Bready or Not Original: Slow Cooker Apple Steel Cut Oats

These Slow Cooker Apple Steel Cut Oats are not the most photogenic of foods, but they are delicious, healthy, and good, and probably one of the most convenient meals in my cooking repertoire.

I’ve been cooking this recipe for over five years now, tweaking it here and there, making it better. What I present here is really a foundation. This recipe can be customized all kinds of ways–either when the food is being assembled, by adding in different spices or apples, or by tweaking it at serving time.

I love using Gala, Honeycrisp, or Pink Lady apples, but go for any good baking-type apple or a variety thereof. You don’t want the apples to go to mush. Or maybe you do? That might not be a terrible thing here.

I typically use unsweetened vanilla almond milk or cashew milk, but any plain or vanilla nut, soy, or oat milks would work, or you can opt for dairy milk.

This isn’t an overnight slow cooker oats recipe. I’ve tried that. Even on low and warm settings, the oats just plain overcooked for my preference. The consistency goes brick-like and the pot requires some intense scraping if you don’t use a removable liner. I prefer to make this during the day, and then portion out the oats to go in the fridge and freezer. They reheat beautifully.