Start your morning with dessert first! Easy Creamy Chocolate Oatmeal has a short, simple, and nutritious ingredient list with so much decadent chocolate flavor. Top it with your favorite fruit or creamy nut butter for a dish that's both indulgent and healthy!
This Easy Creamy Chocolate Oatmeal has got to be the ultimate in decadent breakfasts! It tastes like a dessert, but it has a really simple, nutritious ingredient list that will leave you feeling full all morning. My kids request Chocolate Oatmeal all the time now, and not just for breakfast! It's great as a snack or even dessert.
How to Make Creamy Chocolate Oatmeal
I have totally cracked the code to creating perfect, creamy oats. There are a few tricks for making it happen without actually adding cream! Number one: you'll need a little patience. Use a lot of liquid, and cook your oatmeal for a long time to let your liquids really soak into the oats. Second, use a lot of liquid. Finally, use quick-cooking oats instead of rolled old-fashioned! It makes a difference! No lumpy, sticky, or dry oats here.
I love getting natural, sustainable energy from oats. They're full of soluble fiber, and they’re higher in protein and healthful fats than most other whole grains. They're a perfect breakfast because they keep you full longer and give you a wonderful energy boost naturally! I use quick-cooking oats as a base in so many of my recipes. I always keep some in the pantry!
Health Benefits of Cocoa
With store-bought chocolate, different types have varying amounts of flavanols, making some varieties more beneficial than others. As much as 90 percent of the flavanols may be lost when processing the cocoa bean into cocoa powder and chocolate. The cocoa beans are fermented to reduce bitterness and roasted to bring out the chocolate flavor and aroma. So, although the processing of chocolate makes it taste better, the nutritional downside is that it reduces the final flavanol content.
The health benefits of chocolate come from antioxidants called flavanols found in the cocoa solids (as opposed to the cocoa butter). Consumed in large amounts, studies have shown that flavanols in chocolate may:
- Lower high blood pressure and decrease levels of bad cholesterol leading to decreased risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke
- Promote lung health and protect against asthma
- Decrease the risk of diabetes and even several types of cancer
- Benefit the brain and preserve cognitive abilities to lower the risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease
- Improve your mood and feelings of pleasure
- Benefit the vascular system by reducing the risk of blood clots and increasing blood flow in the arteries and the heart
Dark chocolate (also known as “bittersweet” or “semisweet” chocolate) has a rich, intense flavor. It contains more than 60 percent cocoa solids and typically has less added sugar than milk chocolate (I look for no refined sugar added!). Dark chocolate provides a number of important minerals including calcium, magnesium and potassium. Dark chocolate gets you more cacao solids and thus more flavanols than milk chocolate. Flavanols provide a dark pigment, so visually you can look for darker color for more nutritional benefits. The label for store-bought chocolate will also tell you what percentage of cacao it contains. Usually, the greater percentage the better.
My Favorite Vegan Chocolate Chips
I typically use Hu vegan chocolate gems for this recipe! They're refined sugar-free and dairy-free, and they add the perfect chocolate flavor. My kids love that they're getting chocolate for breakfast.
Chocolate Oatmeal Toppings
One of the best ways to make this simple chocolate oatmeal a little more exciting is to add toppings. Kids love dressing their bowl with their favorite toppings, too! A couple of our favorites:
- Melted coconut butter
- Strawberries or blueberries
- Pecans
- Almond butter
- Vegan butter
- Almond milk
- Homemade Granola
I like to set out a couple options and let the kids decorate their own bowls. Customizing it themselves makes them feel ownership over it and I have found that they are likely to eat more when they feel that way.
Check out this 15 second video of me making this recipe.
This recipe is vegan, gluten-free, peanut-free and soy-free. It's naturally sweetened with maple syrup, making it refined sugar-free as well. It’s a breakfast everyone can enjoy morning after morning!
More Oat Recipes (all gluten-free, vegan and refined sugar-free)
Cranberry & Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies
SEE ALL MY BREAKFAST RECIPES HERE
Print
Easy Creamy Chocolate Oatmeal (vegan + gluten-free + refined sugar-free)
- Total Time: 12 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Diet: Vegan
Description
Start your morning with dessert first! Easy Creamy Chocolate Oatmeal has a short, simple, and nutritious ingredient list with so much decadent chocolate flavor. Top it with your favorite fruit or creamy nut butter for a dish that's both indulgent and healthy!
Ingredients
- 3 cups filtered water
- 1.5 cups quick cooking gluten free oats
- ¼ cup pure maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder (or cacao powder)
- Pinch of salt
- ½ teaspoons vanilla extract (at end with burner off)
- Optional: 1 small handful Hu Chocolate gems (vegan and refined sugar-free)
Instructions
- Bring water to a rolling boil and add oats. Add maple syrup, cocoa powder and salt. Whisk or stir well until smooth and creamy and water is mostly absorbed (about ten minutes). Add the Hu Chocolate gems if using and stir them in until them melt from the heat of the oats.
- Turn off the burner and add vanilla extract. Serve into four bowls.
- Top with creamy nut or seed butter (try my homemade creamy raw almond butter) and fresh or frozen berries. My kids like to top with hemp and chia “sprinkles” and vegan butter. If it’s too hot they stir in cold almond milk to cool it off fast. My homemade coconut whipped cream and my raspberry chia jam would also be delish for toppings. More ideas: coconut butter, coconut flakes, mini vegan chocolate chips, banana slices
Notes
My favorite brand of cocoa powder for the very best chocolate flavor is Whole Foods 365 brand. It is a vibrant rich dark brown color which indicates that it has a strong chocolate flavor. When I have used other brands it has not tasted as good to me and my children even notice if I run out of the one we like!
- Prep Time: 2
- Cook Time: 10
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Stovetop
Keywords: easy vegan chocolate oatmeal
Teryn says
VERY DELICIOUS! If you are someone like me who looks to minimize sugar than I think half the sugar she suggests is enough
Elaine Gordon says
Thank you so much, Teryn! So happy you enjoyed it so much! I usually am making this recipe with my kids in mind and with them the sweeter the better lol. But you are right you could definitely cut back on the maple syrup bit if you are trying to minimize your sugar intake... and it would still be delicious 🙂