Blueberries and Cream Oatmeal Recipe
This recipe for blueberries and cream oatmeal is my go to recipe for oatmeal! A creamy bowl of oatmeal made with toasted oats cooked in coconut milk for filling fats! Topped with an easy blueberry chia jam for fruity flavor.
This recipe for blueberries and cream oatmeal was the result of my mission to learn how to make the perfect bowl of oatmeal. I’ll refrain from hyperbole in calling it the best, but I will say, with creamy, toasted coconut oats topped with a sweet-tart blueberry jam, it’s definitely become my go to oatmeal recipe when I want something warm and cozy in the morning.
Toast your oats for this blueberries and cream oatmeal recipe!
If you’ve never toasted your oats before, get ready for an epic oatmeal upgrade! It sounds time consuming, but toasting your oats takes less than a minute. Just heat up a little butter or coconut oil in the pot you’re cooking the oatmeal in and stir in the uncooked oats. Let it cook for about a minute or two, stirring occasionally, until it smells fragrant and, for lack of a better word, oaty, It brings out the flavor in the oats and also makes your kitchen smell like heaven. You can do this for any kind of oats you’re cooking, whether it’s steel cut or quick oats. I think it also helps with the texture of the oats too, keeping them from getting too mushy.
How to make oatmeal more satisfying
If your oatmeal breakfast leaves you hungry 30 minutes later, I’ve got one word for you - fat. Think of fat as the satiety factor. It helps food digest more slowly, making it last until your next meal or snack.
That’s why I like to cook my oats in coconut milk. I find that cooking oats in regular dairy milk can make them taste a little gummy - although I do love a drizzle of whole milk at the end! Water gives them a better texture, but they’re just not quite as filling. I’ve realized cooking oats in a mixture of canned coconut milk and water adds filling fats, creamy texture, and doesn’t get gummy the way that milk does.
How to make blueberry-chia jam for this blueberries and cream oatmeal recipe
Chia seeds are such a fun ingredient to play around with. Similar to flax seeds in nutrition, they’re a great source of fiber and omega 3 fats. What sets them apart is the mucilaginous coating that soaks up water to form a gel. After soaking in liquid, chia seeds have a thick, pudding-y texture similar to tapioca. They’re great as a plant-based egg substitute in baking (or more likely for me, when I run out of eggs while baking 🤦♀️) or to add fiber and nutrition to smoothies. But my favorite way to use chia seeds it to make a quick jam with frozen fruit.
To make chia jam, warm frozen fruit on the stove until it gives off liquid. Add a bit of lemon juice and mash the fruit with a potato masher. Then stir in the chia seeds and let them get to work doing their magic and making jam! After 15 minutes, if it’s too thick add a little water, and if it’s too thin, add a teaspoon of chia seeds. This is where you can also stir in some sweetener if you like, preferably a liquid sweetener like honey or maple syrup. While it’s naturally sweet from the fruit, I like to stir in a bit of honey to taste.
I like to use wild blueberries for this. If you’ve never tried wild blueberries, you can find them frozen in most grocery stores. And presumably, you can find them fresh during the summer in the northeast. They’re much smaller than regular blueberries, but much more concentrated in flavor. And because there is more skin to pulp, which is where most of the antioxidants are concentrated, wild blueberries contain more nutrients too.
Chia jam will keep a couple weeks in the fridge. If you have extra (or want to double up the recipe to make extra!), it’s great on toast, in peanut butter sandwiches, or you could make a twist on my peanut butter and strawberry jam bars.
How to meal prep this blueberries and cream oatmeal recipe
Personally, I think oatmeal tastes better when it’s freshly cooked. But it takes time to cook, and I’m most definitely not a morning person. That’s why when I make this recipe for blueberries and cream oatmeal, I refrigerate the leftovers. The next day, warm them up on the stove with a little water to loosen the oats and make them creamy again. They’ll be a bit more soft and tender than freshly cooked, but still really tasty!
This recipe for blueberries and cream oatmeal was originally published November 2014. Recipe, images and text have been updated to give you the best possible content!
Blueberries and Cream Oatmeal Recipe
Serves 3-4ish
Ingredients
Oatmeal:
1 teaspoon coconut oil
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup canned coconut milk
1 cup water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Large pinch of salt
Chopped toasted almonds
Chia jam:
2 cups frozen blueberries, preferably wild
1 teaspoon lemon juice
2 tablespoons chia seeds
Honey, optional
Instructions
First, make the jam. Place blueberries in a small pot on medium heat. As they warm, the liquids will release. Simmer 10 minutes, mashing the berries with a potato masher while they cook. I like the texture when about half the berries are mashed and the other half are still whole. Turn off heat, stir in the lemon juice and chia seeds and let sit 10 minutes until thickened. Taste and sweeten with honey if desired.
Heat coconut oil in a medium pot on medium heat. Stir in oats. Cook 5 minutes, stirring every so often, until they smell toasty and look slightly golden. Pour in coconut milk, water, sugar, vanilla and salt. Cook 5-10 minutes over medium heat until oats are tender and creamy.
Swirl in a hefty scoop of blueberry jam and sprinkle with toasted almonds.
If you like this blueberries and cream oatmeal recipe, you might also like:
Coconut Ginger Date Oatmeal
Browned Butter Pear and Dark Chocolate Baked Oatmeal
High Protein Cranberry Apple Oatmeal
