in just minutes.
I love steel cut oats, but I don’t make them often unless I prepare my Make-ahead Steel Cut Oatmeal for several breakfasts worth. It takes a bit of planning in the evening (and planning is so not my forte), but the upside is that the recipe will last for at least a few breakfasts. That is, if I can keep myself from spooning it into my mouth all day and night. Outlook not promising.
With this method, you simply blend the steel cut oats into a flour. Yes, you will lose the chewiness of steel cut oats that us fans tend to love, but by grinding them you slash the cooking time by over 80%! I wouldn’t say this method is for all the time (unless of course you prefer a porridge like consistency), but it’s great in a pinch when you want the nutrition of steel cut oats, but don’t have the time.
Here’s how you make them:
1. Grind the steel cut oats and chia seeds in a high-speed blender.
2. Once the oats and chia seeds are ground into a flour, add them into a pot.
3. Add some almond milk (or milk of your choice).
4. Now stir in some mashed and chopped ripe bananas, vanilla, spices, and sweetener for this batch. My goal was to make an ultra gooey banana bread flavour.
5. Heat this mixture for only about 4-5 minutes! You now have virtually instant steel cut oatmeal with all the nutrition that we love, but in a fraction of the time.
Served with walnuts, raisins, maple syrup, and a touch of shaved chocolate…you are left with a crazy gooey oatmeal that reminds me so much of banana bread batter! It’s to die for. This batch makes a few servings and I should also tell you that it tastes absolutely wonderful straight from the fridge, cold, in a vegan overnight oats sort of way. Serving it chilled is perfect for all these warm mornings we are having lately.
Gooey Banana Bread Batter Instant Steel Cut Oatmeal
Yield
3 servings
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Just like eating a big bowl of gooey banana bread batter, only better for you! If you like gooey, porridge-like breakfasts, you will go crazy for this one.
Inspired by Let Them Eat Vegan.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup steel cut oats, ground into a flour
- 2 tbsp chia seeds
- 2 ripe medium bananas (1 mashed and 1 chopped small)
- 2 1/2 - 3 cups almond milk, as needed
- 2 tbsp pure maple syrup, divided
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of salt & dash nutmeg
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 2 tbsp chopped walnuts, toasted if preferred, for garnish
- 2 tbsp raisins, for garnish
- Shaved dark chocolate, to garnish
Directions
- In a high-speed blender, grind the steel cut oats and chia seeds into a flour. Remove and place into a medium-sized pot.
- Stir in 2.5 cups of the milk and increase the heat to low-medium. Now stir in the mashed banana, the chopped banana, and 1 tbsp of maple syrup. Heat for 4-5 minutes, adding more milk if desired and reducing temperature if necessary.
- Remove from heat and stir in the cinnamon (to taste), a pinch of salt, vanilla, and dash of nutmeg (optional).
- Portion into bowls and top with chopped walnuts, raisins, and 1 tsp of pure maple syrup per bowl.
I encourage you to enjoy it cold, especially during warmer mornings, as I think I liked it even better served cold!
Looking for more oatmeal recipes?
Check out the top 5 most popular oatmeal recipes on my blog.
And if it’s too warm where you are to enjoy a hot bowl of oats, you can try one of my 12 Vegan Overnight Oats parfait recipes which are great on warmer mornings.
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Well, we’re on the cusp of the Victoria Day long weekend here in Canada. Yippee. I don’t know about you guys, but our weather forecast is calling for sunshine all weekend and highs of 26C! Absolutely crazy and unexpected for this time of the year. We’re heading up to the in-laws to spend the entire weekend playing outdoors. I’ll be Instagraming a bit and I might even do a quick blog recap if I get a chance. Cheers to the weekend!
I don’t particularily like regular steel cut oats, but genius idea to grind them! I made a recipe similar to this and it was fab! I am most definately doing it again tomorrow morning. Thanks Angela :)
Wow! This IS delicious. I mixed in some of your homemade almond maple cinnamon butter. Perfect :)
I made this yesterday and had my first bowl this morning. Delicious! I didn’t grind the oats and chia totally into a fine flour, but more of a coarse flour, and it worked just fine. I used my Cuisinart food processor rather than my blender because my blender isn’t very powerful. I highly recommend it!
I love this. You got me hooked on oatmeal but this is my favorite so far. Thank you!
We just made this for our breakfast this morning, and all we can say is wow! It tasted just like banana bread! We thought we’d miss the chewiness of the oats, but we didn’t at all- thanks so much for the recipe!
Glad you enjoyed it!
I am so glad that I have both steel cut oats and bananas on hand. :)
YES! I make a microwave oatmeal with the same basic components but using old-fashioned oats instead. I once tried to use the steel-cut the same way, but it didn’t work so well because of their longer cooking time. But grinding the oats? This solves the problem!!! I just made a batch with applesauce, cinnamon, vanilla, and soy milk and it was perfect. Tomorrow morning I plan to do banana, soy milk, and cocoa….should turn out like a big bowl of brownie batter….mmmmmm!
I was really excited to try. Made it earlier today. It was tasty – but I couldn’t get the consistency right. There seemed to be way too much liquid. Any ideas?
Hey Sarah, Hmm I’m really not sure. Maybe it didn’t cook down long enough? Was anything changed to the recipe?
Amazing! Love your (and Dreena’s?) way of simplifying steel cut oats.
I just wanted to comment that I made the process even faster with this step: instead of grinding the oats into a flour and then adding to a pot with milk, just add the oats with the milk into a blender (Vitamix) and blend! The blending “grinds” the oats into the milk. Then, pour the oat-milk batter into a pot and begin the cooking! Great for those without grain grinders or dry blades :P
I just made this, and it is so delish! It tastes sinful, and just like banana bread batter! I didn’t have any chocolate, so I left it out and I halved the recipe for just me. Turned out perfect, and I didn’t have to wait for the oats to cook the “normal” way. Thanks!
I love this soooo much cold from the fridge. Sometimes I make it for breakfast, eat and hot and put leftovers in the fridge to have for dessert…YUM!
You weren’t kidding about the “batter” part – just made these, they’re delicious! thanks for sharing an easier steel cut oat method. They also seemed more filling than the usual steel cut oats for some reason :)
Also, for anyone who says they don’t have a blender/FP/vitamix/etc, I used a small coffee grinder which worked great and left little mess!
Quick and was delicious! No idea I could pulverize steel cut oats. Thank you for this delightfully delicious recipe!
I love this! In honor of Halloween and Fall I made this with pumpkin puree and spices. It tastes like pumpkin bread batter! Yummy!
WOW!! This dish was fabulous!! So delicious!! Definitely a keeper. Sharing with my group. Thank you!!
I just whipped this up. So genius to grind oats and chia seed into flour! This is absolutely delicous! The wonderful chewiness of steel cut oats creamed with almond milk and banana…yummmm! Love it!
instead of mashing one banana do you think it would make it sweeter to instead blend it in the processor?
also you should make a recipe where you use the blended oats to make a bakedd oatmeal dish!!
what I like to do is just put a 1/2 cup of liquid in a pot on high until it simmers, then add in 1/4 cup steel cut oats, take off heat and cover, then let sit overnight. It lets the oats absorb the liquid so then in the morning you just have to heat them up on the stove real quick and bam! Quick steel cut oats!
I tried this recipe with 1/4 cup quinoa flour and 1/2 cup ground oats, and substituted the nutmeg for ground clove, and it was DELICIOUS! Also, a good tip for grinding up the oats: use a coffee/spice grinder. I find it works really well when making any kind of “flour”…oat, quinoa, flax seed, even almond or coconut.