Cardamom and Tea

Choose your own adventure with this strawberry oatmeal: You can go either chewy or creamy. The difference? Either add the smaller amounts of water and milk or the larger amounts; simmer longer for creamy and shorter for chewy. And that’s that!

This recipe is pretty simple: You start out with some macerated strawberries. You’re going to use some of them for the topping, and blend some of them into the oatmeal itself.

Jump to the recipe to hit the ground running, or read on if you need help deciding whether you’re team chewy or team creamy.

Creamy vs. chewy strawberry oatmeal

This is a bit of a personality test. Do you prefer your oatmeal to be on the chewy side or on the creamy side? You might immediately have an opinion, but if not, here are some things you can ask yourself:

Do you like eating oatmeal at fancy hotel breakfast bars? If so, you’re team creamy. If that sounds like cafeteria oatmeal (and not in a good way), you’re team chewy.
Are you okay with sacrificing chewiness for a super silky smooth texture? If so, you’re team creamy. If that sounds like baby food, you’re team chewy.
Are you a fan of the oatmeal recipe on the side of the box? If so, you’re team chewy. If you’ve always found that standard recipe kinda disappointing, you’re team creamy.

A few tips for success:

Order really matters. In other words, don’t accidentally purée your oats! Blend the strawberries before you add the oats. All just to say, keep your wits about you and don’t just start dumping ingredients in the pot before reading the recipe.
Use either fresh or frozen berries, but be sure to follow my instructions for frozen (which you’ll find in the notes at the end of the recipe).
If you don’t have an immersion blender, you can use a regular blender. I suggest immersion because it saves on dishes. If you have neither, you can also use a food processor, but do not add all this liquid to your food processor or it may flow out. Instead, just purée the berries separately and add them to the pot.

Strawberry Oatmeal

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Yield: 1 large or 2 small bowls

Ingredients

for the strawberries:*

8 oz [225g] strawberries
1 heaped Tbsp [15g] sugar
Salt (optional)

for the oats:

Between ¾ – 1½ cups your milk of choice** [180g – 360g]
Between ⅔ – 1 cup water** [155g – 235g]
¾ cup old fashioned oats [75g]
¼ teaspoon salt
Optional, yogurt for serving

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Instructions

For the strawberries: Hull and slice the strawberries. Sprinkle with sugar (and a pinch of salt, if using). Fold together to combine. Place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, up to 4 days.
For the strawberry oats: After the strawberries have given off some juices, lift half of the strawberries out of their juices. Place these strained berries in a saucepan along with the milk and water. Keep the other half whole, in their juices (as a topping). Purée the milk/water/strawberries with an immersion blender (or move to a regular blender, or purée the strawberries in a food processor separately).
Add the oats and salt to the water/milk/berries purée. Bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Once it comes to a simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally. With the larger amount of liquid, this will take about 15 minutes***, until the liquid thickens and the oatmeal softens. With the smaller amount of liquid, this will take about 4 to 5 minutes, until the oatmeal thickens significantly.
top with the whole macerated strawberries, their juices, and optional yogurt.

Notes

* Use 1 2/3 cups [200g] hulled frozen berries with the same amount of sugar. Follow the same instructions, leaving them in the fridge to thaw and macerate overnight. For a shortcut, instead microwave for about 30 to 60 seconds, just until they start to thaw slightly (but before they start to get warm). Stir together and leave on the counter for about 20 minutes to thaw the rest of the way. If you prefer unrefined sugar, you can use 1 Tbsp maple syrup or honey.

** If you are a fan of creamy oatmeal (see photos above the recipe), use the larger amount of both the water and milk.

If you are a fan of chewy oatmeal (see photos above the recipe), use the smaller amount of both water and milk.

Use whatever milk you’d like. I prefer using either soy milk or cow’s milk. In my experience, oat milk tends to be too starchy for making oatmeal. But any alternative milk will do.

*** For the creamier, longer-simmering version, it will start out watery, and at a certain point it will noticeably thicken (e.g., the bubbles will get bigger), while still remaining very pourable and creamy. Leave it uncovered the whole time, and be careful not to let it bubble over. If you’re using a wide pan instead of a small saucepan, you may need to add a bit more water as it cooks (more water will evaporate from a wide pan).

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These macerated strawberries are made with just 2 real ingredients (strawberries and sugar). And they come together in just 2 steps with no cooking. And that’s as it should be! Maceration simply means allowing the sugar to draw a bit of moisture out of the berries while softening them slightly and concentrating their flavor. And by keeping our ingredients simple, we’re allowing the strawberry flavor to really shine.

Speaking of keeping it simple, here’s everything you need to know about why this recipe is the best:

I include instructions for both fresh and frozen berries. Most recipes don’t treat frozen berries properly, but this recipe uses a method that works much better than any other I’ve found.
There’s a quick option and a next-day option, depending on how much time you have (and there’s a shortcut for you, whether you’re using fresh or frozen).
I’ve got lots of serving ideas (everything from oatmeal to strawberry lemonade).

If you’re ready to hit the ground running, jump to the recipe. Or read on for a little more info on my fresh vs. frozen macerated strawberry methods.

Fresh vs. Frozen Strawberries

Most recipes will tell you that the biggest problem with using frozen strawberries is that they give off too much moisture. This is simply not true.

High-quality frozen strawberries have the same moisture content as fresh. As long as you thaw them slowly, they will not turn to mush and give off too much liquid. Instead, when tossed with sugar, they will give off a very similar amount of liquid as fresh.

In fact, we want them to give off a decent amount of liquid. As long as we’re adding enough sugar, that liquid will become syrupy rather than watery. And honestly, the syrup is the best part.

So anyway, this is just my plea to please please not discard the liquid from your frozen berries. Just be sure to add enough sugar and follow the recipe below, and they’ll turn out as good as fresh. Feel free to check out the video if you need to see it with your own eyes. I’ve included a quick little time lapse.

How to use macerated strawberries:

You can use macerated strawberries with the berries + juice together, with just the berries, or just the juices. It depends on what you want to use them for!

I’ve broken things down into these 3 categories, with lots of ideas for putting them to use:

1. Strawberries + their juices:

Atop and blended into strawberry oatmeal*
On yogurt with chopped nuts or granola
Over strawberry shortcakes
Instead of maple syrup on pancakes/waffles/crêpes/etc.

2. Just the strawberries (drained):

On a custard fruit tart
Spooned over cheesecake slices
Folded into homemade ice cream before freezing

3. Just the juices:

As a light simple syrup for a not-too-sweet cocktail or with soda water
In sweet tea (er, not-too-sweet tea, I suppose!)
To sweeten pink lemonade (but be sure to add a little extra sugar and pink food coloring if you want a more classic version).

* Just a quick note that this strawberry oatmeal recipe I linked to uses a half recipe of these macerated berries. So if you make the macerated berries on this page, you’ll only need half of them for that recipe.