Looking for the best way to cook steel cut oats? Try your slow cooker! My cinnamon apple steel cut oats crockpot recipe is truly set it and forget it. Simply add your apples, milk, spices, steel cut oatmeal, and other ingredients to the crockpot and cook overnight. In the morning, you’ll have a hot breakfast that smells like apple pie but with no sugar added!

Some beige food can be a healthy option! Though this apple cinnamon steel cut oats crockpot recipe isn’t as colorful as some of my dishes, it’s packed with fiber and phytonutrients. But that is not all.

Steel-cut oatmeal cooks up creamy in the slow cooker while still maintaining a bit of texture. Meanwhile, an abundance of sweet apples and cinnamon flavor things up, so no added sugar is needed.

Plus, when you wake up in the morning, your house is going to smell like apple crisp. I tend to be more of a morning person, but there’s an incentive for my night owls to get out of bed! Rise and shine to this hearty bowl of fragrant apple oats. YUM.

Slow cookers and steel-cut oatmeal are best friends. Set it at night, and you’ll have the creamy oats with a toothsome texture in the morning. No stirring is required, and you won’t have to get up early to cook.

It’s simple recipes like this apple cinnamon oatmeal that sustain us when we are too tired, ill, or busy to use more effort. Shopping for and chopping many types of fruits and vegetables doesn’t always fit into the schedule. Having a repertoire of easy, healthy breakfast ideas to fall back on may help decrease your stress.

⭐ Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats with Apple Benefits

🛒 Crockpot Steel Cut Oats Ingredients

As promised, few ingredients are needed to make this apple spice oatmeal recipe. Here is the roundup:

• Steel cut oatmeal
• Butter
• Water
• 2% milk
• Peeled apples
• Cinnamon stick
• Oatmeal toppings (fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, or seeds)

I highly recommend Cortland apples for this recipe, as they are my favorite apple variety and I am unabashedly biased towards them. Haha Seriously though, just about any apple would work here that you’d use to make a baked apple.

The cinnamon apple flavor here is on the mild side, so an assortment of toppings will work well. I have been digging fresh pomegranate arils, Medjool dates, and walnuts on my oatmeal lately. For a while, I was mostly topping oatmeal with (more budget conscious!) banana slices and peanut butter.

If you’re completely nuts about apples, you could even throw some sauteed apples on top of this oatmeal! It’s a great way to use up any extra apples you have kicking around, so why not?

Of course, food ingredients aren’t the only things you need to make this recipe. Here are the main pieces of kitchen equipment that you need:

• Peeler for the apples
• Knife
• Slow cooker

I own a Crock-Pot oval slow cooker. While I love that my crockpot has a large capacity, I knew from previous experience that oatmeal tends to burn to its sides.

Greasing the sides and bottom of the cooker before adding the rest of the ingredients can help prevent sticking. The butter (or another cooking fat) is not optional here!

I also recommend using a round-bottom cooker rather than an oval-bottomed one if you have one. My Crock-Pot express crock programmable multi-cooker has a slow cooker function and is perfect for this recipe. It makes evenly cooked oatmeal, with no burning. (Yay!)

➕ How to Make Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats with Apple

It’s time to learn to make cinnamon apple steel cut oats! Make sure to start this recipe the night before you want oatmeal for breakfast.

🥣 Other Hot Oatmeal Recipes

When the weather turns chilly, it’s so nice to have a warm meal to start the day. Try these comfort food recipes for hot oatmeal after you’ve made this apple oatmeal recipe:

• Air Fryer Baked Oatmeal
• Baked Protein Oatmeal (with a Secret Ingredient!)
• Low Calorie Baked Oats – No Added Sugar!
• Proats Recipe: Egg White Oatmeal
• Vegetable Oats (Huevos Rancheros with Avocado)
• Bacon Egg and Cheese Oatmeal Recipe – Simple and Delicious!

Which oats are the most nutritious: steel cut, rolled, or instant?

Steel-cut, rolled oats, and instant oats all count as whole grains. They are all actually the same grain, prepared in different ways. Though the preparation changes the texture of the finished oatmeal, the nutrients stay the same.

Steel cut oats have been chopped. Rolled oats (AKA old fashioned rolled oats) were steamed and rolled into thin flakes. Instant oats have been steamed longer and rolled thinner than old fashioned oatmeal.

Steel cut oats do have a slightly lower glycemic index than rolled oats. That means that the steel cut oats may be a better choice than rolled if you want to include oats in your diet but have trouble managing your blood sugar due to diabetes.

What spices go well in oatmeal?

The cinnamon in this cinnamon apple steel cut oats recipe is fairly mild. If you like your oats with more zing, don’t be afraid to really spice things up. Here are some suggestions for spices to put in oats (other than cinnamon):

• Pumpkin pie spice
• Ground ginger
• Nutmeg
• Cloves
• Paprika
• Chili powder (for savory oats dishes)
• Cayenne powder

Also, don’t forget items such as vanilla extract, cocoa powder, chia seeds, coconut flakes, and peanut powder. You could also add maple syrup, brown sugar, or honey for sweetness (though those are all added sugars). You can easily take a boring dish of plain oatmeal to something delicious and flavorful with a visit to your spice rack.

Is it bad to eat oatmeal every day?

For most people, it is fine to eat a reasonable portion of oatmeal every day. Oatmeal is probably the grain group food that I eat most often. I credit my excellent blood cholesterol levels at least in part to the soluble fiber that oatmeal provides.

That said, it’s always possible to get too much of a good thing. If you’re eating so much oatmeal that it is crowding out the foods (and nutrients) from other food groups, it’s probably time to cut back.

Additionally, some people with diabetes might fare better with a lower carb breakfast if the oatmeal is making it challenging to control their blood sugar. I’d love to see everyone with diabetes provided with a continuous glucose monitor (CGM) in the future. This is one of the best ways for these individuals to get information on how specific foods impact them.

Why am I hungry after eating oatmeal?

If you’re a regular reader here, you know the three food elements that may help you most with satiety (i.e., long-lasting feelings of fullness):

• Protein
• Fiber
• Fluid volume

Oatmeal is rich in fiber and contains some fluid. However, steel cut oats are a rather energy dense food, with ¼ cup of dry oats providing 150-170 calories. If you are still feeling hungry after eating oatmeal, try including more protein and fluid with your meal.

Fruits, vegetables, and water are some of your best bets for (high volume and low calorie) fluid sources. This apple spice oatmeal recipe contains more apples than oats, so you should be all set there! I’ve provided suggestions for protein add-ons in the recipe notes below. Don’t skip them!