Nutty, hearty Instant Pot steel cut oats with sweet apple and cozy touches of cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Your breakfast game just leveled UP!
This spiced apple Instant Pot steel cut oatmeal is a hands-off breakfast that's super satisfying. While the oats cook, you can get showered and ready to start your day! The Instant Pot makes that possible.
Table of Contents
About the ingredients
These vegan steel cut oats use almost all pantry ingredients. The only fresh ingredients you need are two apples.
- steel cut oats - These are different from rolled oats, so make sure you choose the right kind for this recipe. See the section of frequently asked questions for more information.
- apples - Choose firm, sweet apples, like gala, honey crisp, or fuji. Dice them into half-inch pieces.
- ground cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg - This combination of spices gives these apple steel cut oats a unique flavor that's super addictive!
- maple syrup or unsweetened applesauce - Choose one or both to sweeten the oatmeal to taste after it's done cooking.
More easy vegan breakfasts: 16 Easy Vegan Breakfast Ideas to Kickstart Your Mornings
How to make apple steel cut oats in the Instant Pot
Cooking steel cut oats on the stovetop takes around a half hour, but not in the Instant Pot! Like with other grains, pressure cooking steel cut oats cuts the cooking time down significantly.
In the pressure cooker, it takes five minutes at pressure with a 10-minute natural release. That's about half the time!
Some recipes will tell you to use your Instant Pot's "Porridge" button, which will also work fine. The Porridge button sets the pot to 6 minutes at high pressure, so it's just one extra minute of cooking time.
To make this spiced apple steel cut oatmeal, just stir together uncooked steel cut oats with water, diced apples, ground cinnamon, and ground ginger. Set the Instant Pot to cook at high pressure for 5 minutes, and go about your morning until your piping hot oatmeal finishes cooking.
Give the oatmeal a taste, and then sweeten it to taste with some maple syrup, unsweetened applesauce, or both. Do what works best for you!
Helpful tips
- Make sure that you choose good quality apples. Choose ones that you'd snack on fresh, like gala, fuji, or honey crisp.
- Don't fill the pot more than halfway! Steel cut oats can foam, so you need to leave a lot of headroom to avoid the foam messing with your pot's mechanisms.
How to store and reheat
Cooked steel cut oats will keep for four to six days in the refrigerator. Just store them in an airtight container.
You can reheat them in the microwave. They may be thicker than the day you made them, which is not a problem. Just stir in a splash of vegan milk to thin them out to your desired consistency.
To reheat on the stove, transfer your oats to a small pan and warm on medium heat, stirring, until they're cooked through. Have some vegan milk handy to add, as needed, to thin them as they warm up.
More flavor-packed breakfasts
📖 Recipe
Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats with Apple
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup steel cut oats
- 1 ½ cups water
- 2 medium apples chopped into ½" pieces
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ⅛ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- maple syrup or unsweetened apple sauce or both, to taste
Instructions
- In your Instant Pot, stir together the oats, water, apple pieces and spices. Bring to high pressure, and cook for 5 minutes, with a 10-minute natural release.
- Sweeten with maple syrup or applesauce, to taste.
Video
📝 Notes
Nutrition
Frequently asked questions
Both steel cut oats and rolled oats are from the same part of the same plant. They're made from oat groats.
To make steel cut oats, companies literally cut the oats up with a steel blade. Steel cut!
To make rolled oats, they steam the groats, then roll them out. The steaming and the flatter shape are the reasons that rolled oats cook more quickly than steel cut.
You're probably familiar with what rolled oats taste like. They're the most common oats you use to make oatmeal. Steel cut oats have a slightly nuttier taste and chewier texture.
The taste and texture difference is similar to the difference between brown and white rice.
Rolled oats cook up a lot faster, which is why they're more common, but steel cut oats are super tasty and worth the extra time, if you have it!
Of course, you can decrease that cooking time by using your Instant Pot to cook your steel cut oats. Plus, you don't have to be there while they're cooking.
You want to use 1 part steel cut oats to 3 parts water.
The Instant Pot is definitely your fastest option when it comes to cooking steel cut oats. They cook for five to six minutes at pressure with a 10-minute natural release.
Tamie
I kept getting a burn on my IP before it even came to pressure. How do I avoid that?
Becky Striepe
Oh weird! Has that happened in your pot with other recipes, or just with this one? It shouldn't do that, since there's plenty of water in there.