Pressure Cooker Carrot Cake Oatmeal
The flavors of a carrot cake in a warm, hearty, heart-healthy, fun breakfast.
My Pressure Cooker Carrot Cake Oatmeal is made with steel cut oats, finely shredded carrots, raisins, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, a little maple syrup, and chia seeds for added protein.
Making Carrot Cake Oatmeal in an Instant Pot
Carrot cake and Easter just seem to go together, so I thought it was the perfect time of year for a Pressure Cooker Carrot Cake Oatmeal. I topped my oatmeal with more raisins, chopped pecans, and a splash of milk. If your family doesn’t love raisins, feel free to omit them.
Now that my boys aren’t usually home for breakfast any more, I often make a batch of steel cut oats and freeze the left overs in individual portions for a quick, healthy breakfast any time I want it.
Pressure Cooker Carrot Cake Oatmeal
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 cup steel cut oats
- 4 cups water
- 1 cup grated carrots
- 3 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup chia seeds
Instructions
Add butter to pressure cooking pot, select Sauté. When butter is melted add the oats and toast, stirring constantly, until they smell nutty, about 3 minutes.
Add water, carrots, maple syrup, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and salt. Select high pressure and set 10 minutes cook time.
When beep sounds, turn off pressure cooker and use a natural pressure release for 10 minutes and then do a quick pressure release to release any remaining pressure. When valve drops carefully remove lid.
Stir oats. Stir in raisins and chia seeds. Cover and let sit five or 10 minutes until oats are desired thickness.
Top with additional raisins, maple syrup, chopped nuts, and milk.
More Easter recipes you might like:
Hard Boiled Eggs in the Pressure Cooker
Heating Ham Slices in the Pressure Cooker
Quick Potato Salad in the Pressure Cooker
I got the burn message and when opened the bottom of my pot had oats stuck to it. How can I prevent this next time? Smells good though!
Hi Gina – what size pressure cooker did you use? Did you use regular steel cut oats or the quick cooking steel cuts oats from Costco perhaps?
I have a 6 QT Instant Pot and I do have the quick cooking steel cut oats Quaker brand. I appreciate your help 🙏
Happy to help 🙂 For quicking cooking steel cut oats, I would try reducing the water to 3 cups and cook on high for 2 minutes with a 10 minute natural release. You may want to layer the carrots on top of the oats and don’t stir them in, that should help avoid the burn notice as well.
I always make steel cut oats in my crock pot with half unsweetened vanilla almond milk and half water. Have you tried making it in the IP with half milk instead of all water? I haven’t made any SC oats in my IP and want to make a double batch of your recipe, but don’t want to ruin it. Thanks!
Hi Jennifer – yes, you can use half milk and half water in the pressure cooker. Just be sure and use a natural pressure release for at least 10 minutes. Enjoy!
If I want to start this and then go out for my morning walk how to I adjust to keep warm until I am ready to eat it?
Hi Sandy – you shouldn’t need to make any adjustments. I think there’s plenty of liquid to keep on warm until you return from your morning walk.
Real maple syrup or the stuff we put on pancakes?
Hi Rose – real maple syrup 🙂
I made this for breakfast this morning. My girls and I LOVED it! Thanks for the great recipe! They added toasted coconut and toasted almonds to theirs and gobbled it right up.
Thanks Mary! Sounds like delicious additions.
Enjoying this right now! It is delicious! I will try using less water next time as it was very soupy–but I did use old-fashioned rolled oats and not steel-cut. Throwing chopped walnuts on top makes this taste and feel very carrot-cakey!
Thanks Sue! I haven’t tried old fashioned rolled oats yet in the pressure cooker. Glad to know it works with rolled oats, just need less water.
I just made this except also used whole rolled oats. Reduced water to 2 1/2 cups and it was perfect! Topped with walnuts for some crunch and the kids and I scarfed it all down. I was worried it would be too sweet but when done I thought it could have been just a touch sweeter. Maybe a drizzle of maple syrup or a sprinkle of brown sugar over the top would be good. Thanks for the recipe!
I like the sound of the recipes but 3 tablespoons
of maple syrup? I will try 1 tablespoon as I have lost my sweet tooth !
Hi Margaret – definitely adjust the recipe for your tastes. However, 3 tablespoons for 6 servings isn’t overly sweet when cooking something as bland as oatmeal.
What if you don’t have Chia seeds? Can I substitute something else?
The chia seeds add additional fiber and protein, but if you don’t have them, I would just omit them.
Popping back in to say I made this the other day and it’s delicious! The oatmeal was still a little chewier than what we like when I checked it after the quick release so all I did was select “sauté” and let it cook a little more-perfect! I stirred in 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. caramel extract after it finished cooking and knowing Bob loves raisins, used a heaping 3/4 cup. He just finished some and said “definitely make this again-it’s fantastic.”
I sure will! Thanks for the winning recipe, Barbara. 🙂
Thanks so much Carol! I was thinking just the other day that I should make this again soon. I’m glad you and Bob enjoyed it. You can’t go wrong with extra raisins in my book.
You say carrot cake, and I start licking my lips! This looks amazing! Pinning!
I am loving the idea of a carrot cake flavoured oatmeal.. never tried something like it before!
I recently enjoyed a carrot cake oatmeal bake that was brought to a local food blog brunch. It was so (unexpectedly) good. So much so, that I’ve been craving it ever since! Your recipe looks delish!
Another reason to buy a pressure cooker! This is one of the most tempting oatmeal recipes I’ve seen!
I love carrot cake so I know I’m going to enjoy this. I found a big bag of steel cut oats in the cabinet when I was looking for something else so for me, your timing couldn’t be better with this recipe. I love the idea of freezing the individual portions too.
Thank you Barbara-have a wonderful Easter.
Barbara: this recipe looks GREAT!
My question is: can one substitute 3 TBLS of honey in lieu of the maple syrup? Has anyone tried that?
Thanks Terry! I think any type of sweetener you wanted to use would be great. You could even reduce the amount of sugar/syrup/honey in the recipe.