Instant Pot Oatmeal

Making Instant Pot oatmeal is a quick and easy way to get a healthy, nutritious breakfast on the table fast! This oatmeal is creamy and delicious and it is fun to top it off with your favorite oatmeal topping.

Warm and creamy oatmeal is one of my favorite breakfasts! And making oatmeal in an Instant Pot is a great way to make lots of oatmeal with very little effort.

Oatmeal is pretty much an ideal breakfast food. It is versatile, inexpensive and nutritious. Sometimes I make overnight oatmeal, sometimes I put oatmeal in a berry smoothie but sometimes my family and I want a big bowl of warm oatmeal.

When my kids were growing up they loved those little packets of Instant oatmeal. But as they got to be teens they started eating two and three packets at a time – so we started making old fashioned oats instead.

They realized that while old fashioned rolled oats are a little more complicated to make they are also tastier. Plus when you make oatmeal from scratch you can flavor it any way you like.

Advantage of Pressure Cooker

Using a pressure cooker like the Instant Pot is a great way to make a batch of oatmeal. The biggest advantage of a pressure cooker is the cooking is completely hands off.

There is no need to stir the oatmeal as it cooks. The oatmeal can’t bubble over onto the burner. You just dump all the ingredients in, stir it once, and let it cook.

If you forget about the oatmeal for a little while because the morning gets unexpectedly hectic – not a problem. The Instant Pot will keep it warm while you deal with things like the dog getting loose and visiting a neighbor, or kids fighting over whose is wearing whose t-shirt.

I love simple meals, and Instant Pot oatmeal is simple. If you spend a couple minutes starting it when you wake up it will be ready to eat about 20 minutes later.

Ingredients

I use only four basic ingredients along with water for making this oatmeal.

• Oats
• Almond milk
• Cinnamon or cinnamon stick
• Salt

There are many, many different possible ways to top of the oatmeal once it is cooked. I give some of my family’s favorite oatmeal toppings at the end of this post. But almost any kind of fruit, nut or even vegetable can be stirred in to the cooked oatmeal.

What Kind of Oats?

This recipe works well with either old fashioned rolled oats or steel cut oats. Steel cut oats will need a little extra cooking time and a little more liquid, as noted in the recipe card.

In steel cut oats the oat grains are left whole and then cut into small pieces. On the other hand for rolled oats the oat grains are rolled flat.

Steel cut oats are less processed than rolled oats and have a little more fiber. But the biggest difference between the two types of oats is texture.

After cooking rolled oats will be creamier and have a softer texture. Steel cut oats will be firmer. So pick whichever one you and your family prefer. My family prefers rolled oats, so that is what I usually make.

Why Use Almond Milk?

If you use cow’s milk in this recipe the milk might scorch and you are likely to either get a BURN error or burned tasting oatmeal. Or both!

So if you want to use dairy milk you need to cook the oatmeal with the pot-in-pot method. This involves cooking the oatmeal in a separate pot on a trivet in the Instant Pot.

I do pot-in-pot cooking sometimes, but not for oatmeal. For me the whole point of Instant Pot oatmeal is the simplicity, and messing around with extra containers and trivets makes it not simple.

So this recipe is uses almond milk. It is possible other non-dairy milks like soy milk or cashew milk will work in this recipe, but I haven’t tried them yet.

How to Make Instant Pot Oatmeal

1. Combine the Ingredients

Put the almond milk, water, cinnamon stick, salt and oats in the pressure cooker. Stir them to mix.

2. Pressure Cook

Set the Instant Pot on Manual, high pressure, for 3 minutes (4 minutes for steel cut oats). It will take the Instant Pot 10-15 minutes to reach pressure.

3. Release the Pressure

After the Instant Pot is done cooking let the pressure release naturally for about 5 minutes. Then you can release any remaining pressure manually or let the pressure continue to release naturally.

As the pressure naturally releases the oats will continue to cook some, so the oatmeal will get softer. So if you prefer a firmer texture only allow 5 minutes of pressure release.

Can I Make this Ahead of Time?

This is a great recipe to make ahead of time. I make a big batch and store it in the refrigerator to reheat for breakfast all week long.

To reheat the oatmeal put it in the microwave for about 1 minute. Then stir it and add some almond milk or dairy milk and microwave it for another 30 seconds.

The oatmeal will thicken a bit with refrigeration, so you will probably want to add milk. The oatmeal will keep in the refrigerator for about 5 days.

Flavor Ideas

Here are some of my family’s favorite flavor variations.

Banana Nut Oatmeal

Top the oatmeal off with brown sugar, sliced bananas and almonds or walnuts.

Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

Add sliced apples and sprinkle the oatmeal with cinnamon sugar. Then finish it off with walnuts or pecans.

Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal

Stir in a spoonful of peanut butter and top the oatmeal off with bananas. This is a great way to add a little protein to oatmeal.

Tropical Oatmeal

Add chopped kiwi or mangoes to the oatmeal and then sprinkle it with unsweetened coconut.

Strawberry Cream Oatmeal

Add some sliced strawberries to the oatmeal and drizzle it with honey. This is also delicious with other berries like blueberries, blackberries or raspberries.

Blueberry Granola Oatmeal

Sprinkle the oatmeal with lots of fresh blueberries and then add some crunchy granola.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal

Perfect for cool fall days! Stir a spoonful of pumpkin puree into the oatmeal and then drizzle on some maple syrup and sprinkle it with pumpkin pie spice.

Frozen Berry Oatmeal

When you can’t get fresh fruit you can use frozen. Microwave the frozen fruit for 1 minute and then stir it into the cooked oatmeal.

Chocolate Cherry Oatmeal

Add fresh or dried cherries to the oatmeal along with a spoonful of chocolate chips. The warm oatmeal with melt the chocolate a little bit for a delicious chocolate flavor.

Almond Honey Oatmeal

Stir some almond butter into the oatmeal and drizzle it with honey. Top it off with crushed almonds.

Find More Easy Breakfasts

For more easy breakfast ideas try Air Fryer Toast, Blueberry Chia Pudding. Ham, Egg and Waffle Sandwiches or Spinach Frittata.