Whip up a hot breakfast in your pressure cooker with this delicious Instant Pot Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal! This is made with hearty steel cut oats, and is gluten free, dairy free, and peanut free.
We can’t get enough of hot and creamy Instant Pot oatmeal!
After we shared a recipe for our pressure cooker Pumpkin Spice oatmeal a few weeks ago, my family has loved having steel cut oats for breakfast in the morning.
Even if your family is not a fan of oatmeal made with rolled oats, they might fall in love with steel cut oatmeal. It has a better texture and is super easy to make in the Instant Pot.
And you can add your favorite ingredients to it, like pumpkin, apples, dried fruit, chopped nuts (if you can have them), seeds like chia, pumpkin, and sunflower, and seed or nut butters.
There are a ton of possibilities to make pressure cooker oats! And if you love to meal prep, you can make a big batch on the weekend to divide for breakfasts each day. It’s simple, versatile, and delicious!
How to make Instant Pot Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
Our recipe for pressure cooker apple oatmeal is based off of our Instant Pot Pumpkin Oatmeal. Since not everyone is a pumpkin spice fan, I decided to make an apple version. It’s delicious and perfect for fall!
I love cooking steel cut oats in the pressure cooker: it’s easy to make without worrying about babysitting a pot on the stove, or having the oatmeal boil over (which happened regularly when I cooked steel cut oats on the stove).
We use a CrockPot Express pressure cooker, but no matter your pressure cooker, it cooks up the same whether you use a CrockPot or an Instant Pot.
As soon as you open your pressure cooker, stir the oats well, then add your apple butter, cinnamon, Stevia drops, and chopped apples while it’s still hot, then allow it to cool a bit and thicken for a few minutes before serving.
I loved having the crunch of the apples in my oatmeal, but if you want less crunch from the apples, you can grate the apple into your oatmeal instead of dicing or chopping it.
This will also release more liquid from the apples, so it might be a bit less thick, so adjust your liquid slightly if you plan on grating the apples instead of chopping them.
If you’d like to meal prep or you have a big family, you can double this recipe, but check the size of your pot before you try to triple this recipe since pressure cookers come in different sizes and smaller ones might not hold a triple batch of oatmeal.
Check out our other great apple recipes!
- Instant Pot Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal
- Easy Instant Pot Apple Butter
- Dairy Free Caramel Apple Nachos
- Apple Butter Brown Sugar Cookies
- Gluten Free and Dairy Free Apple Recipes for Fall
- Gluten Free Apple Oatmeal Cookies
- Dairy Free Apple Pie Smoothie
- Ginger Apple Sparkling Cider
- Apple Cider Pancakes
- Apple Cinnamon Granola
Instant Pot Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal (Gluten Free)
Ingredients
- 1 cup gluten free steel cut oats* (or regular steel cut oats if you can have gluten)
- 2 ½ cups water
- 1 cup 100% juice apple cider (or unfiltered apple juice)
- ½ cup canned coconut milk (or your favorite non-dairy milk)
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup apple butter
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Stevia drops, to taste
- 1 cup diced apples
Equipment
Instructions
- Add the oats, water, apple juice, coconut milk, and salt to the pressure cooker pot and stir.
- Close the pressure valve on the pressure cooker and set to "Multigrain" on CrockPot Express or "Porridge" on Instant Pot for 10 minutes.
- Once the cooking time has completed, turn off the warming feature (if it automatically starts) and let the pressure cooker naturally release pressure for 10 minutes, then do a quick release of pressure by opening the valve and releasing the rest of the steam.
- Once the steam has fully released, open the pressure cooker and stir the oatmeal.
- Stir in the apple butter, cinnamon, Stevia drops (if using), and diced apples.
- Remove the pressure cooker insert (with the oatmeal still inside) and set it on a cooling rack and allow the oatmeal to cool for about 10 minutes before serving. Stir again and serve topped with a bit of coconut milk and apple butter.
Notes
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and healthy living blogger based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Mine came out cooked but very watery. Did I do something wrong? Once I added the apples and remaining ingredients it was less water, but still fairly liquidy.
Hi Shelby! It might seem watery at first, but it usually thickens up as it cools and once you’ve stirred it up. If it’s still not thick enough for your liking, I’d reduce the water a bit next time you cook it. It does thicken up as it sits though so you might let it sit for 10-15 minutes after cooking it to let it cool a bit and allow it to thicken more.
I want to make this with regular milk and apple sauce
That would probably turn out fine if you did that, you may want to add a little bit more cinnamon since apple butter has spices in it that applesauce doesn’t have.