When I mentioned that I was working on a homemade milk post many of you asked for a low-cost and nut-free homemade milk recipe. I decided to put myself to the challenge. Homemade Oat Milk, it is!
First, I’ll show you how I made it with step-by-step photos and at the end of my post I’ll share my thoughts on flavour, price, texture, and overall pros and cons.
You will also need a blender (any blender should work as we don’t need to blend the oats super smooth), a fine sieve, a large bowl, a small bowl, and measuring spoons/cup. I haven’t tried this oat milk with cheesecloth or a nut milk bag yet, but if anyone does please leave a comment and let us know how it goes.
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Homemade Oat Milk
Yield
3 cups
Prep time
Cook time
0 minutes
Total time
Ingredients
- 1 cup steel-cut oats
- 3 cups filtered water
- 1.5-2 tbsp pure maple syrup (or other liquid sweetener or pitted dates), to taste
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
- scant 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt (enhances flavour)
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (optional, but nice)
Directions
- Rinse and drain 1 cup of steel-cut oats. [I’ve heard you can also use oat groats.} Place oats into a bowl and cover with water. Soak for around 20 minutes. You can soak longer (even overnight) if desired.
- After soaking, rinse and drain the oats very well. This step is very important because you want to rinse off any of the oat slime that has occurred from soaking. Yes, oat slime is a thing...it happens.
- Scoop oats into your blender and add 3 cups water. I prefer using 3 cups of water as opposed to 4 cups because it yields a creamier/thicker milk. Feel free to add more water if you wish, just know the more water you add the thinner your milk will be.
- Cover with lid and turn the blender on a low speed, increasing the speed gradually, and blend at the highest speed for about 8-10 seconds only. You don’t need to completely pulverize the oats.
- Place a fine sieve over a large bowl and pour the oat milk very slowly into the sieve. You might have to do this in a couple batches depending on the size of your sieve.
- With a spoon, gently push down on the oat pulp so the milk flows through. This helps push the milk into the bowl, leaving the oat pulp behind in the sieve.
- Scoop the oat pulp into a small bowl and set aside. Clean out your blender and sieve with a good rinse of water until no pulp residue remains.
- Place sieve over top of your blender and pour the milk in once again and strain.
- Rinse out the bowl and sieve once again. Strain the milk through the sieve into the bowl (optional). If you don’t want to strain again, simply add in your mix-ins and blend on low.
- I whisked in 1.5 tbsp maple syrup, 1 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp fine grain sea salt (enhances sweetness), and 1/4 tsp cinnamon. These mix-ins turn your oat milk from bland to hmm-this-could-be-decent-when-cold.
- I strained my milk one last time into a clean blender. Then I poured the milk from the blender into a clean mason jar for storage in the fridge.
Tip:
Notes: This should last in the fridge in a sealed container/jar for 4-5 days. Use it in smoothies, oatmeal, cereal, baking, or drink it straight. If you want to use it in a savoury recipe, you can omit the sweetener, vanilla, and cinnamon. Homemade milk does separate (remember there are no added emulsifiers!), so be sure to give your milk a very good shake (or stir) before using. No biggie. A little non-dairy milkshake never hurt anyone. I just don’t want you to be alarmed when you see the heavier ingredients sitting at the bottom of the jar.
This should last in the fridge in a sealed container/jar for 4-5 days. Use it in smoothies, oatmeal, cereal, baking, or drink it straight. If you want to use it in a savoury recipe, you can omit the sweetener, vanilla, and cinnamon.
Don’t let all the step-by-step photos fool you into thinking this is lengthy to make – it takes just 5 minutes once your oats are soaked.
Step 4:
Step 5:
Step 6:
Step 8:
As you can see in the bottom left photo, straining twice gets even more pulp out yielding a smoother milk. I usually strain it 3 times or so, but it’s not necessary if you are time-crunched.
Step 9:
Step 10:
Step 11: I strained my milk one last time into a clean blender. Then I poured the milk from the blender into a clean mason jar for storage in the fridge.
