The Best Way to Start Your Day: Vegan Overnight Oats (Customizable Recipe!)

Delish & Nutrish

By Guest Chef:@dopaminechef

Vegan overnight oats are basically the perfect breakfast food: quick, easy, and packed with nutrients that will power you through your morning. No cooking, no hard-to-remove porridge-y residue, no messing. Just a healthy breakfast that fits into your busy life. In this article I’m going to share a customizable recipe to make boring breakfasts a thing of the past.

Complex Carbs - The Perfect Breakfast Food

What makes oats so amazing? We’ve all heard about their heart-healthy benefits, but they deliver so much more. If you already know them and just want the recipe, simply skip the next few paragraphs!

Whole grains like oats are complex carbohydrates. Carbs have gotten a bad rap lately, with everyone turning to keto and paleo. But the truth is carbohydrates are an important nutrient, not least for delivering a big bowl of comfort food when we need it most, but also because they are the body’s preferred source of energy. The trick, of course, is to choose the right carbohydrates: complex ones like oats, instead of simple ones like white pasta (or, in breakfast terms, sugary cereal).

Complex carbs are foods that contain a balance of sugars and fiber. They deliver a steady supply of energy because the fiber slows down the body’s absorption of sugar. On the other hand, simple carbohydrates have no fiber to buffer the effect of sugar, so they deliver a quick burst of energy followed by an energy slump - think about how you feel around 20 minutes after you eat simple carbs (like a slice of cake, biscuits, sweets, white bread). Most likely you feel tired and hungry again - which is the last thing you want after breakfast.

Oats - Packed with Healthy Fiber

There are two main types of fiber - insoluble and soluble. Insoluble fiber doesn’t dissolve in water (think about what happens when you mix kale and water), whereas soluble fiber creates a gel-like substance when mixed with water (for example when you mix chia seeds or flax seeds or oats with water).

Both soluble and insoluble fiber are essential for proper digestion, but soluble fiber deserves a special mention. It attaches to cholesterol and dietary toxins and escorts them out of the body (very helpful, especially if you’re trying to reduce your toxic burden). It soaks up water as it passes through your digestive system, making stools easier to pass and preventing constipation. Finally, it slows down the absorption of sugar, helping you limit blood sugar spikes and therefore manage your appetite.

Oats are packed with soluble fiber, which makes them an ideal food for breakfast time - they provide a steady supply of energy and will keep you full up till lunch.

Vegan Overnight Oats Recipe

Makes 2 servings

Base ingredients:

• 1 cup oats

• 1 1/2 cups almond or coconut milk (or your favorite plant milk)

• 1-2 tbsp maple syrup or rice syrup

Flavor ingredients (choose one):

Carrot cake:

• 1 small carrot (grated)

• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

• 1/4 cup raisins or sultanas

• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Chocolate peanut:

• 2 tbsp peanut butter

• 2 tbsp cacao powder

• 1 banana (sliced, as topping)

Coconut berry parfait:

• 1/2 cup blueberries (or other berries of your choice)

• 1/4 cup shredded coconut

• Pinch of vanilla powder

Design your own:

• 1/2 cup fresh or dried fruit (apple, mango, banana, pear, strawberries, goji berries, cranberries….)

• 1/4 cup nuts or seeds (almonds, pumpkin seeds, pecans, cashews, hemp seeds, hazelnuts….)

Method:

• In a medium bowl, mix the base ingredients with your chosen flavor ingredients until well combined.

• Spoon into mason jars, seal, and pop into the fridge overnight.

• In the morning, give it a stir, and voila - a quick-to-make breakfast that will keep you satisfied till lunchtime.

Let us know if you make this recipe, or if you come up with some new flavor combinations! In the meantime, happy (and healthy) breakfast eating.