The best homemade oat milk recipe using only oats, water and a few flavors! Make a creamy, perfectly sweet dairy free milk that tastes like Oatly and costs pennies. A simple extra ingredient creates a non-slimy oat milk. This delicious nutritious milk is also nut-free and plant-based.
Homemade oat milk is considered one of the healthiest dairy free milk options. It's high in fiber, micronutrients, and nut-free. Here's an oat milk recipe that makes a plant-based milk with a delicious creamy texture. It's naturally dairy free, gluten free and vegan. And while oats can sometimes make a milk slimy, you can avoid that by adding a common ingredient in your refrigerator right now, lemon juice.
Lighter than almond milk, this homemade milk is easy to make in a blender. Just add 3 ingredients, blend, strain and pour a tall cold glass of fresh homemade oat milk to add as a milk creamer to your coffee or tea, or use it to wash down desserts such as my applesauce chocolate chip cookies , 2-ingredient fudge, my peanut butter oatmeal balls, my no bake chocolate brownies, or even to add to a brunch table including sprinkle cookie sticks, cakes and even a festive fruit tray.
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Why You'll Love Homemade Oat Milk
1. It will cost you just pennies to make - 1 cup costs less than a $1 to make while a top store-bought brand costs three times as much.
2. Your homemade milk will be naturally dairy-free, vegan, gluten free and free of preservatives or chemical additives, and be higher in nutrition.
3. Convenience. You can make as much or as little as you need, or even fresh daily.
Ingredients
- Oats. Rolled oats are best. Look for an organic, and gluten-free certified. Quick oats can work but will need more liquid. Don't use instant oats or steel-cut oats.
- Lemon juice. Necessary to dissolve the gluten and render the milk slime-free.
- Water & Salt.
See the recipe card at the bottom for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations
- Chocolate oat milk. Add 2 tablespoons cocoa powder and 3 tablespoons of date paste.
- Cinnamon oat milk. Add 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.
- Strawberry oat milk. Add 1 cup of frozen strawberries and 2 pitted medjool dates.
Step by Step Instructions
For more detail, visit the complete and printable recipe at the bottom of this post, but here are general steps.
Step 1: Add oats to a strainer and pour or run water over them for a few seconds to rinse the dust off the flakes. Add all ingredients to a blender and blend for under 30 seconds. Don't blend longer or the mixture can break down and become gluey.
Step 2: Put a fine mesh strainer over a large container and pour the mixture through it. A nut milk bag or cheesecloth can also be used instead of a strainer but don't squeeze the bag too hard or the milk will become gluey.
Step 3: Push a spoon or spatula back and forth in the oat mixture in the strainer to encourage the liquid to get through the strainer, but don't press on it. Strain twice if there is more sediment than you'd like.
Step 4: Add flavorings and taste-test and add more sweetener if needed. Pour your homemade oat milk into a bottle and store refrigerated for 5 days.
Pro tip: Use lemon juice to prevent your oat milk from becoming slimy. Lemon juice deactivates phytic acid, the substance that can add the slim to your oat milk.
Recipe Tips
1.This recipe makes 3 cups of milk.
2. Don't soak the oats. Soaking is like "cooking" and not the best option for oat milk. Rinse your oats briefly instead.
3. Use cold water, or at least room temperature water. It doesn't have to be ice cold. Warm water will trigger the gluten and turn the milk slimy.
4. Don't over blend. The blender blades begin to warm to keep the blending process to under 30 seconds, stop, lift the lid, and then blend again for 15 seconds if needed.
5. When you strain your milk, just pour it, and don't press any solids through or use a nut bag that you squeeze as you do with making nut milks.
Oat Milk Benefits
Oat milk nutrition is sky-high, and the non-dairy milk is popular as a healthy non-dairy largely because of its unusual nutritional benefits. Commercial oat milks are boosted with additional vitamins, including B12, which is not found in homemade oat milk. However commercial oat milks also contain preservatives, artificial flavorings and many contain sugar.
Make Ahead & Storage
Make oat milk ahead of time. Blend it up, pour it into ice cube trays and store it for three months in the freezer. Thaw a cube the prior night to have oat milk ready for your morning coffee.
Storage. Store oat milk in an air-tight bottle in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Shake or stir as there may be some separation of ingredients. It will smell and look curdled when it is going bad, just as any milk.
FAQS
Yes, so much cheaper. A half-gallon of oat milk costs about $5 to $. That means a cup of store-bought oat milk is about 60 cents. Using my recipe, each glass of homemade oat milk is about 0.15 cents - that's 75% cheaper than store-bought.
The pulp you gather in the strainer is nutritionally useful! Refrigerate it for three days or freeze it longer. Add it to smoothies, cookie batter, granola recipes. Even use it chilled as a face mask for a healthy skin rejuvenator.
Homemade oat milk made with lemon juice can be used in a hot drink without risk of making the drink slimy.
Yes, you can use a food processor or it might be possible to saturate quick oats enough so a mixer would break down the mixture enough to strain it, but the milk might be watery as more liquid will be needed.
Use it in place of milk in any recipe, including my smoothies, soups, healthy drinks. I use it to make my cookies, cakes and cupcakes, and no bake treats. I especially love it in my breakfast & brunch recipes, including this creamy chocolate smoothie, and in my overnight oats recipe.
Other Oatmeal Recipes
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📖 Recipe
How to Make Homemade Oat Milk (creamy not slimy)
Ingredients
- 1 cup (80g) rolled oats
- 3 cups (711ml) cold water
- 1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- ⅛ teaspoon of salt
- 2 tablespoon maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
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Instructions
Preparation
- Measure out your oats into a strainer, then run water over the oats under your faucet for a few seconds or pour a few cups of water over it. Push the oats around with a spoon so all flakes are rinsed. This removes the sour-tasting phytate dust from the surface.
Make homemade oat milk
- Add rinsed oats, water, lemon juice, and salt to a blender, and blend for under 30 seconds. Don't blend longer or the mixture can break down and become gluey.1 cup (80g) rolled oats, 3 cups (711ml) cold water, 1 ½ teaspoon lemon juice, ⅛ teaspoon of salt
- Put a strainer over a large container, and pour the mixture through the strainer. Do not press on the oat residue but stirring it is fine if the liquid struggles to get through. You can also add more water in increments if the mixture starts out too thick. Or use a nut bag or cheesecloth but again don't squeeze too hard.
- Add flavors into the milk, such as vanilla, cinnamon and maple syrup and taste-test.2 tablespoon maple syrup, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Make Ahead & Storage
- Make oat milk ahead of time. Pour it into ice cube trays and store it for three months in the freezer. Storage. Store oat milk in an air-tight bottle in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Shake or stir as there may be some separation of ingredients.
Gina Kay Kaufman
Hi! My oat milk turned out too lemony flavored. Is there a way to fix that?
Dee
You could add maple syrup in 1/2 teaspoon increments until you reach the flavor you want.
Brenna
Hi! When is drain it through my nut bag, it clogs immediately and doesn’t drip. What can I do to fix this?
Dee Dine
Hi Brenna, assuming the nut bag is new and meant to strain milk, take a spoon and slosh it around inside the bag to get it going. If that doesn't work, add more water in 2-tablespoon increments until the mixture is fluid enough to get through the bag.