Do you ever wish for an overflowing oatmeal bowl?
As opposed to the measly amount you get from one serving of oats? If you answered “yes” to the above, then the Voluminous Oatmeal Trick is for you!
*Ends sales pitch*
What is the Voluminous Oatmeal Trick?
The idea is to add more than the recommended liquid to the oats, prior to cooking. Then you can either microwave or cook on the stovetop, but stop before all the water is absorbed. Come back the next day (or a few hours later), and all the liquid has been absorbed, leaving you with pillow-soft oats that are double the size of regular oats!
Step One: Measure out one serving of dry oats (40g). I also add 1/4 tsp salt.
Step Two: Add a little over 1 1/2 cups liquid (I add 400g).
Step Three: Microwave or cook on the stove, but stop before all the water is absorbed. (I microwave for 4 1/2 minutes, then leave in the closed microwave for 5 more minutes. You might have to watch if for the last minute, and stop and start the microwave, so it doesn’t spill over. It depends on your microwave’s wattage.)
Step Four: Put in the fridge, uncovered. When you return the next day (or a few hours later), the watery mess above will have magically turned into 2 cups-worth of pillowy, voluminous oats! Now, I am strange and like my oatmeal cold (like pudding!). But if you want it hot, you can still re-heat the next day. Re-heat it just until it gets hot, and the volume will stay. Troubleshooting Note: Microwave wattages vary, and therefore if your oats haven’t thickened up by the next day it probably means you need to cook them longer next time.
Try this trick on any of the following:
I think I need to try this. I love oatmeal! Thanks for the tip.
Have made this the last few nights and have been experimenting on combos. This morning I layered the oats in the jar with peanut flour sauce, strawberry jam & frozen strawberries. A yummy cold parfait…thanks for the recipe.
Ooh wow, your version sounds like a jelly doughnut in oat form!
I tried the voluminous oat trick last night and am enjoying my bowl right now! I love it! I first tried this idea with Hungry Girl’s “grow your oatmeal” trick but she said to cook the oats with all that liquid until it was thick and that took forever. Like 15-20 minutes! I like your way much better! I didn’t do anything fancy, just used half water, half Silk coconut milk and stirred in some flax seeds an nuts today. And I’m eating it cold so if you’re crazy, I’m joining the team! 🙂
Do you think this recipe could possibly be adapted to quick-cook oats?
The highest ratio of water-to-oats I’ve tried with quick oats is 300g water to 1/3cup (40g) quick oats. Microwave 3 minutes, then leave in microwave 5 minutes, then fridge uncovered. This works well… but I haven’t tried quick oats with more water than that. If you do, I’d love to know how it works!
I have tried it with quick oats. Volume-wise, it still works… but don’t expect much in the way of ‘fluffiness’ or texture (apart from goopy – which as terrible as it sounds, is sometimes nice). I find I enjoy blending this up after it is done more than eating as is.
After 3 tries, I finally got the hang of it! We bought a 5lb bag of oats last week and my wife promised to eat oatmeal if I made it for her. Now 1/2 cup make breakfast for two, supplemented by her necessary toast and my fruit/nuts.
I concocted a new flavour today: gingerbread! After cooking the oats, I added a generous drizzle of molasses, a pinch of salt, and a generous pinch of ground ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg! Yummy, especially topped with pecans! 🙂
Thanks for the vegan inspiration! It’s nice to see someone else takes a second breakfast… I find I need one after a 40-minute bike ride to school in the morning!
That sounds delicious! I love gingerbread… who says it has to be eaten only at Christmas?! 😉
Hi Katie, I included your oatmeal in my list of 50 favourite vegan recipes 🙂 Thanks!
http://www.goodnessbakeshop.com/2011/04/goodness-bakers-50-favegan-recipes.html
omg Katie! I tried this last night, and as i type this im sitting with my big ‘ol bowl of oatmeal! It is way to much and I’m too full to finish it! Haha but thank you for the awesome recipe!:)
Aww I’m so excited you tried it!! 🙂
great idea! this looks so good, I’m going to try it asap!
I have tried this a few times now and it never works for me!! I follow you instructions exactly, and I just have a big watery mess in the morning.
Also, Carrie (movesnmunchies) told me she doesn 1/2 cup oatbran + 1.25 cups water, and I tried that and still didn’t work for me, overflowed and had a big mess in the microwave!
I’m thinking that maybe my microwave is just more or less powerful than yours, or something! I don’t know!
Wow, that is so weird :(. Over 100 people have left comments or trackbacks or emails about that post and you seem to be the only one for whom it doesn’t work :(. I have no idea why! Maybe it’s your fridge? Or where you live? I really don’t know, because I’ve used the trick all over the US and it even worked in my dad’s old microwave. I;m so sorry!
I have had to be careful about mine overflowing in the microwave. I usually use a huge bowl & still keep an eye on them. But that’s because my microwave is powerful & somehow got locked where I can’t change it to a lower setting.
Last night I did 1/3 cups oats + 1 1/3 cup water for 3 minutes, let cool for like 5 minutes, then stirred in a tbsp of chia seeds and let them sit overnight. In the morning I added 1/2 container Strawberry Oikos with fresh strawberries and almond butter. It was one of the most filling breakfast I have had in a long time. Almost couldn’t finish it…almost 😀
I need to try adding chia to my oats! Been meaning to do that for-evah! 😉
I just put mine in the fridge and can’t wait to dig in tomorrow morning. I’m such a volume eater so this is gonna be awesoooome 🙂 Thanks!
Ooh I hope you like it!
