Instant Pot Oatmeal

 This instant pot oatmeal recipe is the BEST; super creamy and delicious! If you like oatmeal, you’ve gotta try this steel cut oatmeal recipe. 

I finally found a way to love oatmeal. Long-time readers will know that while I adore my baked oatmeal and overnight oats, I’m usually not that into a bowl of regular oatmeal. That’s likely due to the fact that I ate at least a packed of instant oatmeal every.single.day in high school, which feels like enough for a lifetime.

For years now, if I’m eating oats they are usually baked or cold as overnight oats. But THEN, our kitchen remodel happened. Three months of only having access to a microwave, a toaster and my Instant Pot. One can only eat so many frozen waffles or bowls of cereal for breakfast before a change was needed. 

I threw a few things into the Instant Pot and WOW. Mind completely blown. If I had known that regular oatmeal could taste this amazing, I wouldn’t have wasted so many years not eating them.

 

Making Oatmeal in the Instant Pot

The secret is that the Instant Pot cooks the oats without stirring them, letting them soak up all the yummy spiced milk and then getting stirred together at the very end. I used coconut milk for extra richness, but any milk option would work here. We’ve been playing with lots of different variations and they are all great- almond with a little pumpkin puree and pumpkin spice, soy with peanut butter powder. Everything seems to have been a hit so far!

I used to also believe that oats needed a lot of sweetener to be palatable. Perhaps that’s from my instant oat days where my flavor options would rotate between Peaches and Cream, Strawberries and Cream, or Brown Sugar. Guess what! When you make them this way, you don’t need much sweetener at all!

A little maple syrup goes a long way, especially when paired with fresh, sweet berries. Some mornings I skip the syrup all together and mash 1/2 of a ripe banana into the oats for extra fiber and flavor and it’s delicious. A drizzle of nut butter, some seeds… oh my… it’s just so, so good.

Do you have to use Steel Cut Oats?

Yes, you do. I haven’t tried this with regular oats, but once you see how much more flavorful steel cut oats are you won’t want to go back. Denser than regular oats, they create the creamiest bowl of oatmeal when cooked this way. Using the Instant Pot also cuts down a lot on stove-top cooking time!

What are the health benefits of Steel Cut Oats?

Oats are a whole grain and therefore full of vitamins, minerals and soluble fiber. Just like a wheat kernel, an oat kernel contains all parts of a whole grain: the fiber-rich bran, the nutrient-rich germ and the endosperm. 

Steel cut oats are roughly chopped whole oat kernels that have a chewier, heartier texture than rolled oats. If you don’t love regular oatmeal (like me!), then you’ll definitely want to try steel cut oats instead. 

The image below is a bag of steel cut oats– check out all that yummy texture! 

While there are several brands of steel-cut oats in the store, I’m partial to the Bob’s Red Mill brand. They are one of the only brands that still uses stone to grind the grains, a technique that has largely been abandoned by other grain producers. While I’ve been using their products for years, I only recently went to Portland with the team to learn more about their production facilities and the brand itself. Let me just say, if I wasn’t a fan already, I’m now a full-fledged groupie.

For one, Bob’s is an employee-owned company, which means that everyone who works there is not only an employee but also an owner. The pride that everyone has for the company is palpable and one of the many reasons that I love supporting Bob’s. Secondly, Bob is an icon. I was fortunate to get to meet with him last month in Portland and was blown away by his humility, his graciousness and his passion for health, his family and the company that he and his wife started together. At 91 years old, this man was still working 6 days of week! A testament to his work ethic, perseverance and of course, a diet rich in whole grains.

This post isn’t sponsored by Bob’s, but wanted to share a little more background into the company and why I choose them over other grain products. I know you are going to love these oats at much as my family does! They are even more delicious with sliced berries and a sprinkle of hemp seeds or chopped nuts on top.

If you love this steel cut oatmeal recipe, then you’ll love these other healthy breakfast recipes: overnight muesli, vegan egg Benedict, fluffy vegan pancakes, vegan baked oatmeal with fresh berries. 

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