This homemade Oat Milk is a healthy non-dairy milk substitute. This is quick and easy to make, plus it is the cheapest among the other milk substitute that you can make.

I’m always curious with DIY Ingredients, I find them interesting and sometimes challenging. Just like when I made my Homemade Butter out of curiosity and my Homemade Cheese. This time around, what peaked my curiosity was the homemade non-dairy milk. I do buy them once in a while, most often I go for Almond Milk, but I have never tried Oats Milk before. I’ve always been interested in learning how to make a non-dairy milk and so I thought I should give this a try. I decided to make my own Homemade Oats Milk. The top reason why I chose it was because among the other non-dairy milk that I am interested, Oat milk is the most budget friendly. Almonds and Cashew are quite expensive, but rolled oats are quite reasonably priced and I have plenty of it at home because I often have oatmeal for breakfast. So I gave it a try, and so here we are discussing about Homemade Oats Milk.

Oat Milk Review

• Taste: It doesn’t have as much taste even with using less water. Normally, the recipe calls for 4 cups of water to 1 I used 3 cups of water to 1 cup of rolled oats
• Price: Cheaper and budget friendly. I large bag of rolled oats coast about 3.00 CAD and if I am lucky, they sometimes have it On sale for 2 for 5.00 CAD. That’s a lot l oat milk in 1 bag of oats 
• Serving: I bag (1kg) of rolled oats yields about 33 cups of Oat Milk for a price of 3.00 CAD
• Consistency: The consistency of oat milk is lighter, not as creamy as cashew milk but it is good enough as non-dairy milk substitute 
• Preparation: Oat milk can turn out to be slimy of not prepared properly, but it takes few minutes to make it and you can do without soaking. No need to a lot too much time in making and waiting for it to be available for use.
• Usage: Oat milk are sensitive to heat so using it for cooking in direct heat is not recommended 
• Calories: 1 cup contains about 129 calories

What are the Ingredients for Homemade Oat Milk?

Nothing but water and rolled oats, just 2 simple ingredients. Budget friendly and easy to find. You can add some vanilla extract to give it a flavor, but you can use is as is.

What Type of Oats is Best?

Quick cooking rolled oats and steel cut oats have different textures and thickness and may affect the creaminess of the oat milk. I recommend stick to rolled oats in making oat milk.

How to Make Oat Milk

Making Oats Milk is really simple. To make this, you will need a blender. If you have a high speed good quality blender then even better as that will produce a smoother mixture with less oats pulp. If you have a regular blender or even those single serve smoothie blender, that will work too but it will require extra straining to remove the pulp. 

Simply rinse the oats, pour the cold water in the blender, add the oats and blend until smooth. Strain to remove the pulp, you can do this as many times as you like. If you are using a high speed blender, you will only need to strain it 1-2 times and you got yourself a homemade oat milk. Transfer in a pitcher and chill in the refrigerator. Easy!

Should I Strain Homemade Oat Milk?

Definitely Yes! If you don’t you will end up with a coarse milk with plenty of pulp. Unlike other non-dairy milk substitute, oat milk have the most pulp after processing. There is no skipping on this. You may get less pulp if using high powered blender but for a creamy and clear consistency, you have to strain the oat milk.

Nut Bag vs. Cheese Cloth, Which One is Better?

A nut milk bag is basically a specially shaped fabric bag, that you strain your blended raw almond/cashew/coconut/oat milk through to remove any pulp or fibre that remains.

• Usage: This is specifically designed to strain liquid, and so the weave a really fine thus giving a clearer and smoother milk after straining.
• Ease of Use: Since this is a bag, it is easier and less messy to use. Just pour the liquid and let it drip without worrying that some liquid will overflow on the side.
• Price: The only thin is that nut bag are a lot more expensive, I bought mine for 10.00CAD for 3 pieces of different size.
• Durability: The nut bag have a stronger fabric weave. I find it to last longer in the long run.

Cheesecloth is a loose-woven gauze-like carded cotton cloth used primarily in cheese making and cooking. They come in different grades from from open to extra-fine weave. The finer the weave, the less pulp will come-through when you use it for straining non-dairy milk.

• Usage: Cheese cloth are designed primarily for cheese making and cooking that requires straining. It comes like a sheet of cloth instead of a bag.
• Ease of Use: It is not difficult to use cheese cloth, although not convenient as nut bag. You have to make sure not to over fill the cloth as the liquid could come out on the side when you tie it up
• Price: Cheese Cloth are a lot cheaper and it does the job of a nut bag. I bought mine for 2:00CAD.
• Durability: The cheese cloth have a more gauze like cotton fabric which I find more prone to wear and tear.

Recommendation: I personally like using nut bag for long term use. But if you find it too expensive, the cheese cloth will do the jib as well. If you do not have a cheese cloth, you can also use a very fine sieve/strainer.

Where to Use the Oats Pulp?

You’ll have about 1/4 cup of oats pulp after straining it. Do not throw it as you can still use it. 

