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Banana & Chia Overnight Oats

A healthy breakfast packed with oats, chia seeds, yogurt, bananas and pecans.

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Why it works: Chia and banana work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 43 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 1
Prep10 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Peel the banana and mash half of it in a small bowl until smooth; slice the remaining half and set it aside for topping.

  2. In a jar or airtight container, combine the rolled oats, chia seeds, sea salt, ground cinnamon and ground nutmeg.

  3. Add the milk, Greek yogurt, pure vanilla extract and mashed banana to the jar, then stir well until no dry pockets of oats remain.

  4. Cover the jar and refrigerate for at least 6 hours or overnight so the oats and chia seeds can soften and thicken.

  5. In the morning, stir the oats well, adding a splash of milk if they look too thick.

  6. Spoon into a bowl and top with the sliced banana before serving cold.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Chia + bananatop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together43 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Vanilla + bananatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Milk + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,175 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  5. Cinnamon + vanillatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (oats, chia, cinnamon, milk, vanilla, yogurt, banana):

  1. Cardamombetter flavor fit
  2. Nutmegthe original
  3. Gingerabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against oats, chia, cinnamon, milk, vanilla, yogurt, banana. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).