Carrot Cake Oatmeal
While we all know oatmeal is a staple in the vegan diet since it’s nutritious, filling, and easy to make, we can also admit that oatmeal can be SUPER boring. Spruce up your usual breakfast and have carrot cake oatmeal instead!
This recipe is the perfect way to sneak veggies into your breakfast or even your kids’ breakfast since, much like in real carrot cake, you can’t really taste the carrots anyway! The maple syrup, cinnamon, and walnuts will give you just the right amount of sugar and spice to make you think you’re having dessert for breakfast.
Carrots get their orange color from being high in beta carotene, which is an essential antioxidant in protecting against certain cancers and aging. (1) If you read my 6 Tips on Being A Healthy Vegan post, then you’ll know that orange is also an important color in our diet for supporting our immune function. So this is a really easy way to get your immunity points first thing in the morning, which is obviously very important at the moment.
Walnuts are my favorite nut to add in any spiced cake or loaf (carrot cake, banana bread, etc.), and here they add the perfect texture for this oatmeal. What I didn’t know was that beta carotene is a fat-soluble vitamin, so eating carrots with a fat – like walnuts – will actually help your body absorb it better!
I hope you love this different take on oatmeal as much as I do, and I hope it inspires you to find new ways to change up your old faithful meals. Carrot cake oatmeal is a simple way to do just that.
Carrot Cake Oatmeal
Ingredients
Main Ingredients
- ¾ cup rolled oats
- 1 cup water (1½ cups water if you prefer thinner oatmeal)
- ½ - 1 small carrot shredded
Spices and Toppings
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- maple syrup to taste
- Pinch of salt
- 3 - 5 walnuts chopped
Instructions
- Bring oats and water to a boil, stirring frequently until the oats start to cook and thicken.
- Reduce heat to low-medium. Shred half to one whole small carrot with a grater into the pot and stir to combine with the oatmeal.
- Stir in the cinnamon, maple syrup or sweetener to taste, and salt. Let simmer for 3 mins.
- Once the carrot cake oatmeal is done cooking, fold in a few chopped walnuts and top off with additional maple syrup.
