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Stir together a batch of this no-bake, 5-minute Swiss muesli recipe for an easy and healthy breakfast or snack that’s ready when you need it! The muesli is full of fiber, healthy fats, antioxidants, and other filling ingredients that will keep you and your family going without weighing you down. Just add milk or yogurt!
Table of Contents
For even more easy breakfast recipes, try this baked western omelet, these baked pancakes with pancake mix, and the best banana nut bread, too!
Easy and delicious. I’ve been buying muesli for years. No longer!
– Laura
Why You’ll Love this Recipe
- A Convenient, Nourishing Breakfast or Snack. Muesli is a breakfast or brunch dish that’s popular in Switzerland and Germany, consisting of raw rolled oats and other ingredients like fresh or dried fruits, seeds and nuts. It’s often mixed with milk, soy milk, almond milk, yogurt, or even fruit juice for a light and satisfying way to start the day. Keep a batch in your pantry for quick and easy meals or snacks whenever you need them.
- Less Expensive than Store-Bought. Purchasing the ingredients for a batch of muesli in bulk is so much more affordable than a box or bag of store-bought Swiss muesli. Plus, you get to decide exactly which ingredients go into the mix, creating your perfect combination.
- Quick and Easy. Unlike homemade granola, a homemade muesli recipe doesn’t require any actual cooking or baking. Instead, you just stir together the raw ingredients and your job is done! Since muesli does not include the extra sugar and fat that’s required for a batch of granola, it’s also a healthier way to incorporate these nutritious ingredients into your diet.
The Origin of Bircher Muesli
Bircher muesli is basically the original “overnight oats.” Invented by a Swiss physician around 1900, the dish was initially developed for hospital patients. It’s now widely enjoyed in Switzerland (and elsewhere) for breakfast, and as a supper called Birchermüesli complet: muesli with Café complet (milk coffee, accompanied with bread, butter, and jam (Butterbrot)).
Bircher muesli is made by taking a dry muesli recipe (such as the one shown here) and soaking it in cream, milk, lemon juice, or other fruit juice. Once the ingredients soften and come together in the liquid, the Bircher muesli (or “Swiss oatmeal”) is ready to enjoy!
Ingredients
This is just a quick overview of the ingredients that you’ll need for a batch of our favorite muesli cereal. As always, specific measurements and complete cooking instructions are included in the printable recipe box at the bottom of the post.
- Oats: a great source of whole grains. Look for whole grain rolled oats (also called “old fashioned oats”). Don’t use steel-cut oats or quick-cooking oats. The quick oats have a tendency to turn to mush when soaked, while the steel-cut oats will be too hard and crunchy to eat raw.
- Wheat germ: a great source of vegetable proteins, along with fiber and healthy fats.
- Raw sliced almonds: for a nice, nutty crunch, as well as healthy fats, fiber, protein, magnesium and vitamin E.
- Raw sunflower seeds or roasted, salted pumpkin seeds: adds a good crunch and nutritional benefits like zinc and selenium, which are great for supporting the immune system. I love a touch of salty crunch in my muesli recipe, so I use roasted, salted pumpkin seeds (also called pepitas) instead of raw sunflower seeds. They add the perfect contrast to the sweet, chewy fruit!
- Dried cranberries or raisins: for sweet flavor and soft, chewy texture.
- Chopped dates: or substitute with other dried fruit like cherries or apricots.
Directions
As mentioned above, this is hardly a recipe at all! There’s no baking required, so you’re really just stirring together a handful of delicious ingredients.
- Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl.
- Package in an airtight container or glass jar or serve immediately!
Serving Suggestions
- Cold with Milk. This Swiss muesli recipe is so versatile! My favorite way to enjoy it is just like a regular bowl of cereal with a pour of milk over top. The oats get a bit soft and chewy, while you still get the crunch of the nuts and the sweetness from the fruit. It’s a great vegan or vegetarian meal when paired with a non-dairy milk. For even more sweet, healthy flavor, add fresh berries or sliced banana just before serving. A drizzle of honey or maple syrup over top is also delicious.
