What does a princess eat for breakfast? If I were a princess, I would start every day with a big ol’ cheese platter, a giant bowl of pasta and a bottle of Champagne. So I’m guessing my GP is pretty stoked that I don’t have any royal blood lurking about in the branches of my family tree. 

Real princesses tend to be a lot more sensible when it comes to the first meal of the day, and perhaps no one was more sensible when it came to diet and exercise than the beloved Diana, Princess of Wales. Now a former royal chef has revealed what the late, great Princess Di loved to eat for breakfast – and it’s proof that, as always, she was way ahead of her time. 

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Credit: Ben Dearnley

What did Princess Diana eat for breakfast? 

Darren McGrady, who was the personal chef to Queen Elizabeth II, Diana, Princess of Wales and Princes William and Harry for 15 years, says that Diana was a huge fan of overnight oats – a breakfast trend that’s huge now, but wasn’t quite so well-known in 1993, when the princess first came across the dish at a Swiss health spa. Back then, it was better known as Bircher muesli, named after the Swiss doctor who invented the meal for his patients in the early 1900s. 

In a YouTube video in which he shares the recipe, McGrady says that the princess thought the muesli was ‘really, really good and all the ingredients were super healthy”.

“She stole the recipe, came back and said, ‘Darren, I want these for breakfast every day’,” the chef says.

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How to make overnight oats

Making overnight oats is incredibly simple. These are the ingredients you need to make McGrady’s recipe:

1 cup (90g) rolled oats
1 cup (250ml) freshly squeezed orange juice
1 cup (280g) Greek-style yoghurt
1 tbs raw honey
1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1/2 apple
Juice of 1 lemon
1 cup (150g) fresh blueberries
1/2 cup (50g) toasted walnuts

Add your oats to a bowl. Next, steep your oats in liquid – McGrady uses orange juice, but you can also use milk, plant-based milk, kefir, yoghurt or other liquid of your choice. Then cover with plastic wrap and pop in the fridge overnight. 

The next morning, your oats will be nice and soft and plump, having absorbed all that liquid. Give them a good stir. Next, McGrady adds some plain Greek yoghurt and mixes to combine. If you’re not fussed about sugar content, feel free to add a flavoured yoghurt here. Then add a drizzle of honey for sweetness, and McGrady also adds lemon juice before stirring again to combine. 

Now you can get as creative as you like. Add fruits like berries, or sliced apple or pear, or stone fruits, if they’re in season. You can also add nuts, and many people are also big on adding chia seeds. But according to McGrady, Diana’s recipe included grated apple, blueberries and walnuts. 

Scoop some up into a serving bowl or glass, top with extra fruit and nuts, and enjoy. Super easy, super healthy, super satisfying. 

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