How to soak steel-cut or Irish oats for a highly digestible and nutritious oatmeal porridge. The nutrition compares favorably to roll oats and will keep you feeling full all the way to lunch!
Overnight oats is becoming quite a thing these days as people begin to reawaken to the wisdom of traditional diets and ancestral food preparation.
Most people use rolled oats for this process, which involves an eight hour or overnight soak prior to a thorough cooking.
What if you prefer the nuttier texture of steel cut oats, also known as pinhead or Irish oats?
Are Steel Cut Oats Healthier than Rolled Oats?
Some of you may be familiar with the breakfast chain First Watch.
If so, you may have noticed a menu change that now features steel cut oatmeal instead of porridge made from rolled oats.
Interestingly, the price increased significantly too!
I asked the manager of a First Watch in Rockville, Maryland about this last spring. He told me that public perception that steel-cut oats are healthier than rolled oats is what motivated corporate to make the switch. It also apparently justified the price increase.
Is this really true?
Unfortunately no!
While steel cut oats appear to have more fiber and other nutrients due to the nutty texture, they are basically the same nutritionally as rolled oats.
Steel-Cut Oats Nutritional Information
Let’s examine the nutritional information for steel cut oats.
A quarter cup of steel cut oats contains the following (regular, not quick cooking).
- 170 calories
- 3 grams of fat
- 29 grams of carbohydrates
- 7 grams of protein
- 5 grams fiber
- 2% daily value of calcium
- 10% daily value of iron
Irish vs Rolled Oats
Let’s compare the nutritional information above for Irish oats to a quarter cup of rolled oats (regular, not quick cooking).
- 190 calories
- 3.5 grams of fat
- 32 grams of carbohydrates
- 7 grams of protein
- 5 grams fiber
- 2% daily value of calcium
- 15% daily value of iron
As you can see, the nutritional difference between rolled and Irish oats is negligible. The most notable disparity is a slight increase in calories and carbohydrates per quarter cup for rolled oats. But, this can be explained by the flatter texture of rolled oats, which allows a bit more to pack into a quarter cup.
How to Make Soaked Steel Cut Oats
Ultimately, your choice to enjoy steel cut oats over rolled oats should be based strictly on personal preference!
There is no truth to the commonly held belief that steel cut Irish oats are more nutritious than rolled oats.
This includes oat groats too.
If Irish oats are your thing, then how to prepare traditionally for maximum digestibility and nutrient absorption?
Soaked steel cut oats are an excellent way to go! Below is an easy recipe for how to prepare them either in a slow cooker or on the stovetop.
Sprouted?
If you prefer to avoid the slight inconvenience of soaking Irish oats prior to cooking, I would suggest buying sprouted steel cut oats instead (this brand is excellent).
Sprouted oats don’t require soaking to achieve similar levels of digestibility. This is a slightly more expensive option per serving, however.
Slow Cooker Steel Cut Oats
Alternatively, you can soak and cook your steel cut oats in one step if you own a Vita-Clay slow cooker.
You will need to add one more cup of water using the Vita-Clay than the stovetop recipe below. Simply mix in all the water, lemon juice and oats in at one time, cover, and set to slow cook the following morning about 30 minutes before you arise (use the porridge setting for the large cooker and stew setting for the smaller model).
Another bonus is that this slow cooker is made from safe materials. It is a better choice over the long-term than stainless steel pots for cooking acidic foods like tomatoes, bone broth, and soaking oats.
If you eat soaked oatmeal frequently, this type of slow cooker is worth considering.
Soaked Steel Cut Oats Recipe (stovetop)
Recipe for soaked steel cut oats which makes for a highly digestible and nutritious oatmeal porridge that will keep you feeling full all the way to lunch!
Ingredients
- 1 cup steel cut oats preferably organic
- 3 cups filtered water
- 1 tbl lemon juice
- 1/4 tsp sea salt
- 1 Tbl butter
Instructions
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Place steel cut Irish oats into a medium sized pan. Mix with two cups filtered water and the lemon juice.
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Cover and leave on the counter for 8 hours or overnight.
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In the morning, add another cup of filtered water plus the sea salt to the pot and bring to a boil.
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Reduce heat to low, cover and cook for 12 minutes (creamy). Stir every few minutes.
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Serve with butter and your choice of healthy sweeteners, cream, fruit or other toppings.
I enjoy adding 1-2 Tbl of sprouted pumpkin seeds, dried wild blueberries, dried cranberries, and sprouted nuts along with a drizzle of date syrup.
Steel Cut Oats Caution
It is important to know that even though oats are commonly labeled “gluten free” and technically are a gluten free grain, they trigger problems for many gluten sensitive individuals.
The reason is that oats contain the protein avenin, a gluten-like protein that triggers symptoms for approximately one in five celiacs.
