This Spiced Vanilla Chai Oatmeal tastes like your favorite chai latte! Flavored with a blend of black tea, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and vanilla this creamy bowl of wholesome oatmeal is a delicious, flavorful way to start your day!
Combining Chai Latte with my morning oatmeal has quickly become a favorite at my house.
Perfectly sweet, a tiny bit spicy, and filled with warmth from the blend of spices, this oatmeal takes on the flavor of a chai latte, yet makes a much heartier and filling breakfast than a latte alone!
Not to mention oatmeal is full of fiber, nutrients, and whole grains, so this Chai Oatmeal will keep you satisfied for hours.
Notes on Ingredients and Substitutions
- Oats: Use rolled or quick-cooking oats for this recipe. Not steel-cut oats. And be sure to use certified gluten-free oats if needed.
- Chai Seasoning: I use a blend of cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and cloves to create a homemade Chai spice blend. If you like, you can add a dash of black pepper to add a bit of spice to your chai oatmeal.
- Black Tea: Be sure to use decaffeinated black tea if serving to your children for breakfast, or keep the caffeine to get your morning fix all from your bowl of oatmeal.
- Milk: You can use any milk you like in this Chai Oatmeal recipe. I love to use unsweetened vanilla almond milk for the extra vanilla flavoring, but coconut milk, cow's milk, or soy milk all work well.
- Sweetener: I find that this oatmeal needs no added sugar, but you can sweeten the Chai oatmeal with maple syrup, honey, or granulated sugar as desired.
How To Prepare Chai Oatmeal
- In a medium saucepan, bring water, milk, chai seasoning, and tea bags to a boil over medium-high heat. Be sure to whisk often to prevent the milk from scalding.
- Once the mixture comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 2-3 minutes to allow the tea to steep into the milk. Continue to whisk this often!
- After a couple of minutes, remove the tea bags and stir in the oats.
- Simmer for 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the oatmeal has thickened.
- Turn off the heat and stir in the vanilla extract and sweeten as desired.
- Serve warm.
Chai Seasoning
If you love Chai, be sure to double or triple the blend of spices to create a larger batch of homemade chai seasoning. Store the mixture in an airtight container for up to 3 months in the pantry.
Then you can use this mixture to flavor oatmeal or make Homemade Chai Lattes. To make a Chai Lattes, add 1 teaspoon of the homemade chai seasoning to 1 cup of freshly brewed black tea along with Ā½ cup of warm, frothed milk.
More Oatmeal Recipes
- Slow Cooker Maple Cinnamon Oatmeal
- Overnight Oats
- Sweet Potato Oatmeal
- Banana Baked Oatmeal
- Instant Pot Oatmeal
If you enjoyed this recipe for Chai Oatmeal, please be sure to leave a comment and review below.
Spiced Vanilla Chai Oatmeal
Ingredients
For the Spiced Vanilla Chai Oatmeal
- 2 black tea bags
- 1 cup water
- 2 teaspoons chai seasoning
- 2 cups rolled oats
- 3 cups milk of your choice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the Homemade Chai Seasoning
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- Ā¼ teaspoon allspice
Instructions
For the Chai Seasoning
- Mix all the spices together and store them in an airtight container for up to 3 months.
For the Chai Oatmeal
- In a medium saucepan, bring water, milk, 2 teaspoons of the Chai seasoning, and tea bags to a boil over medium-high heat, whisking every 30 seconds or so to prevent the milk from scalding.
- Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium-low, and let simmer for 2-3 minutes, to let the tea bags continue to steep. Discard the tea bags and stir in oats. Cook until thick, about 5 minutes, stirring often. *If using quick-cooking oats, you will only need to simmer for 1-2 minutes to thicken.
- Remove the oatmeal from the heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Serve immediately or cool and store in the refrigerator.
Cynthia
I was looking for something light I can eat for a late night snack and I thought why not oatmeal? Only I have no more fruit and I wanted to avoid sugar, it being near bedtime. This recipe hit the spot - so warm and comforting on a chilly autumn evening!
Kristen Chidsey
I am so glad you enjoyed! This is such a healthy snack--any time of the day!
Joyce B
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE oatmeal, even enjoying it for my supper frequently, and I love chai tea and chai lattes, so is right up my alley!!
Kristen Chidsey
I am right there with you Joyce, I LOVE oatmeal any time of the day! I am also glad you enjoyed this combo š
RMAU
Oats, Greek yogurt, almond milk, cinnamon, and peaches are refrigerated in a jar overnight to make a delicious overnight oatmeal everyone will love.
Kristen Chidsey
I agree
Cynthia | What A Girl Eats
This would convince my daughters to eat breakfast in the morning! They are chai addicts!
Kristen Chidsey
And we all know how important breakfast is!
Liz
Oats and those warm spices are the perfect pairing. What a delightful way to start the day!!
Kristen Chidsey
I agree Liz.
Joy @ Joy Love Food
I love chai lattes too, great idea to use it to make oatmeal, I would love this for breakfast tomorrow!
Kristen Chidsey
I hope you make it for breakfast!!
Denise Wright
What a great idea! I love Tazo teas and I too fell in love with chai after the first time I had it. Great idea about the oatmeal.
Kristen Chidsey
Tazo is the best!
Taylor Kiser
What a delicious way to start my day! So much I love about this!
Kristen Chidsey
Thanks Taylor!
Shashi @ RunninSrilankan
Why oh why have I never ever done this?!?!? This is such a brilliant idea and you threw in some flax for an additional nutrition boost! Love this Kristen - thanks so much for sharing!
Kristen Chidsey
Well, I do think of myself as awful smart!! Just kidding!
Ashley | Spoonful of Flavor
I wish I had this for breakfast today! I love spiced vanilla chai and eat oatmeal almost every single day. I love that you added the chai flavors to the oatmeal. So good!