These Strawberry & Chocolate Overnight Oats are a great way to start the day. Easy to make and delicious to eat.
I’ve kept the sugar at minimum, so they are as healthy as they can be, with most sugar coming from the strawberries.
The yoghurt makes the oats extra creamy and rich and it also adds a bit of a tang to the chocolate and strawberries flavour.
Why make this recipe
- Great combination of chocolate & strawberries flavours
- Easy to make – I’ve included a quick version (no need to make them overnight)
- Low in sugar
- Easy to digest
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Recipe ingredients
Oats
I usually use basic rolled type of oats and sometimes I even buy gluten-free oats. What you don’t want to use is those kind of instant hot oat sachets, because the oats are already mixed with other ingredients and they are far too small.
Cocoa Powder
I’ve used various cocoa powders in this recipe over the years and they all work fine. Depending on the quality, just add more or less of the cocoa powder depending on your taste.
You can also use hot chocolate powder or grate or melt a regular chocolate bar for this recipe. Just make sure you don’t add any more sugar, as both hot chocolate powder and chocolate bars have already sugar in them.
Strawberries
Fresh strawberries are best, but frozen or even tinned ones work fine with this recipe. If you are after the strawberry flavour, you can also use strawberry jam, strawberry coulis, strawberry ice cream topping or anything else that has strawberries in it.
If you can’t get hold of strawberries, raspberries work great with this recipe too. Tiny amount of rose water adds extra fragrance to the strawberries and makes the overall taste extra luxurious.
Yoghurt
You can use any kind yoghurt you have or like. I usually use Greek dairy free yoghurt and mix it with water.
Full fat, semi-skimmed or skimmed dairy milk
Soya Milk
Oats Milk
Rice Milk
Dairy Milk (without lactose)
Yoghurt – dairy free or regular – white yoghurt or strawberry or vanilla flavoured
Optional ingredients, which work well with this recipe
- Chia Seeds – extra protein and vitamins
- Freeze dried strawberries – they add extra flavour
- Pumpkin seeds or Sunflower seeds – extra nutrition, protein and vitamins
Sweeteners – optional as toppings and only if really needed
- Sugar (regular white)
- Honey
- Maple syrup
- Rice syrup – lovely mild flavour
- Coconut syrup
Spice or flavourings
- Cinnamon
- Mixed Spice Mix >>
- Vanilla Extract
- Oatmeal Spice Mix >>
Here is how to make your Strawberry & Chocolate overnight oats recipe
- Measure and mix the oats, sugar, salt and spices in a small bowl or jam jar
- Add the yoghurt, water or milk and mix
- Close the lid & put in the fridge overnight
- Chopp fresh strawberries and decorate the top of your oats.
Pro tip
Make sure that you have enough liquid to let the oats soak up and expand.
I find that it slightly depends on the type of yoghurt or milk and oats you are using, but usually, 1/2 cup of oats is fine in a 3/4 cup of milk.
Sometimes I keep the ration of 1/2 oats to 1 cup of milk and yogurt and then it’s slightly watery, but I don’t really mind. I prefer if the oats are fully soaked then not.
Time saving tip – the cheaters way to overnight oats
If you run out of time to prepare your overnight oats the night before, there is a way to make them in the morning or about 20-30 minutes before you want to eat them.
It’s a bit of a cheating, but the main reason for doing overnight oats – overnight – is to soak them to make them easy to eat and to digest.
You can also do this by slightly cooking them. You’ll need a microwave, cooker or at least hot boiling water for this.
Here is how to make overnight oats in 5 minutes
When you are making your first cuppa of the day, boil some extra water and pour it on to your oats until they are just covered. Cover with lid and go and get ready for the day…
When you are ready for your breakfast, mix some yoghurt in the oats, cocoa powder and any spices you choose. Add strawberries and perhaps a dash of maple syrup or honey.
Enjoy, eat and have a great day!
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A few questions you might have about overnight oats
Is soaking oats necessary ?
No, it’s not necessary. I mean you can eat oats without soaking, but to be honest you are going to add your digestive system extra work.
The soaking makes the oats easier to digest and easier for our digestive system to extract all the nutrition from the oats.
Can I do overnight oats without refrigeration?
Yes, absolutely! We’ve been making overnight oats when we were camping and didn’t have any access to fridge. The oats are fine outside the fridge, but it depends what kind of milk or yoghurt you are going to use.
If you use plan based milk (like oats, soya or rice milk) your oats will be fine overnight without the fridge. Saying that, we used just normal milk back then and it was fine too and the milk didn’t go sour.
Strawberry & Chocolate Overnight Oats (Low in sugar)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup oats rolled or steel cut
- 1/2 cup white yoghurt dairy or plant based (rice, almond, soya, oat yoghurt)
- 1/3 cup water or milk of your choice
- 3 teaspoons cocoa powder or to your taste
- tiny pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon demerara sugar optional
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- handful of strawberries for the topping
- 1 teaspoon maple syrup or other sweetener of your choice
Instructions
- Measure out all the dry ingredients – rolled oats, cocoa powder, cinnamon, brown sugar (if using), tiny pinch of salt and mix in a small bowl or directly inside the jar or your container.
- Add the yoghurt and mix until smooth.
- Add water or milk to make the oats mixture quite runny. You don't need to use all the amount if it looks like it's too much.
- Place in a suitable container (jam jar, plastic beaker or just a small bowl with a lid).
- Place in the fridge overnight.
- Serve topped up with fresh strawberries and a dash of maple syrup or honey (or regular sugar)
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