Current gluten sensitivity tests only measure for gliadin in wheat, hordein in barley, and secalin in rye. Avenin requires a different test and is increasingly classified along with other gluten proteins.
Oh, one more thing. Cook’s Illustrated didn’t soak their steel-cut oats first, but I imagine the same principle would still apply concerning the salt—best to add it near the end.
I just read an interesting tip by Cook’s Illustrated concerning steel-cut oats. Apparently oats contain a lot of pentosans (rye does too). Because of this, you should never add salt to steel-cut oats until they’ve been cooking for at least 10 minutes. In their recipe, Cook’s Illustrated waits 20 minutes before adding any.
Why? Because you’ll get creamier oatmeal that way. Salt will compete with the pentosans if you add it early, and the oats won’t absorb as much water. But if you add your salt once the pentosans have had time to swell up, then everything should be fine.
I’m going to start doing this from now on, and will probably try it with other grains (and pseudo-grains) as well. Amaranth, for instance, will not cook well at all if you add salt early on—you just get a mess. I only add salt to amaranth once it’s completely cooked.
Do you recommend steel cut oats or not?
Above it sounds like you do but in this article, it sounds like you don’t:
https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/whole-grains-cause-cavities/
I prefer the cooked texture of rolled oats, although steel cut are fine too. If someone has issues with tooth decay, avoiding whole grains or limiting their consumption is a good idea to see if things improve.
Adding raw oats to smoothies and the like which is kind of a fad right now is VERY bad for the teeth because of the high amounts of phytic acid. The amount of phytates in oats are reduced considerably by soaking/sprouting/cooking.
If making a large batch for my whole family, do I still need a 1:3 ratio of oats to water for soaking? (So, 3 cups oats to 9 cups water?) And, how do I know how much more liquid to add for cooking if making a large batch? Just double or triple your recipe?
I use 2cups water total for 2/3c steelcut oats. I add 3 eggs also. And 1T butter or 2T cream, at the end. This feeds my two kids. Does this seem not enough water? Im just trying to get anough food into them to make it till lunch lol They do have a VitC fruit and a glass of whole milk also.
Can you comment on how to soak oat bran please? Thank you!
You don’t soak oat bran … you avoid it as it is a fractionated food. You only soak whole foods!
Which vita clay pot has the soak cycle?
There isn’t a “soak cycle”, but there is a delay cook cycle which accomplishes the same thing. The large model has this feature.
Can I soak and cook steel cut oats in a rice cooker?
Probably you can! My Vita-clay is perfect for soaking and cooking in one step and it has a rice cooking function, so I would imagine a rice cooker alone could do it also.
Hello! I have been reading about the traditional ways to prepare grains recently and we are learning and making changes. Up to this point I have changed how I cook rolled oats, by now soaking them overnight, with a little apple cider vinegar, and then in the morning, cooking them as I usually would. However, my one confusion is with steel cut oats. I know that if I want to just cook them regularly in the morning, I need to soak them overnight first as well. However, I have multiple overnight steel cut oats recipes, where you put them in the Crock-Pot before bed and they cook slowly all night long. I am still not clear on whether or not I need to soak them for the 7 hours using apple cider vinegar before that, and then put them in the Crock-Pot all night, or if slow cooking them all night takes the place of that. Can you possibly help me clear up this question? Thanks!
Even if you slow cook steel cut oats, you need to soak them first. In my slow cooker, I can set the timer to soak for about 6 hours and then the cooker turns on to cook so they are ready when I get up. Perhaps you can do that with your crockpot also.
Ok, thanks for the information sarah! I had stopped soaking my oats because I couldn’t find truly raw ones. I still don’t understand the science (after all, how can a grain that is no longer alive reduce anti-nutrients…), but I will return to soaking my oats!!!
Another question… wouldn’t it be wise to soak oats with 10% buckwheat or another ‘grain’ that is rich in phytase? I have read that oats don’t have much on this enzyme on their own and need a little help from phytase rich (pseudo)grains.
You can certainly add a very small amount of buckwheat flour to add phytase. This will potentially improve digestibility according to some preliminary research. However, soaking alone works very well if you prefer to not add any flour. I personally do not notice any digestibility improvement by soaking with a small amount of phytase rich flour … so I do not do it.
If you tolerate wheat or barley, they have even more phytase than buckwheat. I use 2T rolled barley flakes per 2/3c of steelcut oats and soak in acidulated water 24hrs. We use ACV as we dont do sugared breakfasts if at all possible. I actually use my hot pepper vinegar as we like spicy things. I just soak the peppers, usually serranos, in the ACV for 2 weeks before using. I use this in grits to soak them too.
I recently found some barley grits to use with my steelcut grains. Yay
Do you soak rolled oats
Yes, here’s a recipe plus video demo of how to do it. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/video-how-to-cook-oatmeal-the-right-way/