Cherry Oatmeal with Chocolate Chunks is like dessert for breakfast! Quick cook oats with a hint of cinnamon, sweetened with maple syrup, and a little bit of vanilla oat milk to add even more creaminess topped with pitted fresh cherries and chocolate chunks.

This warm and comforting oatmeal reminds me of chocolate covered cherries, it’s like dessert for breakfast. For this oatmeal, we used quick cooking oats since we have a ton of them in the house. You could use rolled oats (Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal) or even steel-cut oats, just make sure to cook them as directed.

For this recipe, we make vanilla oat milk using our oat milk recipe and adding in good quality vanilla extract. We always have a batch of this ready to go for the morning so our breakfast is quick and easy. You could also use the milk and extract separately.

CHERRY OATMEAL TOPPINGS:

This oatmeal is great as is, but you can add more things like chopped nuts, seeds. hemp hearts, even a drizzle of nut butter. Not a cherry fan? Use your favorite fruit, this vanilla oatmeal is a great base for your favorites!

WHAT KIND OF CHERRIES DO I USE?

We like using fresh cherries whenever they’re available. When we see a good sale on cherries we’ll pit them and freeze them as well. You can use fresh, frozen, or even dried cherries for this recipe. If you’re using dried cherries we recommend heating them up with the water so they can plump up a little bit. Note; this will give the oatmeal a pink color.

SWEETENER OPTIONS:

We always opt for maple syrup where it fits and maple syrup oatmeal is always a winning combo. You could also use brown sugar, agave, or cane sugar.

CAN I MAKE OATMEAL IN ADVANCE?

Yes, you can definitely make this in advance and store it in the refrigerator for about 2-3 days. We just quickly heat it up and add a little more oat milk if you want to thin it a bit. Another option would be to prep all of the dry ingredients and make your own little oatmeal packets, we do this using stasher bags or mason jars. Then you can just heat whenever ready with the wet ingredients.

DO I NEED TO MAKE THIS OATMEAL ON STOVETOP?

No, you can actually put the oatmeal into your desired bowl if you’re using quick-cooking oats. Just pour hot water over the oats, along with the chia seeds, and cinnamon and stir until combined. We like cooking it on the stovetop so we can control the consistency and also warm up the oat milk a little bit.

More cherry recipes:

RECIPE NOTES:

You can use whatever cherries you have on hand. We prefer fresh, but you can use frozen or even dried cherries.
Cinnamon is one of our favorite warm spices, you could also add nutmeg, cloves, or even pumpkin spice or apple pie spice.You can use gluten-free oatmeal or traditional rolled oats. You could also use steel-cut oats if you have more time to cook.
Use your favorite plant-based milk to keep this oatmeal vegan or you can use regular dairy if desired. Our favorites are oat or almond milk.

brown sugar

tastes good

3/4 cups

large microwave safe bowl

frozen cherries

baked oatmeal

almond milk

almond extract

rolled oats

golden brown

maple syrup

vanilla extract