- Warm. The muesli is also a great warm breakfast when it’s cold outside. Just cook it with milk exactly like you would a regular bowl of oatmeal. You might even like to stir in a dollop of nut butter like peanut butter or almond butter. This version is simply more interesting than the plain stuff!
- Soaked Overnight. Many folks like to prepare a muesli recipe overnight by combining the muesli with yogurt or milk, covering, and refrigerating until the morning. Soaking the oats and other ingredients allows them to soften, plump up, and absorb the liquid. You can eat the overnight muesli cold, straight from the refrigerator, or you can warm it in a bowl in the microwave.
Storage
Store the muesli cereal in an airtight container at room temperature (such as in the pantry) for up to 1 month, or in the refrigerator for up to 3 months.
Recipe Variations
- Add warm spices to your muesli, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cardamom, ginger, cloves, or allspice. You can take a shortcut and use a seasoning blend like pumpkin pie spice or apple pie spice, too.
- For a gluten-free recipe, check to make sure that you’re using certified gluten-free oats.
- You can use any type of nuts, seeds, and dried fruit that you love. Try swapping out the almonds for pecans, hazelnuts, cashews, pistachios, peanuts, or walnuts; use raisins, golden raisins, or dried currants, instead of cranberries; try chopped dried apricot instead of dates; or use sesame seeds or pumpkin seeds instead of the sunflower seeds. Chia seeds, flax seeds, or hemp seeds would also be great.
- Unsweetened coconut flakes or chocolate chips are also delicious additions to the basic muesli recipe.
- Add fresh fruit like blueberries, fresh currants, sliced strawberries, or diced apple to your Bircher muesli just before serving.
- When I have leftover cranberry sauce in my refrigerator, I love to combine yogurt, muesli and the cranberry sauce together for a true treat!
So hearty and delicious! Wanted to make a cereal without added sugar or fats. So easy too!
– Cathy
More Recipes with Oats
Homemade Granola
2 hours hrs 55 minutes mins
Baked Oatmeal with Almonds and Berries
55 minutes mins
The Best Nut Free Granola Recipe
30 minutes mins
5-Minute Swiss Muesli Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups old-fashioned oats ("rolled oats")
- ½ cup wheat germ
- ½ cup raw sliced almonds
- ½ cup raw sunflower seeds or roasted, salted pumpkin seeds
- ½ cup dried cranberries or raisins
- ½ cup chopped dates
Instructions
- In a large bowl, toss together all ingredients until thoroughly combined.
- Store in an airtight container or serve immediately.
- For serving: pour milk over the raw oats and eat like a cold cereal. You can also heat it up with milk like you would enjoy a warm bowl of oatmeal. Alternatively, soak the muesli overnight with milk or yogurt and enjoy in the morning.
Notes
- This recipe yields a total of 4 ½ cups of muesli. Nutrition facts are for a serving size of ¼ cup.
- As noted above, a traditional muesli is raw — so you do not need to toast or roast the oats and other ingredients. That said, when you’re preparing your own muesli recipe at home, you can feel free to roast the oats if that’s your preference. To roast oats for muesli, spread the raw oats on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake in a 350°F oven for about 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow the oats to cool before combining with the rest of the ingredients.
Nutrition
This post was originally published in July, 2014. It was updated in July, 2024.
This sounds fantastic and I have everything already on hand. I’m going to try to squeeze in some time to whip a batch up this afternoon. Thanks for sharing!
That’s great, Karen! I think that we have very similar kitchens (and tastes), since you already have the ingredients on hand!
This recipe sounds delicious!
I would be honored to have you hop over and share with us at Inspire Us Tuesday.
https://twolittlecavaliers.com/2014/07/inspire-us-tuesdays-diy-recipes-crafts.html
Thanks so much, Felissa! And thanks for the invite. 🙂
Looks delicious! Thank you so much for linking up at Tasty Tuesday! Your recipe has been pinned to the Tasty Tuesday Pinterest board! Please join us again this week!
