Vegan Blueberry Steel Cut Oatmeal
This blueberry steel cut oatmeal is a delicious, healthy, and balanced breakfast recipe! It’s perfect for meal prep and uses pantry staples like frozen blueberries, steel cut oats, chia seeds, and cinnamon. Vegan and gluten-free.

I have no idea why it’s taken me so long to share this recipe. It’s been my GO-TO breakfast oatmeal for years and years! I’ll often make a large batch of it one morning or evening, and then portion out the rest for easy breakfasts during the week.
This blueberry steel cut oatmeal is so easy to make and is so nourishing and balanced in nutrition. It’s full of fibre-rich steel cut oats and chia seeds, as well as antioxidant-rich blueberries. I usually top it with some extra protein sources – like almond butter, a scoop of plain Greek yogurt, and hemp seeds – to balance out the meal.
I so hope you guys enjoy this go-to breakfast of mine! Let me know in the comments if you end up making it. For more healthy breakfast meal prep ideas, be sure to check out this post!
Can You Put Frozen Blueberries In Oatmeal?
You bet! Frozen berries are one of my FAVOURITE additions to oatmeal, especially in the cooler months when fresh berries aren’t in season. My preference is to cook the berries along with the oatmeal – you can add them straight from the freezer, and they’ll thaw while you cook! Plus, they turn your oatmeal a beautiful, vibrant colour :).
Are Frozen Berries Healthy?
Yes again! Frozen berries are JUST as nutritious as fresh berries. Freezing fruit retains the nutrients in the berries, so you don’t have to worry about nutrient loss. Again, this is a great way to reap the nutrition benefits of berries during the fall and winter. They’re always a pantry staple of mine!
How To Make Blueberry Steel Cut Oats
To make this recipe, start by adding steel cut oats, chia seeds, and ground cinnamon to a large saucepan, giving the ingredients a stir to distribute them evenly.
Next, pour in your liquid – you can use water or any milk of choice. Heat the ingredients over medium-high, bringing the liquid to a boil before reducing heat. Stir in frozen berries, and continue to cook until the liquid has absorbed. Feel free to add more liquids to get the oatmeal to your desired consistency.
Note – I personally love using Bob’s Red Mill’s Quick Cooking Steel Cut Oats, which are simply chopped into smaller pieces, cutting down on cooking time! If you use these oats, this recipe should be ready in about 7 minutes. If using regular steel cut oats, it can take about 20 minutes for the liquid to absorb.
Serve oats hot and add toppings as desired. My personal favourites: a dollop of almond butter, plain Greek yogurt, hemp seeds, and some raw cacao nibs. Stir everything together and enjoy!
Storage & Reheating Notes
This blueberry steel cut oatmeal will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for at least 4 days. I usually reheat these oats in the microwave, but you could also reheat them on the stovetop. Just keep any toppings separate, and only add them at time of serving.
Note – you may find that more liquid has absorbed over time. If so, just add an extra splash of nut milk or water when reheating to bring it back to your desired consistency.
Blueberry Nutrition Facts
Blueberries are an excellent source of dietary fibre, with one cup providing 3.6 grams (14% of your daily needs). They’re also a great source of micronutrients, like vitamin C, K, B6, and manganese. Blueberries are also rich in antioxidants called anthocyanins, which provide many protective health benefits.
Steel Cut Oatmeal Nutrition Facts
Like other forms of oatmeal, steel cut oats are an excellent source of dietary fibre, with the majority being a soluble fibre called beta glucan. Soluble fibre is known to help slow digestion, increase satiety, lower cholesterol, and improve blood sugar control.
Oats are also a great source of different micronutrients, like B vitamins, vitamin E, manganese, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, iron, zinc, and folate.
Nutritionally, steel cut oats are equivalent to regular rolled or instant oats. They’re simply processed a little differently! Instead of being rolled flat, the “oat groats” (whole grain oat kernels) have been cut into smaller pieces.
Because they are a slightly less processed form of oatmeal, steel cut oats take longer to cook and also may take a bit longer for our bodies to break down and digest.
