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For anyone who normally avoids oatmeal because they don’t like the texture, Blueberry Mango Overnight Oats Parfait might be a great “gateway drug.” Although it’s not based on any particular dessert like so many other of my overnight oats recipes, this one has the texture of a pudding or mousse! Just grab whatever small appliance you’ve got handy on your countertop for making purees, and you’re good to go!

Ingredients (Serves 4)

• 1 cup, old-fashioned oats
• 1 cup, unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 2 tbsp, maple syrup
• 1 tbsp, vanilla bean paste
• 2 tsp, black chia seeds
• 1 whole mango, peeled
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Prepare the Oat Base

In a typical overnight oats recipe, you’d make the oats base first and put that at the bottom of each you serving containers. But because we’re making a parfait, in this case its easiest to make the oats in bulk.

Combine the oats, vanilla almond milk, and the vanilla bean paste together and mix well. Set aside until we’re ready to build the parfaits.

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Let’s Talk About Mangoes

Seriously. I thought mangoes were only in season in the summer, but then I came across the folks from the National Mango Board, and they beg to differ. Far be it from me to argue with the experts — who I bet are tons of fun at parties — but I still recommend you take advantage of the high quality of mangoes available now. Even so, if you come across this recipe sometime other than the summer, according the NMB, it’s still worth trying!

This recipe calls for you to peel a whole mango and slice the fruit from the pit. You can do it however you’d like, but as I recently learned a quick and easy way to do this, I thought I’d share it. For those aware of this method, or already happy with your own mango peeling acumen, feel free to skip to the next section.

Still here? Great. Anyway, mangoes can be tricky to peel. I used to peel them like a potato and then cut the flesh away from its rather large pit, until my wife showed me a trick she saw on the “The Kitchen”. It was mind blowing.

First, cut both cheeks off the mango. The cheeks are puffy sides of the mango. After you have two nice cheeks, cut around the top and bottom of the pit, and then cut away whatever additional flesh you can.

Now, the trick to getting the cheeks cleanly from the skin: Take a cheek and place the smaller end over the outer lip of a water glass. Apply gentle but constant pressure as you push the skin down onto the outside of the glass, and the entire piece of fruit falls neatly into the glass! Repeat with the other cheek.

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Puree #1 – Mango

Now that you’ve cut the mango, by whatever method you chose, it’s time to make the puree. For this task you can use whatever appliance is most convenient for you. Our blender has a small “bullet”-like option, which we use for smoothies all the time. Since we keep it on the kitchen counter already, I’m using that rather than getting out the food processor or mini-chopper.

Either way, you simply need something big enough to hold the mango and powerful enough to puree it. Into your chopper (we’ll just use that as the generic term) combine the mango, a tablespoon of maple syrup and a teaspoon of chia seeds. Blend until the chia seeds seem shattered and the fruit seems fully broken down. Because mango can be a bit fibrous, this may take 15-20 seconds… maybe more. It will depend on the ripeness and size of your mango. So you’ll just have to watch and judge it. You’ll know its done when the consistency looks like pudding.

Empty into a bowl and set aside.

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Puree #2 – Blueberry

You’ll have to rinse out your chopper immediately, because the next step is to repeat the above process with the blueberries.

This time it’s the 1 cup of blueberries along with the same two additions – the tablespoon of maple syrup and the teaspoon of chia.

You’ll probably just need about 10 seconds of blending because of the high water content of the blueberries. When the chia seeds have been broken down, you’re all set.

In terms of consistency, it will look much more of a liquid than the mango puree, but within a minute or two it will begin to set. That’s why once you finish making the blueberry puree, you’re on the clock for assembly.

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Parfait… Assemble!

Sorry, Avengers hangover here.

Putting together the parfait is relatively easy. The only “trick” is that you want to try to avoid letting anything hit the side of your container as you build each layer.

For the first layer, make a base with the mango puree. Obviously I can’t give you exact amounts because it will depend on the size of your particular oat jars, but I recommend using about 1/2 of the mango puree as the bottom layer.

Next build an oat layer. I’d suggest using about 3/4 of your oats here. I’ve done this a few times and I’ve tried splitting the oats in half… but I think it works better making a more substantial bottom layer of oats. I just think it looks nicer.

The blueberry layer is next. Use all the blueberries. By now its possible that the blueberries will have set. If so, don’t worry, just give them a little stir before building the layer and then pat them down with your spoon as you go.

Top the blueberries with a small layer of your remaining oats and then finish with the remaining mangoes.

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Final Steps

Once you’ve assembled the parfaits, simply refrigerate for 5-6 hours or, preferably, overnight.

I normally recommend warming my overnight oats up before eating the next day, and even with this recipe I’m still a proponent of doing so. 45 seconds or so in the microwave is my preference. But it’s personal choice.

However, normally I also suggest decanting the oats into a bowl and stirring before eating. There’s nothing wrong with doing that here, other than it defeats the purpose of all the layer work you did. And I think it takes the fun out of eating it. So I strongly encourage you to eat it right out of the jar – parfait style.

You should be able to get all flavors in every bite, and texture-wise, it’s as close to a dessert pudding/mouse as you’ll get in a breakfast oats recipe that also happens to be chock full of fruit and fiber!!