Taste Report:
The flavour of this oat milk is much like I expected; it tastes like oats. Shocking, I know. The biggest challenge I had when testing this recipe was getting it creamy enough. I tried 1/2 cups steel-cut oats with 4 cups water and then 3/4 cups steel-cut oats with 3 cups water. I found both end results to be too watery. Using 1 cup of steel-cut oats to 3 cups of water was my favourite ratio (so far). If you play around with the recipe, I’d love to hear your versions too.
Keeping in mind that this homemade milk is free of emulsifiers and thickeners, I was fairly impressed with the texture. Is it just like store-bought milk? Of course not, but I do think it’s a decent option with a clean ingredient list. It’s much easier on the wallet too!
PROS:
- Very low cost (a batch using steel-cut oats cost me about 50 cents – or less if you can get a deal on oats)
- Nut-free so good for those with allergies
- Quick to make
- You don’t need a nut milk bag or cheesecloth
- Clean up was easy, even with all the spilling I seem to do…
- Decent, but not mind-blowing, flavour
CONS:
- Not as creamy compared to homemade almond milk
- Slightly watery (although this is improved when using 3 cups water instead of 4)
All in all, I feel that the pros outweigh the cons with this homemade oat milk. It’s so cheap to make and that is a huge plus for me. I personally don’t drink much milk by the glass so I think this will be just fine when added to cereal, smoothies, oatmeal, etc. But so far, I’ve been sipping the jar straight from the fridge, letting out satisfied mmm’s and dribbling milk down the front of my shirt. Eric, as always, is quite confident he married a weirdo.
Update: I tried the milk with some Nature’s Path cereal and it tasted a bit like cinnamon toast crunch, probably thanks to the cinnamon in the milk. yummy!
I also made a trial using cooked steel-cut oats and the milk turned out super slimy. I didn’t rinse the oats after cooking, but maybe I should have? I’m going to stick with the non-cooked method.
Odds are that some of you won’t like this milk at all, but it’s also likely that some of you will really enjoy it and appreciate this as a cheap, at-home alternative to the store-bought stuff. I’m quite anxious to see what you think and I welcome your feedback in the comments!
What can you do with the leftover oat pulp? I suggest saving it and mixing it into oatmeal and smoothies. If you have a dehydrator, I assume you could also dehydrate the pulp and then pulverize it in a blender to make flour. If anyone has any other ideas, leave ‘em below.
Have you ever made homemade oat milk or tried a store-bought version? Do you make your own milks at home? If so, what’s your favourite recipe?
Catching up in this series? See: Vegan How To: Introduction (Why this series?), Part 1: How To Make The Transition, Part 2: Replacing Dairy
I tried your recipe. It’s excellent. The less creamier is great for fruit shakes and if you had banana, then you’re fine. It’s a great base for summer cold drinks (iced coffee, chocolate) and tastes OK in coffee.
I’ve also tried maple syrup instead of dates and date syrup (silan).
Other variations you can try: adding cashews, adding almonds.
Try a bit till you get a recipe you like.
Use real vanilla thou. The “Vanilla taste extract” is not the real thing.
Thank you for sharing.
Hi Angela, thanks for all your posts! I am not a real vegan, I still eat meat sometimes and other stuffs, but all my food are organic and local. Still, I love vegan dishes, where I live it s unusual and hard to find recipes (France), so your recipes are so expected at home!
Just a tip, you can use the oat leftovers as an organic mask for your skin, it will make you skin hydrated and soft. Use it on you face with gently massages, or just let it pause on your skin for 5 minutes!
Can’t wait to receive your book!
Has anyone made Kiefer from oat milk????
I’m late to the party, but just tried this recipe and like it! I only added a little salt. It’s not something I would want to have a glass of (well… maybe if it was mixed with chocolate syrup!) but it will be great for smoothies, etc.
Thanks!
This was a bust for me. I used soaked oat groats. Despite lots of rinsing it turned into a slimy mess.
Oatmeal pancakes Mmmmmm, using the oat milk as well.
how would you make oatmeal pancakes?
