These Overnight Oats with Protein Powder are a healthy plant-based breakfast recipe that is easy to make ahead of and meal prep for 4 days of high-protein breakfast. Bonus, this Protein Overnight Oats recipe is also vegan, gluten-free, and contains 18 grams of plant-based proteins per serving.
We’re huge fans of getting a healthy dose of plant-based protein. I’ve made countless pre- and post-workout protein snacks to help you refuel, like my Brownie Protein Bites, Protein Powder Mug Cake, or Vegan Protein Balls. They’re all great ways of recharging.
But there are times you need something that feels rich, creamy, full of flavors. That’s when I make overnight oats with protein powder!
While the full recipe is just below, don’t miss all my ingredient selection tips, step-by-by-step pictures, and video further down!
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Overnight Oats with Protein Powder
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cup Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats - note 1
- 2 tablespoons Chia Seeds - black or white
- 2 scoops Protein Powder - we used Macro Mike Vanilla protein powder (1 scoop about 40g)
- 2 cups Almond Milk
- 2 tablespoons Maple Syrup
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, add old-fashioned rolled oats, chia seeds, protein powder, and cinnamon. Stir to distribute evenly.
- Stir in almond milk, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Seal the bowl with a lid, refrigerate overnight. I recommend stirring the mixture 1 hour after you pop it in the fridge. This prevents the chia seeds from sinking to the bottom of the bowl.
- The next day, serve in small serving jars with peanut butter, dairy-free yogurt, fresh berries, and nuts.
Notes
Nutrition
Why You Will Love This Recipe
An Overnight oat recipe is a healthy breakfast, a cold oatmeal recipe that doesn’t require cooking the oats and therefore makes oats easier to digest.
This vegan breakfast recipe is also:
- Easy way to make ahead in large batches
- Loaded With Protein
- Easy, healthy, and nourishing
- Perfect as a post-workout recovery breakfast or for muscle weight gain
Ingredients and Substitutions
This healthy overnight oats recipe with protein powder is the easiest way to quickly add a lot of proteins to your overnight oat recipe.
The choice of your ingredients matters when it comes to adding protein powder to overnight oats. In fact, protein powder soaks a lot of liquid in the recipe, and if you use different ingredients, the result can be very gummy to very dry.
- Old-Fashioned Rolled Oats – This is the coarse version of oats, and it doesn’t absorb liquid as much as quick oats. That’s why it’s the best choice for protein overnight oats, as this adds texture and keeps the oatmeal creamy and smooth.
- Chia Seeds – If you don’t like chia seeds, you can use a flax meal instead, but keep in mind that flax meal adds a slightly bitter flavor to the mixture, so it’s not our favorite choice. Removing the chia seeds from overnight oats loosens up the texture and turns the mixture liquid.
- Unsweetened Almond Milk is the best choice since it’s low in calories and light in flavor. But if you are after more proteins, try soy milk or oat milk for a nut-free option.
- Sweetener of Choice – We use maple syrup, but any liquid sweetener like agave syrup or sugar-free erythritol works as well. If you use a crystal sweetener, it won’t dissolve as well.
- Vanilla Extract is my go-to boost of flavor for this recipe, but, almond extract is delicious. You can totally leave out vanilla extract if your protein powder has a strong vanilla flavor.
- Cinnamon – This is optional, but this adds a delicious flavor to the recipe and it can be replaced with pumpkin pie spices for a high-protein fall oatmeal recipe.
- Protein Powder of Choice – We used vanilla peanut protein powder made from peanuts, but any vanilla plant-based protein powder works well including hemp protein powder or pea protein powder. We didn’t try whey protein powder, but you should expect similar results.
Step-By-Step Video
Tips For Overnight Oats with MORE Protein
Many of you don’t like protein powder flavor or simply don’t have protein powder at home. The great news is that you can make protein overnight oats without protein powder. I like protein powder recipes because it’s the easiest way to add loads of protein to a recipe with just a small amount of protein powder.
But, if you don’t enjoy protein powder flavor, or you don’t have any at home, you can make overnight oats without protein powder. To do so, replace a part of the plant-based milk with the same amount of:
- High-Protein Yogurt – Plain soy yogurt is a great option. Replace up to 1/2 cup of the plant-based milk with this to keep a nice smooth and creamy texture.
- Store-Bought Ready-Made Protein Shakes – These are already flavored and sweetened. It means you must remove the vanilla and sweetener for this recipe or the result will be too sweet.
- Nut Butter – Add up to 1/4 cup almond butter or peanut butter powder to the recipe to boost the protein content without protein powder.
- High-Protein Seeds – Stir in 1/4 cup of hemp seeds. This is the highest protein seed available on the market, and it’s the best to add protein to recipes without using any protein powder.
Topping Suggestions
Protein overnight oats are very blend served by themselves and it taste even better served in small jars, with layers of other ingredients, including:
- Fruits – Berries like strawberry, raspberries, blueberries, or chopped apples and banana slices. Feel free to stir fresh or frozen berries in overnight oats. You can also stir the berries in the entire batch before soaking the oats overnight.
- Nuts – The best nuts are chopped pecans, almonds, or hazelnuts. They stay very crunchy even if soaked in the mixture, and they boost the protein content of your breakfast.