• Add it when cooking rolled oats for breakfast, it makes the consistency thicker and creamy, after all it’s oatmeal so why not mix them together. 
• If you making a creamy soup, or saucy soup or stew, you can use it as thickener, bonus of additional fiber in your meals
• Blend it with your smoothie. I like to mix it when making any of my Oats Smoothie. 
• Add it to cookie batter, like when making Oatmeal cookie. It makes a nice soft oatmeal cookie. Sorry, I don’t have the recipe for that.

Where Can I Use Oat Milk?

I like to use this non-dairy milk for smoothies, chia pudding, rice pudding, oatmeal and baked products like cakes, cupcakes and brownies. Since heat is the enemy of oat milk, I would not recommend cooking it in direct heat as you will end up with a really thick almost pudding like texture.

Can I Make it Without Flavoring?

Yes you can. You can make it plain and unsweetened and just add the sweetener when you use it. I personally like adding flavoring and sweetener when making it because it makes a huge difference in taste. My most go to flavoring is pure Vanilla Extract, but sometimes I also use soaked dried dates for a more creamier taste and texture. Sometimes I also add a pinch of salt to enhance the taste, but nothing much to make the milk salty. If you can taste the salt, that means you’ve added to much. A pinch is about 1/8 teaspoon nothing more.

How to Flavor Oat Milk

There are few ways that you can flavor this Oat Milk

• Vanilla Flavor – the most commonly used is the addition of vanilla extract. Use only pure for better stronger flavor
• Chocolate Flavor – You can add cocoa powder just make sure to dilute the cocoa powder with hot water so it becomes a paste before mixing it with the oats otherwise you could have lumps of cocoa powder in the milk.
• Fruity Flavor – You can mix in some berries, my favorite are Strawberry, Blueberry and Raspberry. Mango and Peach are a nice one too
• Espresso Flavor – For a morning coffee flavor, add some espresso powder to the oat milk, just make sure to dilute the espresso powder with hot water so it becomes a paste before mixing it with the oat milk. You can use flavored instant coffee powder like hazelnut, french vanilla etc.

How Long Does Oat Milk Last?

Oat milk should last about 5 days in the refrigerator. Make sure to have it in a well sealed jar. You’ll know it’s gone bad when it smells funny and it becomes too slimy.

Why did My Oat Milk Separate?

Do not panic, this is normal for a homemade non-dairy milk. Even when making nut milk like Almond or Cashew milk, this could happen. Homemade non-dairy milk is made up of mostly water and oats or nuts. Once the mixture is left idle in the container, the “milk” portion will separate down the bottom while the upper portion will be the water. Just shake the milk before using.

Important Tips in Making Oat Milk

• Use ICE COLD Water: I made this homemade Oat Milk few times already. The first time I made it, I noticed that the Oat Milk consistency is quite thick than regular oat milk from the market. I also noticed that it is quite slimy for some reason and I was wondering why. One thing for sure, Oat on its own is starchy this is why it produces a nice consistency when used to make breakfast oatmeal. I researched this, and some people suggested using ice cold water instead of warm or hot water. Hot or even warm water can make the rolled oats starchy and gummy, thus producing a thick slimy oat milk.
• Reduce the Blending Time: As heat is a major enemy in making oat milk, the longer you blender the more heat from the blade is transferred to the granules of the rolled oats, again making the oat milk thick and slimy. I find 30 – 45 seconds is good enough for a high powered blender.
• Use a Nut Milk Bag: Nut milk bag have a very fine texture which catch the oat pulp quite well leaving you only clear smooth oat milk. If you do not have a nut milk bag, you can use a fine produce bag which is almost like a nut bag. Another option is cheese cloth or a sieve/strainer.
• Gently Squeeze: Let the oat milk drain slowly without squeezing the nut bag too much. When you see pulp coming out, that means you are squeezing too much. Simply do another roundof straining.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Rolled Oats
• 3 cups ice COLD Water (for thinner consistency, use 4 cups ice cold water)

Flavoring & Sweetener (Optional):

• 1 teaspoon pure Vanilla Extract
• 1/8 teaspoon Salt
• 1 – 2 tablespoon Honey (can be substituted with other sweetener but the measurement will vary, adjust as needed)

Instructions:

1. Blend: Pour the ice cold water in the blender and add the salt, vanilla extract, sweetener and rolled oats. Blend the mixture until smooth (about 30 – 45 seconds) but do not blend too long as this can cause the oat milk to be thick and slimy due to the heat from the blade of the blender.
2. Strain: However smooth you think the consistency, there’s still fine oats pulp in the mixture. Have a large bowl ready to catch the oat milk. Pour the blended oats into a nut milk bag or use a cheese cloth and let it drip into the bowl. Do not squeeze too much to avoid pushing the pulp out. Squeeze lightly just until the oat milk are out.  
   • Alternatively, if you do not have a nut milk bag, you can use cheese cloth or a very fine strainer. This however could affect the consistency of the oat milk.
3. Chill: Transfer the oats milk in an air tight container and kept refrigerated up to 5 days.

Can I Heat Oat milk?

It is NOT recommended to directly boil the oat milk for use in cooking as heat is the enemy of oat milk. When heated, oat milk will turn into a thick, really thick consistency to almost like a pudding.

Nutritional Information

Nutritional Information was calculated using Veryfitwell Recipe Calorie and Nutrition Calculator. For details about Nutritional Information in this website, please read the Disclaimer page.

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