Overcome Your Gut + Digestive Issues With Ancestral Nutrition
Steel Cut Oats (Soaked Overnight To Reduce Anti-nutrients + Make Gut Friendly)
Steel cut oats can actually be a nutritious, gut friendly, and satiating breakfast when you make them right!
First you have to soak them overnight (for at least 7 hours) to reduce anti-nutrients like lectins and phytic acid!
Lectins can scrape at your gut lining and lead to lesions or leaky gut.
While phytic acid binds to nutrients to help store them in the seeds of plants. It particularly likes binding to minerals with a charge of +2 like magnesium, manganese, calcium, iron, copper, selenium, potassium and zinc.
Therefore when we eat foods with phytic acid in them, it binds to these minerals and blocks their absorption into the blood stream. Thus consuming lots of phytic acid can lead to nutrient deficiencies.
Soaking your oats to significantly reduce lectins and phytic acid is therefore key to make sure your oats are gut friendly!
To make oats more nourishing and satiating I recommend you add lots of milk and butter to your oats and have some protein on the side, in this recipe I have a side of breakfast sausages! All these will provide more nutrients and protein and the protein will help you stay satiated until lunch unlike a simple bowl of oatmeal which would leave you hungry again in an hour or two.
This recipe has been my favorite way to have steel cut oats for the past over 2 years! I top it with fresh blueberries, toasted pecans or almonds, and raw local honey! Then I have pork breakfast sausages on the side!
I hope you enjoy it too!
With love from my kitchen to yours,
Kayley
Notes/Tips:
- In this recipe you soak the oats overnight to predigest them and reduce the anti-nutrients (which can damage your gut). Toasting the almonds also helps to reduce anti-nutrients. This makes the meal more gut friendly and much easier to digest!
- You also have the oatmeal with sausages to increase the protein and keep you satiated till lunch!
- You can make extra steel cut oats, store them in jars in the fridge, and reheat them in the morning if you’re tight on time in the morning. To reheat, just place oats in a small pot with some water, stir well, and heat for a few minutes, stirring occasionally till the oats are warm and the consistency you like.
- Feel free to double the recipe if you’d like more servings of oats ready for the next few days. I do this all the time! If doubling, double all the ingredients except in the morning when the recipe says to add 1 cup of water to your oats still only add 1, don’t double it and add 2 cups. I found that 2 cups is too much and makes the oatmeal far too runny, however 1 cup works perfect when I make the batch as is and when I double it.
Steel Cut Oats
The night before you want your oatmeal, bring 2 1/2 cups of water to boil in a small pot. If you are multiplying the recipe to make enough for more than one person you don't have to worry so much about the pot size, but if you are making one serving make sure you have a small enough pot so that the oats don't just burn and stick to the bottom. Anyways, once the water starts boiling add the oats and salt. Let boil for 1 1/2 minutes, while stirring and lifting the pot occasionally, if needed, to prevent it from boiling over. Then turn off the heat, cover with a lid, and let sit overnight.
In the morning, remove the lid, skim off any foam on the surface, add 1 cup of water, stir well, and bring to an uncovered boil over high heat. Note if you are doubling the recipe I recommend you still only add 1 cup of water here, other wise the oatmeal gets too watery! Then reduce heat to medium-high and cook uncovered, stirring occasionally. You want the oatmeal hot enough and bubbling, but not boiling over. After 10 minutes, add the milk and butter and stir well. Cook for 20-25 more minutes till the oats are the consistency you like. Stir frequently, really scrapping at the bottom to avoid oats burning and ticking to the bottom of the pot.
Meanwhile, heat a pan (cast iron works excellent here) over medium-high heat, once hot add the sausages on one side and nuts on the other. Stir the nuts frequently till lightly browned, then transfer to a cutting board and chop up into small pieces. When the sausages are browned on one side flip or turn until all sides are browned then transfer to a plate.
Divide oatmeal between 2 bowls. Top with blueberries, nuts, and honey. Serve with sausages on the side and enjoy!
Ingredients
Nutrition:
| Ingredients | Calories | Fat | Carbs | Protein |
| 1/2 cup dry steel cut oats | 300 | 5g | 54g | 10g |
| 1/2 cup whole milk | 75 | 4g | 6g | 4g |
| 1 tbsp butter | 102 | 11.6g | 0g | 0g |
| 1/4 cup almonds (40g) | 231 | 20.3g | 7.9g | 8.5g |
| 1 cup blueberries (140g) | 84 | 0.5g | 21.4g | 1.1g |
| 4 tsp honey | 80 | 0g | 22.6g | 0.1g |
| 6 oz raw pork breakfast sausage | 552 | 41.4g | 4.6g | 36.8g |
| Total (Serves 2) | 1,424 | 82.8g | 116.5g | 60.5g |
| 1 Serving | 712 | 41.4g | 58.3g | 30.3g |
Notes:
- Nutrition is based on the products I use. I provide a nutrition table so that you can quickly check to see if your food products match or so that you can easily calculate the nutrition for any changes you want to make to the recipe. I think this helps if you have very specific diet goals and/or fitness and/or health goals. I also wanted you to be able to see exactly where I get the numbers for my nutrition facts so that you can see that they are reliable and learn more about macro breakdowns of food.
Works Cited
1. Nutritionix. Gladson. https://www.nutritionix.com/ Accessed 5 November 2025.
2. Calorie King. https://www.calorieking.com/ Accessed 5 November 2025.
3. Eat This Much. https://www.eatthismuch.com/ Accessed 5 November 2025.
About Kayley
Kayley is a certified gut health nutrition coach who helps people to overcome their chronic gut and digestive issues at the root using the principles of ancestral nutrition and holistic health. (Continue Reading Here)
