Vegan Baked Apple Oats for Easy Breakfast Meal Prep

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These Baked Apple Oats are a super easy way to have breakfast ready for the week! Just cut up some apples, mix up your ingredients in a bowl and add them to a baking dish. After baking, you'll have six lovely meals. This recipe is an amazing fall meal for the whole family!

Hey Internet, we're back with one of our first ever recipes. These baked apple cinnamon oats were the sixth recipe we ever made for ZardyPlants, back in 2019. We've made our baked apple oatmeal a lot over the years as an easy meal prep we can make before a week of busy mornings. After they're made, all we have to do is heat them in our microwave and we have a wholesome breakfast.

And while we are updating the name and writing of this blog post, recipe for our baked apple oats is staying the same. We've learned a lot about blogging since starting this journey almost 7 years ago and since then we've made a lot of changes to the blog to help our readers. But this cozy breakfast is is an staple that's staying just the same as it's been.

We love cozy breakfasts around here, especially when the weather starts to get cold. A few more options include our Banana Bread Vegan Baked Oats, Plant Based Pancakes, Vegan Gluten-Free Pumpkin Bread, Chocolate Banana Protein Muffins, Vegan French Toast Sticks, or Vegan Cranberry Muffins.

The reason we love this early recipe is just how hearty and flavorful it is. With sweet maple syrup for natural sweetness, warm spices, sliced up tender apples, these oats almost get a cake-like texture after baking. The walnuts on top make it taste like an apple crumble. It's the type of meal that keeps you full until lunch with just one portion. The only thing you might want to add is a protein shake, like our Pumpkin Protein Shakes or Apple Protein Shake to both get more protein and have a breakfast filled with fall flavors.

This baked apple oats recipe is also really easy to customize if you want more protein in your oats. Some peanut butter or almond butter will taste great mixed in, adding a creamy texture while making the oats even more filling. You can even add different topping to the baking dish to get in even more nutrients. We'll talk more about that down below in the additions and substitutions section.

So lets make this oatmeal bake!

Why You've got to try this Hearty Oats Recipe

• Perfect Breakfast for Fall: With cinnamon, vanilla, apples, and maple syrup, it's great waking up to this warm meal on a cool fall morning. 
• Easy Meal Prep: With only about 5 minutes of work, you'll have easy meals for those busy weekday mornings.   
• Easy to Customize: There's a lot of room for you to make this apple baked oats recipe your own. We'll talk about it below.

Ingredients

Pick up the following basic ingredients for this apple oatmeal recipe the next time you're at your local grocery store. See the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full ingredients, instructions, and accurate nutrition information (to the best of our ability; please consult your physician, registered dietitian, or healthcare professional if you have specific dietary needs or need to meet certain daily values of any nutrient). we give substitutions for the ingredients in the section below this one, so most people can still make this recipe!

Dry Ingredients

• 4 cups Rolled Oats
• 1 ½ Teaspoons Baking Powder
• 2 ½ Teaspoons Cinnamon
• ¼ Teaspoon Salt, Optional

Wet Ingredients

• 3 Large Apples, Diced: This comes to about 7-ish cups of apples. The best apples for this recipe are sweet apples, at least we think so. We typically use Rave, Honey crisp, Crimson Crisp, Cosmic Crisp, or other sweet apples. If you want to go with tart granny smith apples, you do you. 
• ⅓ Cup Pure Maple Syrup
• 2 ½ Cups Unsweetened Nondairy Milk: We like to use fortified unsweetened almond milk for more nutrients, but almost any kind of milk can work well with this recipe! Soy milk and oat milk are great choices.
• Juice of 1 Lemon
• 2 Teaspoons Pure Vanilla Extract

Topping

• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (or other nut)
• 1 cup raisins (or other dried fruit)

Additions and Substitutions

• Lemon Juice: If you don't have lemons or lemon juice, apple cider vinegar are a great option for acidity! 
• Maple Syrup: Other liquid sweeteners will work with this recipe, like agave and date syrup.
• Non-Dairy Milk: You can use water in a pinch to make this recipe. However, with a high speed blender, it's easy to make your own plant-based milk at home! 
• Toppings: Chocolate chips are a great addition to the toppings of this dish. You could also add some peanuts or cashews to get more healthy fats into your meals. After baking it, we've even put vegan ice cream and whipped cream on it for a bit of decadence. Or for less decadence but still good flavor, try a bit of warmed runny peanut butter and a drizzle of maple syrup.

How to Make Baked Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (or 190 C).
2. Mix your dry ingredients in the bowl, form a well in the center, and add in the wet ingredients, stirring to combine.
3. Transfer the mixture to a large baking dish and use a spatula to smooth the mixture down and make even, or press down lightly with your hands. It’s OK if a little liquid sits on top. If there’s a lot, as in, it’s sloshing if you jiggle the dish, sprinkle a small handful of extra rolled oats and press them down so they start to absorb that extra liquid.
4. Sprinkle on your raisins and pecans or walnuts (or whatever fruit and nut you like) and lightly press into the mixture.
5. Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. Serve hot or cold.

Storage Instructions

Slice the baked apple oatmeal into 6 (or more) slices and then add to airtight containers. If you plan to eat them within a week, they can go into the fridge. For long-term storage, use freezer-safe containers and store them in your freezer. 

Frequently Asked Questions

More Vegan Apple Recipes

We have a whole article dedicated to vegan apple recipes here. But some of our favorites are just below!

• Vegan Apple Cake
• Caramelized Apples
• Apple Cider Slushie
• Apple Mug Cake
• Apple Protein Shake
• Apple Pie Chia Pudding
• Roasted Apple Brussels Sprouts
• Instant Pot Apple Butter
• Vegan Apple Butter Thumbprint Cookies

More Vegan Breakfast Recipes

If you like this baked apple cinnamon oats recipe, try some of. our other vegan breakfast ideas!

• Pumpkin Chia Pudding (Vegan)
• Banana Bread Vegan Baked Oats
• Vegan Savory Muffins
• Plant Based Pancakes
• Vegan French Toast Sticks
• Vegan Lemon Blueberry Muffins
• Vegan Cheesy Grits Breakfast Bowl with Crispy Chickpeas

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