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I snuck 1 cup of zucchini into my morning oats (think zucchini bread) along with a ripe banana to sweeten them naturally and loved how these Zoats or Zucchini Oats turned out for a high-fiber, healthy breakfast.
Looking for more ways to enjoy oats? Check out these 
Zoats or Zucchini Oats
I’ve been making it a challenge to eat at least one cup of vegetables with every meal (my goal is 5 cups per day). It is usually pretty easy for lunch or dinner, but breakfast can be challenging. I was thinking about zucchini bread and was curious to see what would happen if I added zucchini to oatmeal. It was delicious – you can’t even taste the zucchini! I sweetened the zoats naturally with ripe banana and topped them with blueberries and almonds. You can make this zucchini oatmeal recipe with so many toppings, like this Cinnamon Apple-Spiced Oatmeal, Peanut Butter Oatmeal, and Pumpkin- Spiced Oatmeal.
Should you eat vegetables with every meal?
I’ve added non-statchy vegetables to every meal for the past few months and have enjoyed the challenge. Most vegetables are high in fiber and low in calories, so they help fill me up without eating a ton of carbs or fat. Below are some other benefits of eating a variety of vegetables each day:- Reduce blood pressure
- Decrease the risk of heart disease and stroke
- Has a positive effect on blood sugar levels
- Helps with digestion
- Prevents some types of cancer
Zucchini Oatmeal Ingredients
- Zucchini: Peel seven ounces of zucchini and pulse it in a food processor. You can also shred the zucchini with a box grater.
- Banana: Mash half of a ripe banana.
- Egg Whites: You can buy liquid egg whites or separate the yolks from the whites until you fill a third cup.
- Oats: Use a third cup of quick oats.
- Milk: Make these zoats with whichever milk you prefer, like 2%, coconut, or almond milk.
- Cinnamon: Stir some cinnamon into the oats and sprinkle more on top.
- Toppings: Fresh blueberries, slivered almonds
How to Make Zucchini Oats
- Combine zucchini, banana, egg whites, oats, milk, and cinnamon in a small pot and turn the heat on medium low.
- Stir the oats for three to five minutes until they’re cooked through and creamy.
- Serve: Pour the oats into a bowl and top them with blueberries, almonds, and cinnamon.
Variations:
- Fruit: Swap blueberries with raspberries, blackberries, strawberries, or a mix.
- Nuts: Top your zoats with walnuts or pecans or omit them if you’re allergic.
- Spices: Sub cinnamon with pumpkin pie spice.
- Seeds: Add chia seeds for extra protein and fiber.
More Zucchini Recipes You’ll Love:
- Chocolate Zucchini Bread
- Flourless Chocolate Zucchini Brownies
- Banana Zucchini Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting
- Zucchini Pancakes
- Pineapple Zucchini Cupcakes
Zoats or Zucchini Oats
I snuck 1 cup of zucchini into my morning oats (think zucchini bread) along with a ripe banana to sweeten them naturally and loved how these Zoats or Zucchini Oats turned out for a high-fiber, healthy breakfast.
Yield: servings
Serving Size: 1 bowl
Ingredients
- 7 ounces zucchini, peeled and pulsed in a food processer
- 1/2 ripe banana, mashed
- 1/3 cup egg whites
- 1/3 cup quick oats
- 1/3 cup milk of choice
- 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon, plus more for topping
- 1/4 cup blueberries
- 1/2 ounce slivered almonds
Instructions
- Combine the first 6 ingredients in a small pot, zucchini to cinnamon and turn the heat on medium-low.
- Cook, stirring until the oats are creamy and cooked through, about 3 to 5 minutes, depending on the oats.
- Pour into a bowl and top with blueberries, slivered almonds and remaining cinnamon.
Last Step:
Please leave a rating and comment letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business to thrive and continue providing free, high-quality recipes for you.Nutrition
Serving: 1 bowl, Calories: 441 kcal, Carbohydrates: 63 g, Protein: 24 g, Fat: 12.5 g, Saturated Fat: 1.5 g, Sodium: 207 mg, Fiber: 12 g, Sugar: 18 g
I was looking for some overnight and regular oat recipes that have more healthy ingredients, and I was shocked at the big bowl of oatmeal this made – I did not add any nuts or sweetener, but absolutely loved how creamy it turned out. I would never even know there was zucchini in it – this is going to be a mainstay for me. Thank you, Gina!
Glad you enjoyed it!
😞 When I saw this I was so excited to think I could have oatmeal again. It’s almost the whole day’s carbs. Cottage cheese is disappointing but it’s what it’ll have to stay.
This is very filling and delicious! My banana wasn’t overly ripe, so I ended up adding some agave nectar to give it a little more sweetness. Will make again with a RIPE banana!
Love this one! I make it exactly as directed except use one whole banana. No need to peel the zucchini. I love that it makes a huge portion! Pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoy this.
It’s delicious. I didn’t need to add any sweeteners. The texture is very creamy and mushy. It’s exactly the way I like it. I think for thoughts who prefer a bite should use regular rolled oats, or double the quick cook oats.
Thank you. I enjoy a unique way of adding veggies to my breakfast.
Want to try this one for my kids, it sounds good! Quick question, can it be made without banana? I’m currently out of bananas and not getting groceries until tomorrow
Wouldn’t make again. Couldn’t get passed the texture of this. There’s few ST recipes I haven’t liked and unfortunately this is one. Just can’t justify a 440 calorie breakfast when it’s not delicious
I love this recipe and make it all the time! A couple of ideas: I don’t peel the zucchini because I’m lazy, and that’s been fine. I used one whole egg and another egg white, and that worked fine as well. I like to prep single servings in advance of the zucchini and banana, which makes this super fast! YUMMO!