More Easy Oatmeal Recipes
- Vegan Chocolate Orange Oatmeal
- Blueberry Banana Baked Oatmeal
- Strawberry Vanilla Overnight Steel Cut Oatmeal
- Blood Orange Bircher Muesli
- Grated Apple Bircher Muesli
Did you give this Blueberry Steel Cut Oatmeal a try? Let me know by leaving a comment and recipe rating below!
If you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram or Pinterest – seeing your creations always makes my day. You can also subscribe to my email list to never miss a new recipe or nutrition education post!
Get the Recipe: Vegan Blueberry Steel Cut Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 cups water or unsweetened milk of choice
- 2 cups frozen or fresh blueberries
- Optional toppings: nut butter, yogurt, seeds, nuts, fresh fruit, maple syrup, etc.
Instructions
- Add steel cut oats, chia seeds, and cinnamon to a large saucepan, giving the ingredients a stir to distribute them evenly.
- Pour in your liquid of choice. Heat the ingredients over medium-high, bringing the liquid to a boil.
- Reduce the heat to med-low, stir in frozen or fresh berries, and continue to cook until the liquid has absorbed. This will take about 20 minutes if using regular steel cut oats (for quick cooking steel cut oats, this will be closer to 7 minutes). Feel free to add more liquids to get the oats to your desired consistency, as needed.
- Serve oats hot and add toppings as desired. My personal favourites: a dollop of almond butter, plain Greek yogurt, hemp seeds, and some raw cacao nibs. Stir everything together and enjoy!
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
Let me know by leaving a recipe rating below, or by tagging @walderwellness on Instagram. I love seeing your beautiful creations!
21 Comments on “Vegan Blueberry Steel Cut Oatmeal”
Can this be done using rolled oats?
Hi Whitney!
It definitely can! The only thing to keep in mind is that the oat to water ratio will be different. For rolled oats, a serving is typically 1/2 a cup oats + 1 cup liquid. Unfortunately I don’t have exact measurements using rolled oats, but you can definitely play around with it, gradually adding more water until it gets to the right consistency :).
This Is such a comforting breakfast! So hearty & healthy, even easier to make. Solid 5/5 in my book!
Thank you so much for sharing, Hannah!! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it :).
Loved this recipe! SO simple, and such an easy and delicious upgrade to my regular oatmeal. Will definitely be making it again.
Have you tried it with other frozen berries / any recommendations on other berries to try?
Thank you so much Tamara! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it!! I’ve done it with frozen raspberries and I believe blackberries as well – it totally works and is a nice change from the blueberries too 🙂
DeliCious, healthy, and hearty breakfasT! Added hemp and flax seeds for a little extra protein 🙂
Thank you so much, Georgia! I’m so happy to hear you enjoyed it. I LOVE the addition of hemp + flax – so good :)!!
What a tasty, healthy option for breakfast! I made mine with oat milk as the liquid, and added hemp hearts, half a banana, and a spoonful of peanut butter. Will definitely be making this again!
Hi Kim! Thank you so much for the kind comment!! So happy to hear you enjoyed this oatmeal. Love the topping additions!
This was FaBulous. Im GENERALLY not an oatmeal girl, bUT this recipe has CHANGED thAt! So tasty and filling!
Hi Katera! I’m so happy to hear that this recipe changed your mind about oatmeal!! Thank you for sharing and I’m so glad you enjoyed it – it’s my favourite way to start the day 🙂
delicious and nutritious! such a great way to start the day. made mine with almond milk and Added a bit of hemp as well 🙂
Love the hemp addition – one of my fave toppings! So happy to hear you enjoyed this one, Bridgit!! Thank you for sharing!