I have been told I need to cut down my fat intake as my liver is not liking it. I am not over weight. well maybe just a little bit!
I was told I have to omit flour from my diet amongst other things, so I needed to find someway to have my camembert and crackers with. I made a simple savoury oat biscuit. they were great, this pulp will be terrific for this.
I used one cup of oats, (just the amount you have left over after making this milk)
if making while still wet, no need for water to which I only used 2 tablespoons
a bit of dry vegetable stock , two healthy pinches
two healthy pinches of parmesan cheese dried
blended to a paste or until it looked like scone mix
pressed out and baked for ten minutes on 180deg with fan on
they are yummy.
I can have this in my coffee with out sugar as well as it is sweet enough, yes!
I made the oat milk to help with digestion. I started it at night. I went through the soaking and 2 blendings with several drainings. Then I let it set over night. In the morning I didn’t rinse. I stirred it and strained it. Maybe what I saw is what you called slime but I see it as gluten. Unperverted by man gluten. The product I got was rich and delicious. Thanks for the recipe.
Cheryl.
Had a thought for a thicker milk if desired, what about chia seed. I see they make drinks with it, curious if it would thicken without being noticed too much.
I buy Almond milk but sometimes put off by the thinness of it.
It would be helpful if you would clarify in the instructions that you should blend for a total of no more than 10 seconds. I got the sense that you just weren’t supposed to be on the highest speed longer than 10 seconds. I think I over blended mine and it is really slimy!
Hmm. My blenders mixing option is broke so I had to use the fast purée option. I blended to the point that the oats were small specks but not smoothie textured. The second strain with the pantyhose caught any remaining slime that had not been rinsed off or created during the blend. Make sure you rinse them very well!
Mmm-mmm, delicious. I love plant based milks. Almond milk and hemp milk are two of my favorites. The only other milks I’ve made at home is hazelnut and pecan. Thanks to google for bringing me to this recipe. This was the first time I had drank oat milk. I made it a little different than the recipe here but stuck with the main elements. I wanted to retain the light color of the oats so I omitted the vanilla extract and maple surup; used 1/8th teaspoon of vanillin powder and 1/4 cup of sugar instead. I recommend using less and taste testing as you go along if you’re not a sugar person. I’ll use a little less next time. I added two pinches of xantham gum for the last blend and, after straining with a sieve, I strained with a pantyhose for the ultimate speck-free milk. Rather than mixing in cinnamon I like to sprinkle it atop each glass of oat milk to be fancy.
Use the pulp for making bread. I’m gluten/wheat intolerant so will use gluten free oats.
This discovery was better than my discovery of Nerdy Nummies. I love it and it reminds me of eating cinnamon roll flavored oatmeal when I was a kid.
Thanks for this recipe!
we used oat milk to replace cow’s milk when making pancakes. It’s thicker than rice milk, and adds fiber to the pancakes as well!
I made this oat milk using twice the amount of water (spring water) and added two split and cut up vanilla beans, a dash of sea salt, 1/4 teaspoon and 1/4 c fructose. It was delicious at half the calories. The yield was about six cups of oat milk.
I found that by using the nutribullet, the ingredients blended much better than if they were processed in a regular blender.
Drink up!
I’m like Monk. I like thinks to be symmetrical and making this every 4-5 days is not symmetrical. I’m going to make it every 7 days, no more, no less. Sitting in a fridge 2 more days ain’t gonna hurt a thing.
I quite like store bought oat milk, and although we go for the organic version I still think this will be healthier as tit doesn’t have the additives. I’m so excited to try it!!
I tried the recipe (minus the cinammon) and I loved it. I did strain it 3 times. I saved the pulp but do not know what I can do with it. How do I dehydrate it? I don’t want to throw it away so if anyone know what we can use the pulp for I would appreciate it. I had read about carrageenan and that is why I opted to do this recipe. I was drinking soy milk. I’m not a fan of almond milk (although I do like almonds raw). My concern is the calcium. Is there anyway to add calcium to the home made milk?