The Underrated Milk You Should Be Adding To Overnight Oats

Sure, the dried fruits and chocolate chips added to overnight oats influence their taste, but your choice of milk is the real deciding factor of the direction the dish takes. Oat milk amps up the grains' nutty taste while almond milk provides the breakfast staple with a creamier feel. To give your overnight oats a fruity spin, go with the most underrated plant milk: banana milk.

In a world of soy, oat, and coconut milk, the banana-flavored beverage gets overshadowed as a top plant-based contender. While banana milk is a staple South Korean treat, it's yet to find the same level of popularity outside of Asia. The drink has a smooth texture that makes overnight oats even more velvety, and a taste that brings a delicious dose of sweetness to the breakfast item. Bananas are already a go-to overnight oats ingredient, and using the fruit-based milk helps to further infuse their flavor throughout the dish.

You can find the beverage at your local Asian grocery store, or opt to make banana milk at home. Blending a ripe, frozen banana with water and a pinch of salt is all you need to make banana milk, but you can throw in a few extra ingredients to amp things up. Store-bought banana milk may contain skim milk powder for a creamier finish, as well as sugar or vanilla extract.

The great thing about banana milk is that it complements pretty much all the classic overnight oats ingredients and toppings. The not-so-great thing about banana milk is that, similarly to how the fruit acts in smoothies, it has the potential to make everything taste like bananas. To counteract this, opt for recipes that have their fair share of bold flavors. Our fall fruit and cocoa overnight oats have a rich, chocolatey taste that steps up to homemade banana milk's penchant for dominance. The recipe features juicy oranges and pomegranate seeds, as well as earthy pumpkin seeds.

To make the banana milk even more fit for the overnight oats, add in a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg when blending the fruit. Rounding out the milk's flavor with warm spices works well with a variety of overnight oats recipes, especially Thai iced tea overnight oats. Banana milk's tropical flair complements the cardamom, star anise, and turmeric found in Thai tea, while boosting the creaminess of the condensed milk.

Banana milk sweetens Thai tea overnight oats wonderfully, but if you want a breakfast that really hones in on bananas, add it to banana bread overnight oats. A combination for people who live and breathe the yellow fruit, the banana-squared duo works surprisingly well. It's balanced out by peanut butter, walnuts, and slivered almonds, but you can go the tropical route with crushed macadamia nuts, toasted coconut flakes, and chia seeds.