Let me show you how to make oat milk at home! With this recipe you can make creamy, smooth, and delicious homemade oat milk with just 4 easy ingredients. It takes only 5 minutes and it’s perfect for breakfast, coffee, or baking!
Why This Recipe Works
Unfortunately, store-bought oat milk is often loaded with sugar and it can be quite expensive. So just make your own version at home, which is incredibly easy!
With this recipe, you will have delicious, creamy, and light oat milk in just minutes. It comes out perfect every time and I love pouring it over cereal in the morning or adding it to my coffee or tea.
It has a neutral taste, so you can also use it for baking or for making creamy smoothies.
You need only very basic and very budget-friendly ingredients: rolled oats, a couple of Medjool dates, a pinch of salt, and water. Probably, you’ve already got everything at home and you could start making this recipe right away.
The recipe works best with a high speed blender. But it’s pretty easy to blend, so unlike making nut milk you don’t necessarily need a super fancy blender. Just blend it all up and then strain it through a nut milk bag or a thin towel or dishcloth.
Unlike almond milk, this recipe creates almost no waste. There is minimal oat pulp left that can be used for pancakes, baking, or smoothies.
For extra flavor, you could add chocolate powder, vanilla extract, pumpkin spice, or berries.
I’ve made this recipe so many times and it always comes out perfect!
What Goes Into This Recipe
- Oats – use rolled oats. The recipe doesn’t work well with more processed quick cooking oats (the milk becomes a bit slimy) or unprocessed steel cut oats (it becomes less creamy). Rolled oats work perfect!
- Dates – my favorite are Medjool dates. They’re large, soft, and packed with flavor.
- Sea Salt – just add a pinch of salt for a balanced flavor.
What You Need To Make This Recipe
- Blender – I recommend using a high speed blender. I love my Vitamix and couldn’t imagine my kitchen without it. But oats are relatively easy to blend, so any good blender would work.
- Nut Milk Bag – You could also use a thin towel, a dishcloth, or even a clean t-shirt.
How to Make This Recipe
1. Step: Place the oats, the dates, and the salt in the blender.
2. Step: Add the water.
3. Step: Blend until smooth. Don’t overblend or the milk might get slimy. 30 seconds to 1 minute is enough.
4./5. Step: Strain the milk using a nut milk bag, a clean towel, dishcloth, or a strainer. Do not press the pulp to get more milk out as this will make the milk slimy as well.
6. Step: Fill into glass bottles or an airtight container and store in the fridge.
Recipe Notes:
- Sometimes homemade oat milk becomes a bit slimy. To avoid this make sure not to press the pulp too much to get more milk out of the nut milk bag, towel, or through the strainer. Also make sure not to overmix it. 1 minute is usually enough.
- It’s normal that the milk separates when it’s left in the fridge for a while. Just shake it well before using it and it will be all good again.
- Store-bought oat milk foams up really nicely and is often used as a dairy-free alternative in coffee shops. Unfortunately, this is not the case for homemade oat milk as it doesn’t contain the needed additives that makes it foam up.
- It’s best enjoyed cold straight out of the fridge.
- To make this recipe 100 percent gluten-free, make sure to use certified gluten-free oats to avoid cross-contamination.
- The milk becomes pretty thick when being heated, so it’s not the best for making hot chocolate or other hot beverages.
Variations:
- Chocolate Milk: add two tablespoons of cocoa powder before blending.
- Vanilla Milk: add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.
- Strawberry Milk: add 1/4 cup strawberries (or raspberries).
- Pumpkin Spice: add 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon plus 1/2 teaspoon of pumpkin spice blend.
FAQs:
Should I Soak The Oats Before Blending?
Many recipes tell you to first soak the oats and then rinse them to remove the sliminess. I know this doesn’t sound nice, but oats always become a bit slimy when combined with water. Haha!
I’ve tried soaking them, but the milk still came out a bit slimy. So for me it worked best not soaking the oats at all. This also saves you a lot of time.
Just blend them without soaking for the best results. Easy, peasy!
What Should I Use To Strain The Oat Milk?
I usually use a nut milk bag to strain my homemade oat milk. It’s super easy and quick and works really well.
So if you’re making plant-based milk on a regular basis, I’d definitely recommend investing in a nut milk bag. As the name suggests, it’s also great for making homemade almond milk.
However, you could also use a clean thin towel, a dishcloth, a cheesecloth, or even a clean t-shirt. The recipe also works with a fine mesh strainer.
How Long Does It Last?
Stored in an airtight container or bottle in the fridge, it will last up to 5 days. Sometimes even longer. Just give it a good shake before using at as it will separate after some time.
What Could I Do With The Leftover Oat Pulp?
Usually there won’t be much pulp left. But if you don’t want to throw it away you can add it to your pancake or cookie batter, or to your smoothie.
Related Recipes
I Love to Hear From You!
I hope you like this homemade oat milk as much as we do around here.
If you give this recipe a try, I’d love to know what you think about it. Just leave me a comment and a star rating below. Your comments really make my day!
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Sina
Homemade Oat Milk
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats
- 4 cups water
- 2 Medjool dates, pitted
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- Place the oats, the dates, and the salt in the blender.
- Add the water.
- Blend until smooth. Don't overblend or the milk might get slimy. 30 seconds to 1 minute is enough.
- Strain the milk using a nut milk bag, a clean towel, dishcloth, or a strainer. Do not press the pulp to get more milk out as this will make the milk slimy as well.
- Fill into glass bottles or an airtight container and store in the fridge.
Notes
- Sometimes homemade oat milk becomes a bit slimy. To avoid this make sure not to press the pulp too much to get more milk out of the nut milk bag, towel, or through the strainer. Also make sure not to overmix it. 1 minute is usually enough.
- It's normal that the milk separates when it's left in the fridge for a while. Just shake it well before using it and it will be all good again.
- Store-bought oat milk foams up really nicely and is often used as a dairy-free alternative in coffee shops. Unfortunately, this is not the case for homemade oat milk as it doesn't contain the needed additives that makes it foam up.
- It's best enjoyed cold straight out of the fridge.
- To make this recipe 100 percent gluten-free, make sure to use certified gluten-free oats to avoid cross-contamination.
- The milk becomes pretty thick when being heated, so it's not the best for making hot chocolate or other hot beverages.
- Stored in an airtight container or bottle in the fridge, it will last up to 5 days
Your recipe was super easy to follow and very tasty!
I like that you don’t soak the oats first because, as you said, that is more time-consuming and makes for a slimy milk.
I also like that you explain why you do things and give alternatives.
Thank you!
Loved using this recipe! For my taste, I used more dates, and I mixed Himalayan salt, organic sun dried dates, cocoa, and vanilla in filtered water prior, because I wanted the dates blended really well.
Once blended, I added organic sprouted rolled oats for 55 seconds in my ninja (tri-blade) and then strained and cooled over night.
Delicious! Thank you for giving me an awesome recipe that I could use to make my own oat milk (daily), that I think is better than anything sold in grocery stores!
Cant waitbto try this will make some today
I’m surprised you say there’s no usually much pulp left over. That hasn’t been my experience and I make oatmilk a lot, so I’m always looking for ways to use up the pulp. There’s got to be more uses than cookies and smoothies!