Blair, I cannot believe how delicious this is. We are making a determined effort to eat healthier in the new year, so when I saw this post I wanted to try it. Although honestly I had to admit I had serious doubts that any of us would like it. So I got all the ingredients on my grocery shopping trip, and made a batch. I just had to try it right then, so I made myself a very small bowl with a little milk like cereal. I was so very pleasantly surprised!! It’s delicious! And no additional sugar is needed. And very economical. The ingredients will make many batches. Thank you for all the wonderful recipes, Blair, and now we are muesli eaters! ????
Oh, yay! Isn’t it great, Jean?! I love muesli too, and I think it’s totally underrated! 🙂 So glad that you enjoyed it!
Can you freeze muesli?
Hi! I’ve never thought about it, but yes — I would imagine that you could. You can freeze granola, so this should be very similar. 🙂
Easy and delicious. I’ve been buying muesli for years. No longer!
So glad you found this recipe, Laura! 🙂 Thanks for letting me know!
Is there anything that I can substitute for the wheat germ?
Hi, Mea! Ground flax is a great substitute, or you can just use extra oats. Enjoy!
This is a wonderful muesli recipe, thanks for posting! I wonder which wheat product you generally use in your recipe – bran, as listed in the recipe itself, or wheat germ, as you mentioned at the beginning of the article? Maybe you use both?
Hi, Mag! Thanks for catching that typo! I’ve used both, but prefer wheat germ if I have it in my pantry. I’ll update the recipe to reflect that. 🙂
I mixed up a batch of the recipe as stated. I mixed some yogurt with the muesli and left it over night. In the morning I added some almond milk and placed it 8n the microwave for about a minute. Then added some fresh strawberries and blueberries. It was amazing. Loved it. Thank you for great recipe.
Sounds perfect! Thank you!
Best thing about muesli is that breakfast is ready when you get up.
I’ve been making it for a long time; somewhere I have the Bircher-Benner Swiss sanatorium health plan. I wouldn’t want to follow it now, but the muesli has always been good.
Great suggestions in here, by the way. I’m adding coconut and cranberries, using yogurt and milk for soaking, sometimes goat kefir as well.
I also add barley flakes now. Same as rolled oats but it’s rolled barley, should be available in health food stores. Barley is one of the healthiest grains you can eat, practically a cure for diabetes; it has the lowest GI of all the grains. Google nutrition in barley, and rye, another very healthy grain that you can put through the flaker.
And for your own very fresh rolled oats/barley/rye, you can get a German-made flour mill, made of wood, and one version will also flake grain for you so you can get really fresh rolled oats/barley/rye.
All you have to do, after finding the grain mill, is to get a supply of oat grains, barley grains, (preferably not hulled), and wheat or rye berries. The grain mill also, of course, grinds those grains into flour, and apparently it makes amazing bread. I’ve been waiting ages for my own grain mill; stuff takes forever to get anywhere now.
I used to make granola (Deaf Smith Country Cookbook) out of flakes of wheat, rye, and oats – great granola, but muesli is easier.
Thanks, Elizabeth. I love your ideas!
Awesome! Where has this recipe been all my life??
We’re so glad you found it!
So hearty and delicious! Wanted to make a cereal without added sugar or fats. So easy too!
We’re so glad you enjoyed it, Cathy!
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Thank you for sharing this, Blair. I have great plans for making granola and baked oatmeal but the painfully hot temperatures arrived before I could make them! I’d been wondering what to make with the ingredients I bought and also what to do with the leftover greek yogurt I buy to make my fruit- yogurt pops. This should do it! I’m thinking I’ll make up individual servings to help keep the smaller bits from going to the bottom.
Recipes like this are quite useful for me because I want something to eat but nothing big. This could be so handy and nutritious, too!
I’m so glad it will be helpful, Marion. Enjoy!
I want to tell you that I enjoy so many recipes that you post. Thank you!
Thank you so much, Sandra! We appreciate it and hope you continue to enjoy the recipes.