And lol I’m posting another “voluminous” recipe today because you’re definitely not alone: a TON of people tell me they like the voluminous recipes! 🙂
When you say that you stop cooking it before all the water is absorbed do you mean as in almost all the water is gone or the oats have puffed up because I waited for most of the water to be absorbed but I ended up overcooking it and the next morning it was like a pudding that completely gelled together into one big jelly.
I’ve actually never done this on the stovetop, only in the microwave. When I stop cooking, it is still VERY liquidy (as shown in the photo). Also, I like cold oatmeal so I usually don’t re-heat it the next day.
This sounds awesome! What would the liquid to oats ratio be if i used 3/4 cup of oats?
It actually depends on what brand you’re using. For example, quaker rolled oats are 40g to a 1/2 cup, but old wessez 40g is only 1/3 cup. For 40g of oats, I use 400g water, so for 60g of oats (which would be 2/3 old wessex), try using 600g water. But you’ll have to find a huge dish… and I think you’d have to microwave longer too. So you’ll have to experiment!
Hey katie, if wont go bad uncovered right?
Also, im using stove top (no microwave dont ask y lol) and theres a white foam ..?
Sorry, I’ve never used the stovetop. But I think the white foam is just the starch coming to the top. And yes, leave it uncovered overnight.
Every time I try the trick, my oats never absorb all the liquid: they’re a watery mess! Too soupy. Is it possible to under-cook the oats which result in soup?
How long do you cook the oats? (And do you use the microwave or stove?) And what brand oats do you use, and how much?
I used two kinds: Bob’s Red Mill steel cut and rolled oats. The rolled oats was the one I wrote about. I used about 1/4 cup oats to 1 cup water and microwaved it for 2 minutes (any more than that and it’ll boil over/dry up ) and the oats, though there were “alot,” was pretty soupy. Now the steel cut oats were tougher. In short, I just don’t know how long to cook the steel cut oats for ( the rolled oats too), because if there’s water left they look undercooked, so after they sit I nuke them again, but then there’s little water left and there’s little change in volume. Gah! I just want voluminous oats without raw oats and soupy-ness!
I can only vouch that it works if you follow my recipe exactly. Do try it that way before giving up :). Also, I would think steel-cut oats would never work.
Yes ma’am! I will try again tonight! Why won’t steel cut oats work? It kind of doubled in volume for me but I think it’s because I heated the water separately then added the oats. I just don’t know if they’re properly cooked or not ( I’m new to them).
Ahh it worked! I think I microwaved it a bit too much because the resulting oats looked a bit dry, but a little extra milk made it perfect! I had a huge bowl of carrot cake oatmeal. Howeveeer I’m not a fan of the mushiness of rolled oats so I experimented with steeI-cut oats.The process is longer than the rolled oats since I had to heat the water prior to adding the oats, and I also had to stir and cook it again, BUT it was a success! My oats doubled in size! Now I enjoy my chewy oatmeal. Thank-you! I now have an (un)healthy obsession with oatmeal.
Ooh so cool to know it works with steel-cut oats. I might need to try that! 🙂
Your recipes are wonderful! I have been thoroughly enjoying your voluminous ice cream (with peanut butter yum!) Just wondering… I don’t do the best on oats but use amaranth sometimes… could this recipe be adapted using amaranth flakes? If so do you have any recommendations?
Thanks!
The only way to find out is to try! I do know that it will work (slightly adapted) with spelt flakes, but that kamut flakes won’t absorb enough of the water. But I’ve never tried amaranth. If you do try it, let me know!
Don’t you find when you microwave them for 4.5 minutes your oats are overflowing in the pan? even with 1/4 tsp salt it still does this for me. Any suggestions?
I use a tall pyrex, and I microwave 3.5 minutes without watching at all. After that, I microwave a minute more, watching very closely! If it starts to overflow (which sometimes happens when there are around 20 seconds to go), I open the microwave very quickly and then keep microwaving in ten-second increments, stopping and starting again after the oats go back down. Then I leave it in the closed microwave for 5 minutes before transferring to the fridge.
man . . .I can’t til I get paid so I can try this!
Also, this is completely irreverent, but I love your blog. I am 5’4 and weigh about 135 or 140, and am somewhat overweight. I have struggled with various diets, starved myself for days, abused laxatives to such a degree that my digestive system no longer works correctly, and to no avail. However, I realized I was merely trying to make myself look ‘skinny’, as to please others, and didn’t care how I felt. I now realize that that was my problem. I walk nearly 10 miles a day now, do over 300 jumping jacks, eat healthier whenever I can, I still haven’t lost much weight, but I feel much better about myself.
Aww Erin, thank you so much for this comment! Sometimes (a lot of times!) I get bogged down in caring about what others think of me (and my weight) and I need to remember that it really isn’t important what others think. YOU are the only one who needs to be happy with you. I’m so glad you’ve learned that… I need to learn it too. You can’t ever please everyone, so you have to be healthy for you. Thanks for the reminder 🙂 :).
Tardy to the party here… you’re not overweight. At all.
I am the same height about around 130-135 and my BMI is 22ish.
22 is super healthy. You aren’t overweight until you hit 25.1 or higher.
You are technically, scientifically a very healthy weight for your height.
Just saying. It freaks me out to hear someone my size saying they are overweight.
I’m a size 4! You must be similar. That’s not overweight! 😉 I also have EDNOS tendencies and yeah, you’re not overweight. Neither am I. (need to chant this to myself now since seeing my stats linked to “overweight” triggered the hell outta me!)