Today, I’m bringing you one of my favourite recipes for an easy prep-ahead breakfast: overnight Bircher oats. You can mix everything in the evening and not have to worry about breakfasts for the next couple of days. Perfect for hectic weekday mornings! These Bircher oats are high protein, high fibre, and packed with healthy fats. They make a perfectly balanced, nutritious, and filling meal. Make them once and they’ll become a staple in your menu!

A few words about the original Bircher muesli

Bircher muesli was originally created around 1900 by a Swiss physician Maximillian Bircher-Benner for his patients. It’s often considered to be the original overnight oats recipe.

Generally speaking, to make Bircher muesli, you need the following components:

• Oats. You can use quick oats, but traditionally, rolled oats would be used. Either version is fine.
• Liquid / creamer: milk, yoghurt, cream, or a mixture of those. You can use dairy or dairy-free products, whichever you prefer.
• Grated apple, which adds sweetness and fibre.
• Nuts and seeds.
• Dried fruit.
• Optional sweetener, like honey or maple syrup.

Ingredients for overnight Bircher oats

For two servings in my version of Bircher oats, you will need:

• 70g rolled oats
• 400g fat-free high protein yoghurt, e.g. Fage 0% or skyr
• 70ml water
• 1 Granny Smith apple
• 35g raisins
• 10g chia seeds
• 17g nuts
• optional: splash of milk

How to make overnight Bircher oats

Start by soaking the oats and chia seeds with 70 ml warm water for 5 minutes – warm, not hot. I boiled the water and left it to cool down for 10 minutes. High protein yoghurt is usually very thick, almost dry, and oats and chia seeds absorb water. You can skip the soaking, but your Bircher oats will likely be extremely thick when you take them out of the fridge the next day. If you use regular yoghurt, thinner than Fage or Skyr, you can skip the soaking.

Whilst the oats and chia seeds are absorbing the water, grate the apple, including the skin.

Chop the raisins into smaller pieces. It’s to make sure you get a piece of a raisin in every bite – they add sweetness and a chewy texture.

Finely chop up the nuts as well.

Next, it’s time to combine all ingredients in a large bowl: soaked oats and chia seeds, raisins, nuts, grated apple and the yoghurt. Mix everything really well to make sure all ingredients are evenly distributed. At this point, you can divide the mixture between two containers, or just leave it in one bowl to portion right before serving.

Cover your Bircher oats and place in the fridge for at least a few hours.

If your Bircher oats are too thick when you’re ready to eat, add a splash of milk before serving.

Nutritional value of overnight Bircher oats

The whole recipe has approximately 840 kcal, 27 grams of fat, 93 grams of carbs, 16 grams of fibre and 63 grams of protein.

The recipe makes two servings. Each of them has approximately 420 kcal, 13.5 grams of fat, 46.5 grams of carbs, 8 grams of fibre and 31.5 grams of protein.

This recipe for overnight Bircher oats can be labelled as high protein and high fibre. High protein foods need to have at least 20% of calories come from protein. In this case, it’s 30%. In order to be classified as high fibre, a food needs to have over 20% of the recommended daily amount of fibre in one serving – more than 5.6 grams. These overnight oats have 8 grams of fibre per serving.

Protein and fibre both help keep us full for a long time after a meal. You won’t crash with hunger 30 minutes after eating this breakfast!

Protein is an important part of our diet. It’s literally the building block of our bodies, helping keep our muscles strong.

Fibre supports healthy digestion, and helps improve blood sugar control and lower cholesterol.

How to store overnight Bircher oats

You can store these overnight oats for a couple of days in the fridge. It’s a great recipe to prepare on a Sunday evening and have breakfast sorted for the next two busy weekday mornings!

Ingredient swaps and recipe alterations

If you prefer a simpler recipe, lower in calories (but also lower in healthy fat and fibre), feel free to skip or reduce the amount of chia seeds and nuts.

If you’re not a fan of the tartness of natural yoghurt, you add some honey or other sweetener of choice. Or, you can swap the natural yoghurt for a low-fat vanilla yoghurt.

And if you fancy a change from the usual oatmeal, you can replace the oats with cooked quinoa! It will take you further away from the original Bircher muesli recipe, but quinoa works really well in overnight oat recipes. It’s also higher in protein than oats!

You can also add other dried fruits. Think dried cranberries, dates, or apricots. You can also top your overnight Bircher oats with extra fresh fruit before serving. Blueberries and raspberries will work really well!

Bon Appetit!

So there you have it – a super simple recipe for my version of overnight Bircher oats. Ever since I made it for the first time a few weeks ago, it’s become a staple in my menu. I make it at least once a week, in the evening, to have breakfast sorted for the next two days. It’s delicious, and it’s a really well balanced meal between the protein, fibre, and healthy fats. It keeps me full until lunch. I can’t recommend it enough!

Also see:

• Food
• Sweet