We have entered pumpkin season! Starting September 1st all things turn orange and smell like cinnamon and nutmeg in my house. Honestly, I can’t get enough of the fall flavors and aromas. They are good for my emotional well-being. In my opinion, there is nothing more relaxing then lounging in my velours, watching a 80s movie, and taking in the smell of fall spices. Mmmmmmm.
Pure fall smelling utopia is what you get with my new Slow Cooker Pumpkin Spice Steel Cut Oatmeal. I try to incorporate pumpkin into healthier wholesome recipes like oatmeal or smoothies because if I only prepared pumpkin muffins and pie I would have to change the name of this website. Just sayin. I do my best to create guilt-free ways to enjoy the flavors of pumpkin.
For this recipe I used 2 cups of steel cut oats, 2 teaspoons pumpkin spice, ¼ teaspoon salt, ¼ cup brown sugar, 1 (15-ounce) can pumpkin. Everything goes into the slow cooker.
I mixed those ingredients with 1-tablespoon vanilla, water, and coconut milk. You could certainly use all water or substitute the coconut milk for almond milk, dairy milk, or any milk you like. Personally, I love using coconut milk in recipes. It gives a creamy texture and keeps the recipe dairy-free. Recently, dairy milk has been upsetting our tummies so I try to avoid it when I can.
I set the slow cooker to low and let the oatmeal cook for 5 hours. This setting, and amount of time, cooked the steel cut oats perfectly. I ended up with a chewy oatmeal that still had a little bite to it. It was not mushy at all. I know a lot of you want to set your slow cooker to cook overnight and wake up to a delicious breakfast in the morning. However, I never had luck with cooking this for more than 5 hours – it always burns or turns into mush. 5 hours on low is the perfect time. This oatmeal stores and freezes great so I recommend making a batch on the weekend and keeping it in the fridge or freezer for a quick healthy breakfast.
This oatmeal is not going to be overly sweet when you first taste it. It will have a little sweetness from the pumpkin and the brown sugar but not a lot. I find it’s best for everyone to add their own amount of sweetness individually using pure maple syrup. That works for us. However, if you would like it sweeter as it cooks then just add extra brown sugar to the recipe.
I highly recommend adding dried cranberries to your oatmeal when enjoying a bowl. It is delicious! The tart of the cranberry complements the pumpkin and spices so well. Next time I might even throw some cranberries into the slow cooker as it cooks. Delish! I also sprinkled about a teaspoon of chopped pecans on top. Oh mama. Between the creaminess of the oatmeal, tartness and chew from the dried cranberries, and crunch from the pecans this bowl of pumpkin spice steel cut oatmeal was the perfect fall morning breakfast.
Ingredients
- 2 cups uncooked steel cut oats
- 1 15-ounce canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 2 teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup dark brown sugar lightly packed
- 6 cups water
- 2 cups unsweetened coconut milk
- 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
- pure maple syrup dried cranberries, and chopped pecans for serving.
Instructions
- Place steel cut oats, canned pumpkin, pumpkin pie spice, salt, and brown sugar into the slow cooker.
- Next, stir in the water, coconut milk, and pure vanilla extract.
- Put the lid on the slow cooker and set it to cook on low for 5 hours.
- Remove lid and let it sit for another 15 – 20 minutes.
- Serve with pure maple syrup, dried cranberries, and chopped pecans.
Notes
Nutrition
David W. Fitts, Sr. says
I hate it when I read reviews for recipes that cooks have given 1 star and find out they made multiple changes. At the point of making any change, that recipe now becomes their (version of) recipe. My version of this recipe deserves 3-4 stars but I will not sully the original version so 5 stars it is.
In my case, I have no options but to make changes to most recipes due to lack of certain ingredients here in the Philippines. Brown sugar here is ever so slightly sweet, nothing like that in the US. Pumpkin, be it canned or fresh, can almost never be found here. Instead we use kalabasa (calabaza) squash which is close but not quite identical to pumpkin. I used a little more than what is called for.
I used almond milk I had just made rather than coconut milk and I feel the latter would have imparted a better taste. I also opted to use dates for additional sweetness. I have almost a kilogram of goji berries so I threw a handful of those into the slow cooker.
It was on low most of the day and I had a heaping bowl of it for dinner. It had a slight sweetness, making my wife happy, but not enough for my US born and raised sweet tooth. I tried the “maple syrup” they have here and it was a no. I ended up putting Equal and extra cinnamon on it. When I was a kid, every bowl of oatmeal, Farina, cream of wheat I ate was topped with a heavy dose of cinnamon sugar. Some things never change.
I will definitely make this again but will try it with the coconut milk.
Karen Hill Miller says
Pretty amazing stuff. We have a Thanksgiving morning happy hour from 10-11 where friends who won’t be joining us for dinner, drop by for breakfast with mimosas or coffee with Baileys. I put this recipe in the crockpot when my husband got up to put the turkey on the smoker…Finished just in time…Yummo! No muss, no fuss…my favorite part of the day!
Lindsay says
Just tried this recipe. I added a bit more pumpkin, and made my own pie spice. I love this! It’s so creamy and the oatmeal has a great toothsome texture. I jarred it and now I have breakfast for the next week! Thank you!
lynn @ the actor's diet says
Yummy! I’m so happy pumpkin season is back.
sajida says
Is that 41 WW points??
Tammy Kresge says
No that is the carb count