Overnight Oats

No cooking at all. The ratio is the recipe, and the chia seeds are what stop it being soup.

Prep
5m
Cook
Waiting
8h
Total
8h 5m
Serves
1 jar
Effort
Easy
Scale
1 jar
Units

Method

Overnight Oats — recipe grid
1/2 cup 1 Stir together until no dry pockets remain 3m 2 Seal and refrigerate overnight 8h Eight hours minimum. Four gives you cold wet oats.
2/3 cup
2 tbsp
1 tbsp
1 tsp
a pinch
a handful
1 tbsp
Read left to right: ingredients merge into steps, and the rightmost cell is the last thing you do. Steps account for 8h 3m of hands-on and cooking time.

The ratio

Roughly 1 part oats to 1.3 parts liquid by volume, plus a tablespoon of chia per portion. Less liquid and it sets stiff; more and it never thickens. The chia is doing structural work — without it you need to cut the liquid by a third and the texture is looser.

Notes

  • A pinch of salt matters more here than in almost anything else on this site. Unsalted oats taste of nothing.
  • Fruit in the morning. Berries left overnight bleed and go slack.
  • Make five jars on Sunday. They keep four days.

Try butter, 30 minutes, braise, or an ingredient you need to use up.