- Seeds – As mentioned before, hemp seeds are the best boost of plant-based protein.
- Peanut Butter or almond butter or high-protein options, and they add a creamy nutty flavor to the recipe.
- Chocolate Chips – You can use sugar-free dark chocolate chips to keep the recipe healthy and sugar-free.
- Salted Caramel – Add a layer of Date Caramel between layers of oats.
- Melted Dark Chocolate – Drizzle some melted 70% cocoa chocolate to turn this breakfast into an indulgent dessert flavor.
- Apple Cinnamon – Add a layer of apple puree and cinnamon between layers of oats.
Flavoring Options
The possibilities are endless, and you can add some ingredients to this vanilla overnight oats with protein powder mixture to create a range of breakfast flavors. For example, try the options below:
- Biscoff Protein Overnight Oats – Stir 1 1/2 tablespoons of Biscoff spread with the liquid ingredients and skip the sweetener.
- Chocolate Protein Overnight Oats – Use chocolate protein powder, and add 1 tablespoon of unsweetened cocoa powder to the dry ingredients.
- Pumpkin Pie Protein Overnight Oats – Add 1/4 cup of pumpkin puree, decrease plant-based milk by the same amount, and add 1 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice.
Tips and Tricks
Which Protein Powder Can I Use?
You can use any vegan protein powder in these overnight oats with almond milk. Plant-based protein powders are highly recommended, like pea protein powder, almond protein powder, or peanut protein powder.
You can use vanilla-flavored powder or even chocolate protein powder in this recipe to make chocolate overnights oats.
Can I Skip The Chia Seeds?
No, you can’t make overnights oats without chia seeds, or the texture will be runny. In fact, you need high-fiber seeds like chia seeds or flaxseed meal to add a jelly-like texture to the overnight oats. You can use white chia seeds or black chia seeds in this recipe.
Other options are to swap the 2 tablespoons of chia seeds with 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal or 1 tablespoon of whole psyllium husk.
Are Protein Overnight Oats Healthy?
Yes, overnight oats are one the most healthy breakfast with a high nutrients profile, including:
- High fiber – chia seeds and oats are high in fiber, and one serving of overnights oats contains 6 grams of fiber.
- High protein – these overnight oats are made with protein powder, so it’s one of the highest protein breakfasts with 18 grams of protein per serving.
- High nutrient profile – raw breakfasts are uncooked, which preserves all the vitamins and nutrients from grains and seeds.
- Low GI – these overnights oats with protein powder are high in fiber and low in carbs keeping your blood sugar level stable for longer. Plus, if you don’t add the sweetener, one serving only contains 20 grams of net carbs and 200 kcal!
Can I Use Instant Oats?
You can replace old-fashioned oats with instant oats, but you may have to add more instant oats to achieve the same creamy texture. In fact, instant oats contain less fiber, and it’s less liquid absorbent than rolled oats.
As a result, if you swap one for the other, the texture of your overnight oats with protein powder can be very liquid.
More Overnight Oat Recipes
Do you love overnight oats? You may also like these healthy plant-based recipes:
I use this recipe all the time!
I like to add in pumpkin pie spice and/ or shredded coconut.
Thank you! I love your ideas and will try the pumpkin pie spices next time. Thanks for sharing.
Can you make this into a shake?
It’s a thick recipe, you can’t drink it from a shaker. But you can shake in a shaker, remove lid when the oats has firm up and eat with a spoon.
Great favor, loved the texture. All 3 of the kids loved it too. We added diced apples and preferred them a little warm, just threw it on the stove til it was room temp.
For this recipe how many meals do you actually get out of it?
It fills 4 of my jars and I use one per breakfast!
Lover overnight oats but always been conscious of protein powder not used straight away, but you say can stay in the fridge for 4-5 days. Can you advise why this is ok?
Plant-based protein powder is very stable in the fridge, much more than whey protein powder which itself is safe for 2-3 days in the fridge.
OMG. This was so delicious, healthy and satisfying… It was so easy to make, I ate it warm and cold with apples and roasted pecans and almonds… Thank you for sharing
Best overnight oats recipe I’ve tried, and my whole family will finally eat them!!! Thank you!!
Thank you! I totally agree with you on that, we also love this recipe
Delicious! I have a silly question, though; the Nutritional Information lists 25 mg of cholesterol. Since all of the ingredients are vegan, where does the cholesterol come from?
Thank you! Wow, what an eagle-eye comment! Yes, it’s not supposed to have any cholesterol.
Hi, thanks for so many great recipes, always a pleasure to receive them.
I have been having breakfast for years making something similar but I add:
ground sunflower seeds heaping tablespoon
ground flax heaping tablespoon
ground pumpkin seeds heaping tablespoon
one banana
tehina heaping tablespoon
organic peanut butter heaping tablespoon
blueberries 50 gram (frozen)
yoghurt 150 ml
My main meal of the day! Keeps me health (no medical problems whatsoever) and full the entire day! Also being physically active keeps me going at 72+ years.
Can I make this in tiramisu ?
Yes you can – use my Tiramisu Overnight Oats for inspiration!