Chocolate Cherry Overnight Oats
with tart cherries and hemp seeds
By Superfoods Advisor Editors·July 4, 2026
Allergens Oats · Milk · Tree nuts
Ingredients
½ cupRolled oats
½ cupUnsweetened almond milk
¼ cupPlain Greek yogurt
1 tbspChia seeds
1 tbspRaw cacao powder
¾ cupFrozen tart cherries, thawed with their juice
2 tbspHemp seeds
From your pantry
- 1 tspPure maple syrup
- 1 pinchFine sea salt
Utensils Jar with lid
Instructions
Thaw the cherries in a bowl and keep every drop of juice they release. That juice carries most of the sweetness in the jar.
Combine the oats, chia seeds, cacao powder, hemp seeds, and salt in the jar.
Add the almond milk and Greek yogurt, then stir to a uniform dark color.
Fold in the cherries with their juice and the maple syrup.
Seal and refrigerate 6-12 hours.
Stir once and eat cold, straight from the jar.
Shopping list
The keeps-in-the-cupboard half of this recipe, and the tools it calls for, in one place. Fresh items are not listed; buy those locally. We earn a commission on purchases made through these links at no cost to you, and it does not affect what gets recommended; see our affiliate disclosure.
Why it works
Anthocyanins from tart cherries inhibited cyclooxygenase enzymes in lab assays (Wang et al., 1999), which is cell-free data, not evidence of an effect in people. A 2010 trial in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition (Kuehl et al.) found that among 54 runners in a long-distance relay race (about 26 km each), those who drank tart cherry juice twice daily for 7 days before and on race day reported a smaller post-race increase in muscle pain than those given a placebo drink (PubMed:20459662).
The dose here (around 100 g of cherries) is below the trial dose, so treat the cherries as flavor first. Hemp seed adds roughly 6 g of protein per 2 tablespoons (20 g), per USDA FoodData Central, on top of the yogurt.
Macro detail: of the 17 g sugar, roughly 4 g is added; the rest is fruit sugar from the cherries and their juice.
This recipe is part of Superfood Overnight Oats: 6 Recipes Built Around Beta-Glucan and Gut Health, which covers the underlying nutrition science and the shared base method.
