Healthy, full of fiber, and lightly sweetened, these Chocolate Steel Cut Oats are an awesome breakfast for the week, with endless topping ideas!
Have you ever made anything with steel cut oats before?
I’m a big steel cut oats fan. Especially as the weather starts to drop, a warm bowl of oatmeal is super comforting. I love the Summer, but I also love the heck out of fuzzy blankets, hot coffee, and a bowl of warm oats.
Funny enough, my Dad actually got me started on steel cut oats. I’m not sure how he got into them, but he encouraged me to make them right after I had my son, and I’ve loved them ever since.
The chocoholic in me would love to jack these oats up with a lot of cocoa powder, sugar, and chocolate chips. BUT, that’s not really how I like to start my day.
So, these Chocolate Steel Cut Oats are lightly sweetened with honey (or maple syrup) and some chocolate chips melted into the oats (my secret trick for a little more chocolate flavor oomph!).
If you are a die-hard chocolate fan, that wants a super sweet breakfast still, then you may need to add more chocolate chips on top of your oats and use sugar instead of honey.
The honey does give the oats a bit of a honey-sweetened flavor, rather than a sugar-sweetened flavor that’s more neutral. I absolutely love honey, and prefer a more natural sweetener when I can use it, so this is how I like to make my Chocolate Steel Cut Oats! 🙂
Let’s get to making some gluten-free Chocolate Steel Cut Oats!
To begin, bring 3 cups of water to boil in a medium sized pot.
Once you have a rolling boil, stir in your gluten-free steel cut oats and salt. Reduce the heat to a low simmer, place the lid on your pot, and set your timer for 15-20 minutes (stirring your oats occasionally during that time).
The oats need to simmer on a low heat for 15-20 minutes to cook to the right texture. If your simmering your oats too hard, your oats will cook quicker and may not cook quite as well. You wanna go slow and steady, rabbit wins the race on this one. 15-20 minutes isn’t crazy long anyway, so keep your burner on low.
At 15 minutes you can check your oats, and if they’re too chewy leave them for another 5 minutes.
Steel cut oats have more of a chew to them than old fashioned oats because the oats haven’t been pressed and processed yet. I prefer steel cut oats because of this; for a texture eater, old fashioned oatmeal can be too mushy for me.
After your oats are done, remove them from the heat and add in your cocoa powder, honey, vanilla and chocolate chips.
To make this recipe dairy-free or even vegan, you can use maple syrup or granulated sugar to sweeten the oats, and dairy-free chocolate chips.
Now here’s the best part: Scoop some into a bowl and go CRAZY with the toppings. 😉
Here’s some of my personal favorites:
- A sliced banana and a spoonful of peanut butter
- A spoonful of raspberry jelly or fresh raspberries
- Chopped almonds and shredded coconut
- Chopped strawberries
And any other nuts, healthy seeds (chia or hemp seeds, anyone?) or toppings that you can think of!
I like to prepare these Steel Cut Oats at the beginning of a week and use them as meal prep for breakfast for the next several days.
Simply add the oats to your bowl, add a splash of milk (maybe 1-2 tbsp) and reheat in the microwave briefly, stir till the milk is blended into the oats, then reheat again till hot. Easy peasy! 🙂
I hope you all enjoy these lightly sweetened, healthy Chocolate Steel Cut Oats as much as I do!
And don’t forget to have fun with your toppings! Plain oatmeal is boring! 😉
Need more oat-spiration? (I know, I’m hilarious…) Check out my Baked Peanut Butter Steel Cut Oats, stove top Peanut Butter Steel Cut Oats, or Zucchini Bread Breakfast Cookies.
- 1 cup steel cut oats, certified gluten-free
- 3 cups water
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3 tbsp cocoa powder
- 2 tbsp honey (or maple syrup)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla
- 1/8 cup chocolate chips (dairy-free if necessary)
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Add your three cups of water to a pot and bring the pot to a boil on high heat. Add your steel cut oats and salt to the water, reduce the stove to low heat (to simmer) and put the lid on your pot.
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Simmer for 15-20 minutes, or till the oats are cooked through, stirring occasionally. The oats should be tender enough that they aren't completely chewy, but still have a bit of chew to them.
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Remove the oats from the heat, and add in your cocoa powder, honey, vanilla and chocolate chips. Stir until everything is well combined.
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Serve into bowls and top with your favorite toppings of choice. Extra chocolate chips are always a good choice!
These will stay good in a container in the fridge for about 5-6 days.
I really like this AM chocolate cereal fix. Replaces my less healthy chocolate malt o meal cereal. ❤️
This is exactly what I needed. Thanks so much. So yummy and easy to make. Perfect breakfast. Light and delicious! Thanks.
I love this! Making big batches for the mornings is my new go to for the week!
I have to admit I was intrigued with the idea of chocolate oatmeal so I had to try this! I am NOT a morning person by any definition (can barely turn the coffee on when I wake up lol) so I tried this the way I normally make steel cut oats – overnight. I toast the oats first in about a teaspoon of butter – don’t walk away because it happens fast – and then add the water and flavorings. Bring to a boil and then place the lid on and turn off the heat, then go to bed. Normally in the morning you have perfect oatmeal that just needs heating in the microwave. This is the first time I’ve put cocoa in it and I’m thinking it soaked up some of the water because it was still a bit underdone (never had that happen this method) so next time I’ll just add maybe 1/2 cup more water. This morning I just added some milk and put it on low heat for a bit and as it heated up the oats cooked to my liking. This is delicious and now I have breakfast ready for the week!
Have you ever made this in the instant pot and if so, how long did you cook it? Sa
Hi Sandy, I have not made these in an instant pot before. If you wanted to try them, I would recommend cooking your oats like this recipe https://detoxinista.com/instant-pot-steel-cut-oats/ and then adding the rest of the ingredients after so they’re flavored chocolate.
Loved this! I’m not an oatmeal eater but this turned out pretty good. I used cacao powder instead of cocoa and added blueberries as a topper.
Great, Ann! So glad you liked it! I’m not a huge oatmeal eater either, but I love the texture of steel cut oats.