Good morning, Carrrie! 🙂
So I made this recipe this morning and have great news and bad news. The flavor was sweet, comforting, and amazing! The flavor was absolutely 5 stars!!! 🤗 I did enjoy the chewier, heartier texture than my usual microwaveable oatmeal. The bad news is that it was a hassle to babysit the steel cut oats on the stovetop. Even though I added 1 serving size of unsweetened oat milk, because the oats stuck to the bottom of my pan every time I checked on it (which was every 3 to 4 minutes during a 20 minute time frame), I had to constantly add more oat milk that exceeded the 1 serving size so that the steel cut oats wouldn’t burn. Because of this sticking issue, steel cut oats was not very user friendly compared to making oatmeal. Is there anything I can do differently to make cooking easier or is this part of the process for cooking steel cut oats? Jordanna
Hi Jordanna! Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I’m happy to hear that you enjoyed the taste and texture, but I’m sorry that you found the cooking method a bit tedious! It is definitely a more hands-on and time-consuming process than a regular pot of oats (which is why I usually prefer making a big batch)!
Myself personally I always use these quick-cooking steel cut oats from Bob’s Red Mill. They’re cut into smaller pieces, which brings the cooking time down to 7 minutes rather than 20! I’m not sure where you live, but I’m able to find a large bag at my local Costco 🙂
Sadly there is no perfect cooking method that will 100% retain all the micronutrients in any food. Vitamin C is a water-soluble vitamin, so typically it will leach out when cooked in a lot of water. Luckily with this recipe you end up consuming all the cooking liquid, so that should help to retain some of it! For a shorter cooking time, you can try this one with the quick cooking steel cut oats I mentioned or just regular oatmeal as well. I hope that helps a bit!!
P. S. The other concern I have about this recipe is that the blueberries are losing their vitamin C content because they are being degraded by the heat and long duration of cooking time (20 minutes). ☹️ When I select recipes for my family and I, we look for flavor and nutritional retention and content of all nutrients ( especially due to our personal health issues). So unfortunately, I will probably not make any steel cut oat recipes again.
Jordanna
Hi Carrie!
I appreciate the suggestion! I have become spoiled with my 3 minute and 50 second usual oatmeal preparation in the microwave each morning and will probably just continue with eating it and putting my roasted nuts, seeds, and fresh, raw fruit on as a topping after cooking the oatmeal. If you decide to make any future recipes with cooked oatmeal, I will always be game for that! 🙂
I have tried some of your other recipes and in my opinion, they were so wonderful that I will certainly be back to continue sharing my cooking experiences. I also know that you are brilliant in your field and have grown in my education of nutrition because of your article posts. Thank you so much for your positive contribution to the wellness field!
🙂,
Jordanna
Hi Jordanna! Totally understand – we are all allowed to have our own preferences hehe :). And thank you SO much for the kind words! I’m so happy to hear that you’ve been enjoying some of the other recipes and the little nutrition tidbits. Your support is much appreciated!!!
This combination looks very good. Carrie, I’ve read in previous posts that you do not have an Instant Pot or electric pressure cooker, but for those who do I use this EASY, FOOL-PROOF method to make steel cut oatmeal: Put 2 cups of steel cut oats (not quick cook) and 5 cups of water into instant pot bowl and give it a good stir. Put cover on and seal, set to cook at high pressure for 4 minutes (yes, 4 minutes – it will take some time to come to pressure before cooking the 4 minutes). When time is up, do a natural release for 20 minutes, then release the remaining steam. Stir well. It takes about 40 minutes from start to finish but you do not have to do ANYTHING once you put it in the pressure cooker. I let it cool slightly then put it in an airtight refrigerator container. When it is set I cut it into 6 portions. It will easily keep in the refrigerator for a week. When I want to use it I put one portion in a microwavable bowl, break it up with a spoon and heat in the microwave. Then you can dress it up any way you want. My favorites are a dollop of sugar-free, salt-free peanut butter, some fresh blueberries and unsweetened almond milk. Or for a savory bowl, add fresh mixed spring greens, some hot chili sauce, a cooked egg, avocado pieces and some feta cheese. Sorry – didn’t mean to hijack your post – just wanted to share an easy way to cook steal cut oats. Hope it’s helpful.
Thanks for sharing your tips, Judy! Making me want to invest in an instant pot now 🙂