Love apricots? Try these apricot overnight oats as a quick, delicious and filling breakfast. Apricot preserves and dried apricots make the creamy oats fruity and sweet. Using plant-based milk and yogurt makes this recipe vegan and dairy-free.
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Convenient and easy, overnight oats are great for busy weekday mornings, camping, road trips, traveling or anywhere where you can't cook.
These apricot overnight oats use our vegan basic overnight oats recipe as the base, except we are substituting the maple syrup for apricot preserves.
🧄 Very useful 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.
- 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 - Flaxseed also thickens the oatmeal slightly.
- Plant-based yogurt - amps up the creaminess and thickness. 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 you're 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.
- Flax - use chia seeds (white or black) instead of ground flaxseed. Or, omit them (but, bear in mind that your oatmeal will be less thick if you don't use either of these in your oats).
Here are some delicious variation ideas:
- Apricot Cardamom Oats - add ground cardamom to the oats to make apricot cardamom overnight oats
- Apricot Cinnamon Oats - add ground cinnamon
- Apricot Almond - add sliced almonds, almond butter and/or a drop of almond extract
- Apricot Cranberry - add a tablespoon of dried cranberries (or leftover cranberry sauce) to the oats
🔪 Instructions
Step-by-step instructions for how to make apricot overnight oats.
- Add rolled oats to a pint-size mason jar or container that holds at least 2 cups.
- Pour in plant-based milk and add ground flaxseed or chia seeds to jar.
- Add plant-based yogurt to jar.
- Add apricot preserves or jam.
- Add chopped dried apricots to jar.
- Stir everything together well with a spoon. Or, put the lid on tightly and shake the jar for 20-30 seconds to combine all the ingredients.
- 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.
- Use a canning funnel to add ingredients to jars (especially regular mouth jars, which are more narrow) without making a mess
🥡 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.
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📖 Recipe
Apricot Overnight Oats
Equipment
Ingredients
- ½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- ½ cup plant-based milk almond milk, soy milk, oat milk, etc.
- 2 tablespoons plant-based yogurt cashew yogurt, soy yogurt, coconut yogurt, etc.
- 1 teaspoon ground flaxseed or chia seeds
- 2 tablespoons apricot preserves or jam
- 6 dried apricots chopped
Instructions
- Add oats, milk, yogurt and ground flaxseed to a glass jar, bowl or container that will hold at least 12 and up to 16 ounces (this allows space for the oats and any toppings you add later). Stir everything together.½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats, ½ cup plant-based milk, 2 tablespoons plant-based yogurt, 1 teaspoon ground flaxseed
- Add apricot preserves and chopped dried apricots and stir together.2 tablespoons apricot preserves, 6 dried apricots
- Place a lid or cover on the container. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight.
- Eat cold or microwave for 30-60 seconds to warm up. Prepared overnight oats will stay good stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Hadassah Warren says
Definitely gonna try this one 😊
Abi Cowell says
Tell me what you think, Hadassah! 🙂