Apricot Cardamom Overnight Oats (vegan)

Fruity and sweet, these apricot cardamom overnight oats are a quick, delicious and filling breakfast. Apricot jam, ground cardamom and dried apricots pair nicely with the creamy vegan, dairy-free oats. No cooking, just add everything to a jar and it's ready in the morning!

Convenient and easy, overnight oats are great for busy weekday mornings, camping, road trips, traveling or anywhere where you can't cook.

These apricot cardamom overnight oats use our vegan basic overnight oats recipe as the base. Apricot preserves sweeten the oats without the need for added sweetener on its own. And, ground cardamom infuses warming spice and fragrance.

Jump to:

• 🧄 Ingredient notes
• 📋 Substitutions and variations
• 🔪 Instructions
• ⭐️ Expert tips
• 🍳 Equipment
• 🥡 Make ahead and storage tips
• ❓ FAQ
• 💜 More recipes you'll love
• 📖 Recipe
• 💬 Reviews

🧄 Ingredient notes

• Dried apricots - dried apricots are sweet and chewy. Dice them up into small pieces before mixing them in your oats.
• Apricot jam or preserves - the apricot jam or preserves sweeten the oatmeal, as well as infuse them with apricot flavor.
• Ground cardamom - a little goes a long way with cardamom. This warming, fragrant spice pairs well with apricots, apples and peaches. If you don't have already ground cardamom, open 2-3 pods of green cardamom and finely crush the seeds inside in a mortar and pestle. Discard the shells.
• Old-fashioned rolled oats - do not use quick oats for this recipe, they turn out mushy. Don't use steel cut, they don't get soft enough to enjoy with this method. You want old-fashioned rolled oatmeal for this method of cooking oats.
• Plant-based milk - any vegan milk you enjoy should work here, like almond milk (pictured), soy milk, oat milk (for that double oat flavor!), coconut milk, cashew milk and rice milk. You can use unsweetened or sweetened original varieties, if you like. Vanilla milk works great, too.
• Ground flax - adds health benefits of added fiber, along with omega-3. Flaxseed also thickens the oatmeal slightly.
• Plant-based yogurt - amps up the creaminess and protein. Vegan yogurts made from cashew, soy, coconut, almond and oat will all work here.

📋 Substitutions and variations

Here are some suitable substitution options for the ingredients:

• Dried apricot - you can use fresh apricot instead of dried. Be sure to pit them and dice them before adding. I'd recommend adding them in the morning, so they are freshest.
• Apricot preserves - use refined sugar-free apricot preserves or jam, if avoiding sugar. A homemade apricot chia jam would work great! If not using apricot preserves, which sweeten the oats, you may want to add maple syrup, brown sugar, cane sugar, date syrup, agave nectar or coconut sugar instead.
• Ground cardamom - instead of cardamom, use ground cinnamon. Or, omit the spice.
• Plant-based milk - use any plant-based milk you enjoy. Vanilla-flavored milk works especially well in this recipe.
• Flax - use chia seeds (white or black) instead of ground flaxseed. Or, omit them (but, keep in mind that it will not be as thick if you don't use either of these in your oats).
• Nut-free - make this nut-free by using a nut-free plant milk, such as soy milk, rice milk or oat milk.
• WFPBNO - make this whole food plant based no oil by using plant-based milk, yogurt and preserves with no added oil or refined sugar.
• SOS-free - make this salt-, sugar- and oil-free by using a plant-based milk, yogurt and preserves with no added salt, sugar or oil.

Here are some variation ideas for these apricot cardamom overnight oats:

• Peach Cardamom Oats - substitute peach preserves or jam (or brown sugar) and fresh or dried peaches instead of the apricot
• Apple Cardamom Oats - substitute applesauce and fresh diced apples instead of the apricot
• Just Apricot Oats - omit the cardamom for plain apricot overnight oats

🔪 Instructions

Step by step instructions for how to make apricot cardamom overnight oats.

Place jar in refrigerator overnight or at least 2 hours. When you're ready to eat them, pull it out of the fridge and eat cold or warm up in microwave for 30-60 seconds.

⭐️ Expert tips

• If you want to make your overnight oats look pretty and layered, mix up plain overnight oats in a separate container. Then, spoon the preserves into the bottom of the jar or glass and carefully add the plain overnight oats and other toppings to create clean layers. Then, refrigerate. Or, create layers just before eating or serving.
• Use a canning funnel to add ingredients to jars (especially regular mouth jars, which are more narrow) without making a mess

🍳 Equipment

• a container to hold your overnight oats that holds 1 pint (about 2 cups, 16 ounces or 550 milliliters). I recommend using wide mouth pint size mason jars. The pretty glasses in my pictures are 15 ounce stemless wine glasses from Walmart.
• measuring spoons and cups
• small knife to cut the dried apricots

🥡 Make ahead and storage tips

Overnight oats are perfect for meal prep and batch cooking. Make them Sunday night to have breakfast ready to go all week long. Store overnight oats in the refrigerator, combined, for up to 5 days.

This recipe does not stand up well to freezing.

❓ FAQ

💜 More recipes you'll love

If you love this apricot cardamom overnight oats recipe, check out these other plant-based breakfast recipes!

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📖 Recipe