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:
Hey katie! Before I try this, do you only cook the oats 4 1/2 minutes and let it sit in the microwave for 5 minutes with no heat? Or do you continue to cook for 5 minutes.
Weird question – but is there any way to make “bulk” voluminous oats. I’ve become obsessed and make them almost every night! Would love to save some time by making a big batch for a week?? is it possible??
You are a brilliant lady!!
i just tried this trick!
With 25g of oats + 1 cup of water, microwave for 3 mins (it did overflow cause i didnt check on it neither did i cover it, but no fuss for a little clean up), waited for 5mins before opening the microwave, dumped it into the fridge. And just half an hour before i tuck in, i put it into the freezer cause i like it extra cold!
Topped it off with your mashed banana sweetener trick, together with thinly sliced apple and a dash of cinnamon, vanilla protein (to boost the protein) and flaxseed meal (to make it more filling and sticky, i mean the oatmeal was already super creamy anw).
Absolutely stunning meal for breakfast! (okie i had it for lunch actually but still)
Im so thankful 🙂
Katie, thank you so much for all of your yummy, nutritious and nurturing recipes. I have been recovering from an eating disorder for three years now and your website has been one of the gifts that has contributed to my continued path of recovery. Re-teaching myself to listen to, feed and nurture my body has been the most difficult part of my recovery–angels like you are one of the main reasons why I have not had a major relapse. Thank you so much for your awesome blog. You’re such an inspiration!
My oats exploded for the second day in a row in the microwave, so I google trick to microwaving oats. And your post came up–and I already follow you so duh! Anyway, I made the oats yesterday after work, and had a delicious breakfast this morning. Thank you so much! I still think the oats would probably cook better on the stove top, so maybe I’ll try that today. Any difference if you use steel-cut oats? I have those, too, and it would be nice to use them.
Oh, I found some info on steel-cut oats in the comments. Thanks!
I know I’m tardy to the party, but do you have to heat/microwave first? You can just put it all in the fridge?
This was awesome!! Keep these high volume recipes coming! 🙂
Hi Katie,
Wonderful trick with the oats! I tried this for the first time last night, and it worked wonderfully. I was able to make a delicious, over-flowing bowl of your “Chocolate-Raspberry Truffle Oatmeal” with the “Voluminous Oatmeal” which kept me full and energized until lunchtime. Thanks for the great idea!
Hi Katie!
I’ve tried this trick so many times without success (didn’t absorb the liquid) but finally, today I succeeded!!! Turns out that the maximum volume of water my oats can absorb is 1 cup :p
However I got a question for you, when I add the sweetener/jam/pb in the morning, I couldn’t really taste it! I stirred in 2 tbs of pb but could only tasted a tiny bit of it. What should I do? Even though the volume is WONDERFUL, I don’t want my oatmeal to taste like nothing but in fact packed with calories. Any advice? Thank you in advance!
Heyy Katie 🙂
May I ask you something? The thing is… If you’d like to gain some weight, why do you make the oats with water at all? As for what I see, you would have no reaons to not use milk, and you have said you prefer it 😛 i have thought this because of this very post, but also because of the “never ending oatmel bowl”, in which you state the milk makes it muuch creamier, but you use still half water half milk.
Just wondering… Don’t get me wrong though, you have the right to eat whatever you want 🙂
You should probably read this post: https://lett-trim.today/2012/03/01/my-high-calorie-diet/%3C/a%3E%3Cbr /> Katie has said many times that a lot of her recipes are made lower calorie for readers, and it doesn’t necessarily mean she eats this way. Remember that this is a recipe blog, not a lifestyle blog.
But if she includes in the ingredients the options, my guess is she could have made hers with milk anyways, keeping the options in the recipes… 🙂 just that
So I was wondering if this trick would work with the baked oatmeal recipes?
I just tried this last night and it wasn’t very successful for me. I used 1/2 cup of Country’s Choice Organic Multigrain (rolled oats), and a little over 1 1/2 cup of water in a tall measuring cup, I microwaved it the amount of time you did and had absolutely no problem with it spilling over (it didn’t even reach the top of the cup). It still looked like a watery mess, but after I left it in the fridge overnight uncovered, it wasn’t “2 cups of pillowy voluminous oats.” I did not add any salt, was it necessary? The amount just seems like too much to me.
Could you please help me?
I think you need to go back and read the entire post from start to finish. It will answer your question.
I read it over too many times to count, was it because I left out the salt? After I microwaved it for 41/2 min, did I have to microwave it for another 5 min? I thought that “leave it in” meant to let it sit in the microwave with the door closed without microwaving it again. Could you please just tell me what I need to do, please?
I do this a lot! Thanks you so much 🙂
I have been meaning to try your “voluminous oats” recipe for a looong time now (clearly–since the recipe is from 2009 and it is now 2013!).
However, I seem to be missing something. In the post, you write that the trick is to increase the regular amount of liquid by 1 1/2. However, when you are listing ingredients/amounts within the post, you say to use 1 1/2 cups water/liquid.
1 1/2 times the regular amount would obviously be more than 1 1/2 cups!
Can you clarify?
Fixed!
Thanks! So, in general, you’re recommending 1 1/2 cups liquid per 1/2 cup oats…am I getting this right?
This is amazing! Thank you!!!! Do you have a recommendation to make this in bulk (like in a crock pot)? I tried & failed miserably.
Making one portion at a time isn’t too much trouble but I prefer to bulk cook for the week.
Sorry, I haven’t ever tried.
Hey Katie,
Ive tried this trick many times and I love it! I also love putting banana in my oatmeal so when I make oatmeal the regular way I smash up the bananas and put them in during the cooking process. So today I did that with this but using this trick and when I went to put it in my fridge I realized that when I put banana in my fridge it makes the fridge smell and everything in it taste like banana ( I am in college so I have a mini-fridge so thats why it does this to the fridge) What would happen if I covered the oatmeal? I don’t have to make everything in my fridge have that banana taste.