Creamy Vegan Oatmeal Recipe with Oat Milk

Creamy vegan oatmeal uses oat milk (how meta!) or your favorite plant-based milk to add a little extra protein and really make this healthy breakfast creamy. We love to top it with heated frozen berries, flaxseed, chopped nuts or peanut butter, and maybe a little coconut if we’re feeling crazy.

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Why we love this recipe

I feel like not everybody understands this, but oatmeal should be really good. This recipe hits all the sweet spots with no nutritional compromises. It’s:

• Beautifully flavored, with hints of cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla
• Perfectly creamy
• Just the right texture
• Delicious on its own, and also highly amenable to your favorite toppings.

I first published this recipe here in 2014. I’ve updated the post for clarity, but the recipe remains the same. You can read the original story below if you like.

What you’ll need

Here’s a glance at the ingredients you’ll need to make this easy recipe.

• Use old-fashioned rolled oats. They’re heartier than quick oats and make a more robust oatmeal. It will keep you full for longer since it takes your bod longer to break them down.
• Using half oat milk and half water gives you just the right amount of creaminess.
• Brown sugar and maple syrup work equally well. Use whichever you prefer or have on hand.

How to make it

Here’s what you’ll do to make a perfect pot of creamy vegan oatmeal with oat milk in about 10 minutes. You can see the steps in action in the video that accompanies this post, and get all the details in the recipe card below.

1. Place the oats, oat milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and salt into a medium pot. Use pot that gives the oatmeal a bit of room to bubble up.
2. Stir all the ingredients together thoroughly and set over medium heat.
3. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer until creamy, 5 to 10 minutes depending on your oats.
4. Let it rest for a few minutes. It will thicken up a lot as it cools. Serve solo or topped with anything you like (suggestions below).

Expert tips and FAQs

More favorite recipes with oats

• Creamy oatmeal
• Savory oats with spinach
• Savory oats with shiitakes
• Cinnamon granola
• Crisp topping for apples, strawberries and rhubarb, cherries, or blueberries

4.63 from 70 votes

Creamy Vegan Oatmeal Recipe with Oat Milk

By Carolyn Gratzer Cope

Creamy vegan oatmeal uses oat milk (how meta!) or your favorite plant-based milk to add a little extra protein and really make this healthy breakfast creamy. We love to top it with heated frozen berries, flaxseed, chopped nuts or peanut butter, and maybe a little coconut if we're feeling crazy.

Prep: 5 minutes mins

Cook: 5 minutes mins

Total: 10 minutes mins

Servings: 2

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Ingredients 

1x2x3x

• ▢ 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
• ▢ 1 cup oat milk, soy milk, or other non-dairy milk of your choice
• ▢ 1 cup water
• ▢ 2 tablespoons good maple syrup
• ▢ ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• ▢ ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ▢ ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• ▢ Pinch of fine sea salt

To serve (optional)

• ▢ Fresh or frozen berries, see note 3
• ▢ Peanut butter or chopped nuts
• ▢ Ground flaxseed or whole seeds like pepitas or sunflower
• ▢ Unsweetened flaked coconut

Cook ModePrevent your screen from going dark

Instructions 

• Combine the oats, oat milk, water, maple syrup, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a small pot.
• Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, for a few minutes, until the porridge is soft and a little thinner than you’d like it.
• Let it cool for a few minutes. It will thicken quickly as it cools.
• To serve, divide oatmeal between two bowls. If you like, top with berries, a spoonful of peanut butter, and a sprinkling of flaxseed and coconut.

Notes

1. Old-fashioned oats (sometimes just called rolled oats) are steamed, rolled oat groats. They’re a whole grain containing all the healthful parts of the oat groat. The processing helps keep them shelf-stable for long periods and also helps them cook quite quickly. Quick oats are rolled, too, but they’re flatter and smaller. I prefer the heft of old-fashioned oats in this recipe, and they’ll keep you full for longer as well.
2. Choose certified gluten-free oats if a gluten-free recipe is important to you.
3. I like to put a big handful or two of frozen berries into a bowl and heat them in the microwave until really bubbly syrupy (a minute or two on high power, depending on your microwave), then pour the whole thing over my oatmeal. But regular old fresh or defrosted berries work beautifully, too.
4. You can make a big batch of oatmeal and reheat in in the microwave on subsequent days. Stir in a big additional splash of oat milk or water before (or after) reheating.
5. Leftovers keep well in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week. You can also freeze it in single portions for up to a year.

Nutritional information for this recipe includes berries but not other toppings, since they vary widely.

Nutrition

Calories: 268kcal, Carbohydrates: 50.7g, Protein: 6.7g, Fat: 2.3g, Fiber: 9.1g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Breakfast and Brunch

Cuisine: American

Tried this recipe?Mention @umamigirl or tag #umamigirl!

P.S. Here’s the original text of this post from 2014

There have been quite a few perks associated with our three years in London, but I don’t think any of them surpass our brief glimpse of the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse at Heathrow airport. On our pre-move visit in 2011 to look at schools and apartments, we spent a few minutes there waiting for our flight back to New Jersey.

If the clubhouse had a tube stop, the train announcement would say, “Alight here for free haircuts, poolside lounge, classic cocktails and all the sushi you can eat.” We didn’t know in advance how dapper it was, so we didn’t bake in four pre-flight hours at the airport that time. That was a mistake. I haven’t really forgiven us.

Luckily our return flight in August will give us a chance to make up for things. Although we’ll be traveling around Europe before returning to the states, I made sure our final flight would leave from Heathrow, and not early in the day like our usual layperson flights. A girl doesn’t like to be rushed when eating her weight in free sushi. I’m actually a little worried I might go all ironic goldfish and eat until I die.

Meh, I guess we’ll see.

Breakfast behavior

Behavior like that is the reason I need to eat responsible breakfasts on a regular basis. And yet the same instinct to throw myself in the direction of deliciousness applies at all meals. Hence this oatmeal.

The Gratzer-Cope conglomerate should really have our faces on the canister of oats — no offense to the Quaker — and not just because half the family has Quaker blood. We’ve each got our own oat style, from raw to slapdash to double-blind, placebo-controlled tested. (My mom makes oatmeal in the microwave and has all but patented a system where it bubbles up just shy of explosion and then magically nestles back down to perfection.)  

We each do oatmeal differently, but we all love it almost as much as I love free sushi, Champagne, and haircuts. This is the version I’ve been making recently. It’s no poolside lounge, but many a morning I’m happy to dive in just the same.