How to Make Oat Milk Recipe
Learn how to Make Oat Milk! It’s easy, affordable, and takes only a few minutes to make! I’ll also give you my key tip to make sure it is not slimy!
My name is Jessica and I LOVE oats. I can’t remember when my love for oats started, but I’m glad it did. When I’m not eating oatmeal, I’m making oatmeal chocolate chips. Or making it into oat flour. To say I love oats is truly an understatement!
So naturally, my next step was making oat milk. After a few tries, I realised that this wasn’t exactly like making cashew milk or almond milk. That being said, I love a good challenge and was determined to make it a go-to of mine, and an easy recipe for you to follow! Here we are!
What is oat milk?
Oat Milk is a vegan milk made from blending oats with filtered water. It’s one of the simplest plant based milks because you don’t need to prep anything ahead of time (except, maybe cold water?). You can add your own sweeteners if you want, and any flavourings. I love adding a liquid sweetener to mine as well as vanilla extract.
It got pretty popular within the last two years, and making it at home is easier than it seems. There’s one catch: oat milk can get slimy if not made “properly”. After all, oats are used to make oatmeal. Once you get that part right, this is a dream.
What does this taste like?
Oat milk tastes kind of like oats, kind of like the flavouring you give it. So, you do have control over how you want it to taste. When it’s used in a baked recipe though? There’s no distinct taste. I’ve used it to make a single mug macaroni (yes, my love for mug recipes is off the chart), and in banana bread and didn’t taste any distinct oat flavour. It does taste yummy though!
How to make oat milk not slimy
Importance of Very Cold Water
Here’s the number one tip to not making oat milk slimy: use very cold water. You want to ensure that your water is very cold because the entire point is that we don’t want to heat up the oats, or we want to heat it as little as possible while making it. Your high-speed blender will slightly heat it while it’s blending it, so to combat any slime-producing factors, start with very cold water! You can pour it from a very cold fridge or you can add a lot of ice to water for about 10 minutes, then remove the ice and measure out your 3 cups of water.
How to make oat milk
You make oat milk by blending dry old fashioned or rolled oats, very cold filtered water, and your sweetener and flavour of choice. You’ll need a high-speed blender. This part is kind of non-negotiable because you need a machine that’ll blitz the oats quickly, so it isn’t blending for too long (so it doesn’t get slimy).
After it’s all blitzed, you’re going to strain the oat milk through a fine mesh strainer. If you want to speed it up, you can lightly press on any milk that’s not straining through because of the pulp. Or, you can just let it drip for a few minutes by itself.
After that, you’re going to add another cup of cold water. You’re adding it now because you lost water in the draining process, and this brings you up to about 4 cups of liquid. You’ve made oat milk! These tips help with not making the oat milk not slimy.
Tips for making the best oat milk
- You want to blend for as little time as possible. Oat milk, unlike pretty much every other plant based beverage, is very susceptible to getting slimy. I blitz the mixture for like 30 seconds. After testing it several times I found that this was the best method.
- Don’t soak your oats before. I tested this and after and it definitely contributed to the slime. It’s best to start with dry oats.
- Use as cold water as possible to start. I like to make ice cold water.
- Add sweetener and vanilla extract! I loved mine best with these additions.
- I actually preferred straining it using a fine mesh strainer instead of nut milk bags, and plus, it’s less messy!
How best to use homemade oat milk
Anything cold? Perfect. Hot recipes? Let’s get into that.
When homemade oat milk gets heated up in certain recipes, it’ll get slightly slimy. So if you’re making a hot breakfast beverage for example, it wouldn’t be the best option. I do find that where the milk is just an ingredient in a recipe that’ll be cooked/baked out, it works perfectly. So, I would say make it and test it to see where it works for you!
These are some of my favourite recipes to use this in:
How to Make Oat Milk Recipe
Ingredients
- 3 cups filtered very cold water, almost ice cold
- 1 cup old fashioned oats, or rolled oats
- pinch sea salt
- 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, or two tablespoons if you want it sweet
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 cup of cold water, this is extra water
Instructions
- Add the 3 cups of water, oats, sea salt and sweeteners into a high-speed blender and blend for 30 seconds until oats are blended completely. Don’t blend too long because you don’t want it to heat up the oat milk.
- Pour the oat milk into a fine mesh strainer over your jug or large-mouthed bowl and let it drain through. You may need to lightly press on the mixture with a spoon to get it through the pulp and into the bowl. You can discard the pulp or use it in smoothies, cookies or other baked goods.
- Transfer the oat milk back to the glass bottle or jar. Now, add in your extra cup of water, stir to combine and store in the fridge! Shake before use and enjoy! It lasts about 6 days in the fridge.
Notes
Disclaimer: Although jessicainthekitchen.com attempts to provide accurate nutritional information, kindly note that these are only estimates. Nutritional information may be affected based on the product type, the brand that was purchased, and in other unforeseeable ways. Jessicainthekitchen.com will not be held liable for any loss or damage resulting for your reliance on nutritional information. If you need to follow a specific caloric regimen, please consult your doctor first.
I have been making all my own plant based milk for two years in the “Almond Cow” which I love and have down to a science. I have been trying to make am acceptable “Oatmilk” for the same to years. I absolutely love the full fat “Oatley” oat milk which froths and is the perfect solution for a coffee creamer. Every time I make oatmilk I actually end up throwing it out, because it really doesn’t taste that good compaired to all my homemade nutmilks and it doesn’t froth or make a good coffee creamer. I am going to give it another shot using your recipe and appreciate you sharing it with us. Thank you, Mary Beth
Thanks so much for giving ours a try Mary Beth! We really hope you like it!! We tried multiple ways of making it and this way is our favorite!
Just made this. Amazing! Tastes better than any shop bought and a fraction of the price!
I’m delighted, thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much Amanda! We appreciate you coming over here to leave such a nice review!
Delicious recipe and extremely helpful tips for making oat milk at home! Thank you!
We’re so happy that you enjoyed this recipe Alicia! Thank you so much for reading and leaving such a nice comment!
I was just wondering if there’s any way I can use this in my coffee? Love your recipes 🙂
Hi Jasmine this recipe doesn’t seem to hold up extremely well with really hot beverages. It would work perfectly with an iced coffee though! Thank you so much for reading and we’re so happy that you love our recipes!
I love that this is such an accessible recipe. I haven’t made nut milks yet because I don’t have a nut milk bag and haven’t planned ahead enough to pre soak nuts- plus nuts are expensive! This oat milk recipe was low effort and easy to master thanks to Jessica’s thoughtful testing to perfect the recipe ingredients and techniques. Such a low risk intro to making non-dairy milk- try it if you haven’t already!
We’re so happy that you enjoyed this recipe Kelsey! Thank you so much for reading and leaving such a nice comment!
This recipe was so easy and quick to make. It makes about 4 cups which is the perfect amount for 1 person to use in a week, good for 6 days once mixed. I doubled the vanilla because I’m using this mostly in coffee so it adds a great flavor to my coffee. The consistency is right in the middle, not too watery and not too thick. Perfect!!
This is great. I would love to see more recipes for using all your milk-making pulp. I make small batches of oat milk in my smoothie cup (I’m by myself). I grind the oats into flour first and then add the ice cold water and other ingredients. I also make a small amount of cashew milk/cream (no straining) and add that to the oat milk for a bit of fat and protein in the oat milk. Thanks so much for sharing all your great recipes!
Hi Noreen,
Thanks so much for sharing, so happy you enjoyed! Almond Cow actually has some amazing recipes for using up pulp by the way! Highly recommend checking out their website!