I legitimately make this at least once a week since it dropped on the website. I love this recipe so much. I shred my zucchini the night before and have it ready to go for the next morning (or shred a lot and freeze!). Sometimes if I have a bit of a sweet tooth (usually coming off the weekends), I’ll add a teaspoon of brown sugar to it. Easy, filling recipe.
I tried this this morning. I am on the fence about it, but I do appreciate how voluminous and filling it was. I’ve been trying to watch my portions so I appreciate a dish that makes me feel full.
Amazing recipe. Always great recipes and the foods are always those ones that I have at home already.
Loved this, Gina! Only left out banana (allergic) and used organic agave instead. Definitely a keeper and I will be making larger batches so I can have it multiple times per week. I have to add more fruits/veggies/grains/low cholesterol foods to my diet, so this works all around!
I like how filling this was. I didn’t have blueberries but it was still good. I split it & was able to have it across 2 mornings with something else (coffee/toast) on the side.
Can you use whole eggs instead of egg whites?
I used a whole egg and an egg white the first time I made it, which worked fine.
So good and filling!!
Grade: D-
This was just all around a miss for us. It didn’t turn out well and the flavor was not good.
Thank you Gina for another great tasting and healthy meal! This was so good – I definitely got the banana bread vibe. I doubled the recipe and it gave me enough for 3 filling meals. I needed some sweetness so I added some brown sugar.
I have been looking for a Savory Oats recipe. This is not the Savory I am looking for but it looked good so I tried it. The only thing I did was add a little 100% pure Maple Syrup and I didn’t add the nuts thus time. I followed the measurements and I have left over for later too.
Check this one out too https://www.skinnytaste.com/savory-steel-cut-oats/
Hi! This sounds really great. If I wanted to make up more than 1 serving at a time so I have them for later in the week – do you have suggestions on how to store and then reheat them?
refrigerate and reheat with a little more milk
When I enter the nutritional information into WW app, it gives me a result that one serving is 10 WW points. Is that because some of the ingredients should be ‘free’ ?
you have to use recipe builder. I linked to it in the recipe box…
Hi Gina,
Love your healthy recipes and the idea to have a vegetable at every meal. The grated zucchini in the oatmeal was delicious and I wanted to mention to you that I had some spaghetti squash left over and decided to put it in an omelette I was making with some ham & cheese and some salsa on the side. That too was delicious and easy! I love leftover veggies to add to my eggs. Breakfast is my favorite meal so sometimes it becomes lunch and even dinner when I want something lighter. Thanks for all the good recipes and “inspirations” to create meals with leftovers! :)) Kathy
About how much zucchini should you end up with after it’s grated?
1 unpacked cup, not squeezed
Thanks-love your recipes!
I love anyway to get more veggies in my day!
Could you use 1/3c whole eggs instead of just the whites?
I use the whites to add protein and it makes them creamy, I never added a whole egg, not sure!
Really cool challenge; I have trouble getting breakfast veggies in without doing smoothies or scrambled egg/omelet. This is great. I think another tag you could add to the webpage is 1 serving veggies. I tried a while ago to find “healthy baking” recipes, but most of them were like you added 1 tbsp zucchini per entire pan of brownies…not enough to count as veggie.
Agree!
I love the idea of the zucchini oatmeal, but I’m allergic to bananas. Any recommendations to substitute the banana?
Add some maple syrup to sweeten them instead and top with any fruit you like
I have microwaved old fashioned oats several times a week so thought I would try a variation of this. I used everything in the recipe but the milk, egg and cinnamon. Added blueberries and cooked in the microwave on high for 4 min (3 might have been okay). Added real, dark maple syrup for some additional sweetness after cooking. It was good. You can definitely taste the banana, but the zucchini does tend to ‘disappear’, and I could not taste it. My zucchini was approx. 6 in long, and I used 1/2 of it. Love the thought of adding the egg white for additional protein, so will try the original recipe when I have all ingredients on hand.
Oh my gosh this was so creamy and delicious! I used egg beaters instead of egg white because it’s what I had on hand. I skipped the almonds and used frozen blueberries at the end. My banana was extra ripe so my oats taste like banana bread. I topped with a little SF pancake syrup for extra sweetness. Would definitely make this again!
So happy you enjoyed it!!!
Have you tried bulk cooking this recipe/meal planning prep?
Looks great, can’t wait to try it! Is there any substitute that could be used for the egg?
I’m wondering the same thing because I’m sensitive to egg whites.
You could probably do a chia egg or flax egg. If I’m doing overnight oats, I add chia seeds instead of egg.
Wow, I bet that was delicious! Probably can make some kind of carrot oatmeal too, to taste like carrot cake or a morning glory muffin. I haven’t tried this recipe yet, but by the sound of it, I think I’d like it.
Could this be made without the egg whites?
Sure!!
Do you think you could make plain steel cut oats and then stir on the other ingredients and let simmer?
Sure!!
Would the zucchini hold up if I make it with regular oats and therefore cooked it longer? Love this idea for incorporating extra veggies!
Sure!!
Love your recipes! Curious about why the egg whites for this one, is it used as a binder for the zucchini or can it be omitted?
you can omit, I add it for protein and it makes them creamy
Looks delicious! How would you suggest converting this to a baked oatmeal recipe for meal prep?
Sure!
do you think this would work for overnight oats/meal prep recipe?
I was wondering this same thing!
Could you use old fashioned oats for this recipe and adjust the cook time?
Sure
Since you mention these are high fiber, I am curious why the fiber count is not listed in the nutritional content? Can you please share the fiber count? Thank you.
Its right there at the bottom of the recipe card
Hi Gina, excited to try this. Do you think I could prep the ingredients a few days ahead and cook when ready? I was thinking of leaving out the oats and prepping the rest of the ingredients in jars for the week.
Sure!