Tropical Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats (Dairy-Free, Vegan)

Name: Tropical Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats (Dairy-Free, Vegan)
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 4 min
Total time: 14 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: vegan
Ingredients: 1 cup steel cut oats; 2 cups water; ½ cup coconut cream; ½ large Mexican papaya, chopped into bite-sized pieces; 4 tablespoons hemp seeds

by Carrie Forrest, MPH in Nutrition | Aug 23, 2018 (updated: 2/26/20)

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Here’s an easy recipe for Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats made dairy-free, gluten-free and vegan. This is a creamy and sweet tropical-flavored healthy breakfast.

Getting Started

I suppose you could say I’ve fallen in love with my Instant Pot pressure cooker, but learning how to use it was not easy for me! I had gotten so used to using the slow-cooker where you can add a million ingredients and the dish turns out fine, but the pressure cooker is just not like that.

I get a lot of questions about the best recipes to make in the Instant Pot pressure cooker, and my best advice is to keep it simple. One or two ingredient recipes are the best to start with until you get the hang of how pressure cooking works.

That said, I’ve become a huge fan, mostly because of how fast you can cook things, along with the fact that the Instant Pot won’t heat up your kitchen like cooking on the stove or in the oven does. This Tropical Instant Pot Steel Cut Oats recipe is just so perfect for busy mornings, and is a great easy recipe for Instant Pot newbies and pros.

Don’t miss my round-up with nearly 60 vegan Instant Pot recipes!

How to Make Steel Cut Oats

For this simple breakfast dish, I used gluten-free steel cut oats, coconut cream, Mexican papaya (feel free to use Hawaiian papaya, but it’s usually much more expensive), and water.

Steel cut oats are one of those foods I never cooked before I got an Instant Pot, because they can take forever to cook! The Instant Pot pressure cooker will cook them in 4 minutes! I recommend the 6-quart Instant Pot for the most versatility. I have the Duo60 model from Amazon that ships free for Prime members.

Most pressure cooker recipes require at least one cup of liquid. For this steel cut oat recipe, you’ll need to use two cups of water and 1/2 cup of coconut cream to one cup of oats. That means you’ll have a ratio of 1 cup of raw oats to 2 1/2 cups of liquid. Here’s what the oatmeal looks like after it cooks for 4 minutes. You can see how creamy it is!

To give this recipe a tropical flair, plus some protein, I added chopped Mexican papaya and a few tablespoons of hemp seeds. You could also use mango or banana, if you prefer. If you need more protein at breakfast, I can also recommend stirring in a scoop of organic, grass-fed collagen peptides just before serving (note: collagen is not vegan).

Can I just tell you that I’ve been meaning to make this recipe for almost two years now? I originally had a tropical coconut breakfast porridge on my last vacation in Maui, and I’ve been wanting to re-create it ever since.

There is just nothing like the flavors of papaya and coconut. Take me back to Hawaii, please!!!

If you’re gluten-free like me, be sure to buy certified gluten-free steel cut oats. You can find them on Amazon. You might also like my gluten-free Instant Pot Amaranth Breakfast Porridge recipe.

Here’s the printable recipe: