Using just oats and water you can make and enjoy this cheap and delicious Homemade Oat Milk! Pour it over cereal, use it for baking or drink it straight!
We love non-dairy milk in our house. Whether it's homemade almond milk, homemade soy milk, walnut milk or today's recipe for homemade oat milk, we are down for a chilly glass anytime of day! Oat milk and chocolate oat milk are probably our favorite milks to make at home as they are super tasty, nutritious and incredibly inexpensive! Pour this oat milk over some homemade bran flakes and you'll have a delicious, all homemade breakfast!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe!
- Non-dairy milk is getting pretty expensive when purchased at the grocery store, but this homemade oat milk is incredibly inexpensive! It's probably the cheapest non-dairy milk you can make at home!
- This milk works perfectly in baking. It's my go-to milk to use whenever I'm making vegan pancakes or muffins as it saves me lots of money to use a couple cups of homemade oat milk instead of a store-bought non-dairy milk.
- Making oat milk at home takes about 5 minutes from start to finish! There have been times when I didn't realize I was out of non-dairy milk and I was able to whip up this oat milk in minutes.
Ingredients
- Rolled Oats - I personally like to use rolled oats when making oat milk at home, but quick oats could also work. Don't use steal cut oats!
- Cold water - If you've ever made oatmeal, then you how oats thicken as they heat up. For this reason I like to use super cold water whenever I'm making this recipe. If you use water water and let your blender blend too long, your oat milk will start to thicken and become slimy!
- Pinch of salt - While it's not necessary, I always like to add a pinch of salt to my homemade non-dairy milks. Especially if you're adding some kind of sweetener, the salt helps to bring out the sweetness.
Variations
- Sweetened Oat Milk - You can blend in some dates, maple syrup, coconut sugar, etc. to make sweetened homemade oat milk.
- Flavors - I love to add in a touch of vanilla extract whenever I have it on hand to make vanilla oat milk. Yum!
- Chocolate Oat Milk - Add in 1-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder to make Chocolate Oat Milk...yum! You could even add in some peppermint extract to make a festive peppermint chocolate milk.
Homemade Oat Milk vs. Homemade Almond Milk
Both oat milk and almond milk are delicious, but there are some pros and cons to both, especially if you make them at home.
Homemade Oat Milk
- Pros - Making oat milk at home is super affordable and can be made in just about 5 minutes because you don't have to soak the oats ahead of time.
- Cons - You can't warm up homemade oat milk or use it in things like coffee or hot chocolate.
Homemade Almond Milk
- Pros - Homemade almond milk can be warmed up and therefore can be used to make almond milk hot chocolate or can be poured into hot coffee without it thickening.
- Cons - If you have access to a store that sells nuts in bulk and if you turn your almond pulp into almond flour, then you might find that Homemade Almond Milk is economical and worth your time, but otherwise almond milk is a lot more expensive to make than oat milk. Homemade almond milk also takes a lot more time to make as you need to soak your almonds for at least a few hours or overnight before making almond milk.
How to Make Oat Milk
Step 1: Pour the oats, cold water, and any optional ingredients into your blender.
Step 2: Blend all of the ingredients on high until smooth, only about 10-30 seconds. Be careful not to blend too long as you don't want the oat milk to get warm.
Step 3: Strain the oat milk by pouring it through a nut milk bag (or cheese cloth) into a pitcher or bowl.
Step 4: Use your hands to squeeze the milk out of your nut milk bag. Once no more milk is coming out, you can discard the oat pulp or save it for another use.
Expert Tips
- Use cold water to make homemade oat milk. The colder your oat milk stays, the less slimy it will be.
- Don't blend the oats and water too long. To be honest, using a Vitamix, I only blend the milk for about 10-20 seconds. If you don't have a high speed blender, you may need to blend a little bit longer, but not much. If you blend the oats too long, the mixture will start to warm up and thicken.
- Always shake your oat milk before using it as the oats will separate from the water and settle on the bottom of the container.
- Don't heat up homemade oat milk! Because there are still lots of oat particles in this homemade milk, if you heat it up it will thicken and get slimy and goopy. I only recommend enjoying this oat milk cold or using it for baking.
Storage
Because homemade oat milk doesn't have any strange thickeners or preservatives, it won't last as long as store-bought oat milk. However, this oat milk is so tasty that I'm sure it won't last long in your fridge anyways! To store homemade oat milk, place it an a sealed jar or container and store it in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Shake the oat milk thoroughly before using it as the oats and water will separate as they sit.
Recipe FAQs
One downside to homemade oat milk is that it will thicken up when you heat it. Even though you can strain the oat milk to remove the excess oat pulp, there are still super-fine oat particles in the oat milk. Heating the milk causes those fine particles to thicken, as if you were cooking oatmeal on the stove.
I haven't tried this with oat milk, but I have made barista almond and cashew milk by adding ¼ teaspoon of xanthum gum and 1 tablespoon of coconut oil to the blender with the raw nuts and water. The xanthum gum and oil help to emulsify all of the ingredients and produce a thicker non-dairy milk that doesn't separate when poured into hot drinks such as coffee or tea.
While homemade oat milk will thicken when warmed up over the stove top, I have found that the heat from baking doesn't affect it. I don't know how many times I've started baking something only to realized that I don't have enough non-dairy milk to complete the recipe. That's when I quickly whiz up some oat milk!
While I don't think homemade oat milk is great heated in large quantities (remember the oatmeal reference??), I have had readers comment that it works great in small quantities in their coffee or tea. Instead of heating it, just add a splash to your hot coffee or tea and enjoy!
If you're looking for an oat milk that tastes good in coffee and can get frothy for lattes, I highly recommend Oatly. However, if you just need a cheap, non-dairy milk for baking or smoothies, try making homemade oat milk!
Homemade oat milk is already really inexpensive, but you can make even more bang for your buck by saving the oat pulp and using it in other recipes.
I haven't experimented a ton with oat pulp, but you can always cook it similarly to oatmeal or add it to smoothies for some added whole grains and fiber. You can even make Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Pulp Cookies!
More Homemade Milk Recipes
Love this recipe? Please leave a 5-star 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 rating in the recipe card below & a review in the comments section further down the page.
📖 Recipe
Homemade Oat Milk
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
- 3 cups cold filtered water
OPTIONAL
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 4 Medjool dates
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Pour the oats, water and any optional ingredients into your blender and blend on high until smooth.*
- Strain the oat milk by pouring it through a nut milk bag (or cheese cloth) into a pitcher or bowl. Use your hands to squeeze the milk out of your nut milk bag. Once no more milk is coming out, you can discard the oat pulp. Refrigerate your oat milk until chilled.
- Store your oat milk in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. Shake thoroughly before using.
Celia says
Hi Faith!
If I want the Oat milk to be a liiittle bit more "thick" or have less of a watery feel in the mouth, can I add more oats and less water?
Sincerely,
Celia.
Faith says
Hi Celia! Yes. You could try that. Or you could not blend it as long so that it's thicker. Some people like it even without straining it, but that's definitely more of a thick, oat milk. I hope you find a ratio that works for you!
Dana says
I did this today from your recipe. It really looks like milk but the taste was horrible. I think the problem was the dish cloth I used to squeeze the milk. The milk had literally some washing product taste... But I want to try once again. It is really simple to prepare as you said.
Faith says
I'm sorry the dish cloth made the taste so bad for you Dana! I hope you can try again and that it works better for you the second time.
Bobby says
Please don’t strain thru a dishcloth and then post that it tastes awful.
Tilly says
Hey Faith! I'm looking for a way to avoid bankrupting myself on Oatly milk but I don't have a normal blender, just a soup stick/wand style immersion one. Do you think it'll work for this?
Thanks
Faith says
I think that would work fine! You'll just learn as you go how long to blend etc to get the consistency you want. Let me know how it turns out!
Carmen says
I was looking for an oatmeal cookie recipe and "just happened" to come upon your site! Since I am allergic to cow's milk, this would be a real blessing for me!
I just made it to see what it was all about BEFORE I needed milk (!) and it was a WOW !!! I drank the whole thing right off! LOVED IT! 🙂
Thanks to all the posts, as I did add sweetener, vanilla, and cinnamon. This one is a real KEEPER!
Blessings to all! 🙂
Faith says
This is music to my ears Carmen! So glad you found my post and that you loved the oat milk!
Holly says
Never mind. I took a chance anyway 🙂 I made it! Taste so delicious and best of all no animals where harmed in the production of this milk. I added a little less than 1/4 cup Stevia instead and a pinch of salt. Great job and thank you so much <3
Faith says
So glad you took the chance and found success. And the addition of stevia sounds amazing! Thanks Holly!
Holly says
Hello :-)The old fashioned oats come in fast and regular here.Which one do I use?Does it matter?
Faith says
Quick and old fashioned should both work!
Irina says
Hi! Can I freeze it?
Faith says
Hi Irina. I've never tried freezing oat milk, but I've found that when I freeze other non-dairy milk it separates in the freezer. But you could still try it since it's pretty inexpensive. Let me know if you try it and if it works for you!
Irina says
That was my concern as well. thank you for the quick reply, I'll keep you posted:)
Faith says
Okay great!
Janel says
Any update? Did it work freezing it?
Tonielle Moriah says
Thanks for sharing your process for oat milk. Just curious why you would discard the oats. Seems a good blog post topic might be ways to use the oats instead of discarding. The first thought is to add them to baked goods, such as bread or cookies, but I am sure there must be other uses, if one cared to research it. I would just discourage wasting food.
Faith says
Hi! Thanks for commenting. You definitely don't have to discard the oats and it would be great to use them in other baked goods or meals. I'd love to know what you put the extra oats into!
Chris says
Hi,
I made mention about this on one of my comments in Oct. 2016.
I actually take the pulp, put it into a pot with (1) cup of water. I add (1) tbs. of brown sugar. Some fruit like, cranberries or pineapple. Now you have a nice bowl of oartmeal for breakfast. I also add it to my homemade muffin mixture, bread and homemade soup.
Chris says
Sorry for the typo in oatmeal.
Faith says
No worries!
Faith says
That sounds amazing Chris, especially with the brown sugar! Thanks for sharing your tips and tricks.
Hazel says
I was going to say - throw it away! That stuff goes straight into porridge or smoothies!
Faith says
Yes, great idea. Thanks Hazel!
Kira says
I practice vermiculture composting and never have to worry about "wasted" food because they eat nearly all my vegan leftovers. And they make my garden grow! That has nothing to do with oat milk lol but it IS conscientious!
Jem says
Hi Faith I made this and I love it. I'll modify it a bit and I'll post it on my blog with a link back to yours. Thank you for sharing.
Faith says
Yay! That's great to hear Jem. Thanks so much for sharing and linking back to my blog!
Suzanne says
I used this oat milk as a base for a vegan mac & cheese sauce. It was super thick, but I reserved some of the cooking water from the pasta and used that to thin to my desired consistency. The mac and cheese recipe I used came from the Happy Herbivore cookbook, and called for corn starch to thicken the sauce, which I omitted. Worked pretty well for a first try. I'll definitely do it again!
Faith says
Ah great advice Suzanne! I love how versatile oat milk is. Thanks for sharing!
Peter Kelsall says
Hi. I’ve been buying a product called Oatley for the last few years, three or four cartons a week which I realised added up to around £200 a year. I grow oats and felt a bit of a dunce when I saw how easy it is to make my own oat ‘milk’! For the cost of a blender £25, I’m quid’s in as they say.
I’m using whole oats which I soak for half an hour or so, if nothing else it makes them just that bit cleaner. I use it on my ‘crunchy nut’ cornflakes and actually feel that I’m getting a lot more nourishment from my breakfast than with Oatley of which actually only 10% is derived from oats/water.
Faith says
This is awesome Peter! I'm so glad you found a way to save money and even get some more nutrients in your food! Thanks so much for sharing!
Elise says
Thanks for posting! I have some oat groats I want to use and was wondering if they would act the same in this recipe.
Cheers!
Faith says
That's a good question Elise! I've never tried before so I can't say for sure. Since oat groats are tougher than oats you would probably need a high speed blender or to soak them for a while. I say go for it! Let me know if it works for you!
Robert Luhrs says
Thanks, will give this a try. I need for use on cereal, including, that's right, oatmeal. Currently using flax milk, but the diet calls for 'no oil' at all (Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn). My heart program requires that strictness to work, so oat milk would seem ideal, even better than nut or seed milks of all kinds. Thanks a lot, Faith.
Faith says
Great Robert! I've been making it more often recently and love it. It's great for baking or cereal. I hope it works for you!
Janet Thomas says
Can you use this kind of oat milk in tea or coffee, or does it go gloopy in the hot liquid? Oat milk from a supermarket is ok, but I'd like to make my own if I can use it the same way. Can't wait ti try though!
Faith says
That's a good questions Janet! I'm actually not sure, but I think it'd be okay. If you try it out let me know how it works for you!
Mic says
I used a similar recipe which says to rinse and drain the oats first and find it fine in coffee, but maybe a bit oaty in tea. I only use a pinch of coarse salt while blending in my Nutribullet (a lot quicker and easier than a regular blender), no added sugars or vanilla.
Make sure you give the storage tub a good shake before pouring or it won't colour up like milk would. You might find if you take a while to drink a cup of coffee that there is a small amount of "gloop" in the bottom, but I find that with shop bought too.
Anyone know of a healthy natural way of stabilising it a bit (ie not Carageenan etc)?
Faith says
Thanks for your comment and for sharing your experiences! This is really helpful. I don't think Oat Milk is for everyone, but I find it works great in baking and certain drinks and is so cheap to make. I do wish I could find a way to stabilize it though. Keep me posted if you find something that works!
Brooke says
I wonder if a bit of agar agar (or gelatin if not vegan) or xanthum gum would work.
Faith says
Thanks for the idea!
Naomi says
I just made oatmilk with my blender, left it on till it all turned to milk, no pulp. I added a small handful of raisins, vanilla and I tried it in my coffee. The flavor is a little weird. I'm going to experiment with some flavorings. Hmmmm.. . i'm going to try adding a little cinnamon. I tried the Cinnamon and it worked! Yes! No more expensive almond milk!
Thanks for the recipe 🙂
Faith says
Yay! I'm glad you discovered that the cinnamon made the oat milk work for you. The addition of the raisins and vanilla sounds amazing too. Thanks so much for sharing!
Genifer says
It does go a bit gloopy if you leave it sit for too long but it works in a pinch
Faith says
Yes exactly. The texture isn't great for everything, but it works great in baking and cereal etc.!
Lindsay says
Hello,
I used your recipe for this oat milk and loved it. However, I strained it as recommended and did not let it heat up at all in my Vitamix, but it still got gelatinous over night in the fridge. It was quite goopy. Any suggestions to remedy this problem?
Faith says
Hi! I'm glad you loved it and sorry that it got goopy. First, I would recommend, if you're using a vitamix, to just briefly blend the oats. Basically turn it up to high then turn it off. It allows a creamy milk to form but doesn't leave the milk super thick after you drain it. That's probably my best suggestion or try to stir it before you use it or use it right away for baking/cereal etc. and just make small batches at a time. I hope this helps!
Phil says
I tried same way by using Vitamix but my milk was too starchy 🙁
I heard maltose break starch and wondering how much should I use
Faith says
I feel ya Phil. Now that I have a Vitamix, I blend it for a really short amount of time and it works a lot better. I've never used maltose though so I can't give any advice! I hope you can find something that works!
Angie says
I don't know if this will make a difference for you, but have you tried soaking & rinsing your oats before just throwing them in the blender? I've always soaked my oats beforehand.
Faith says
I've never soaked them for oat milk, but I've soak them for eating before. Thanks for the tip!
Lindsay says
I was wondering if I can use the to make vegan chocolate cream pie? I know above it says you can not cook it unless I want a gelatinous mess...well, I kind of want a nice smooth gelatinous mess lol. Any advice would be helpful! Thanks in advance.
Faith says
Hey Lindsay! I don't know everything that goes into a vegan chocolate cream pie, so I really don't know whether it'd work or not! If the recipe calls for a non-dairy milk and you want it to thicken anyways, then I say go for it, but I think I'd have to see the recipe. I wish I could help more!
Lindsay says
I'm going to go for it. Basically vegan chocolate pudding goes into the filling. I'll let you know how it turns out. Thanks so much for responding so fast!
Faith says
Fun! Yes, please let me know how it goes! I want to make it if it works out!
Mary says
Hello
Am I able to give this to a baby? I am slowly about to finish breastfeeding and I want to give her an alternative to cow's milk.
I also hard I can do this with quinoa.
Please let me know your thoughts
Thank you
Faith says
Hi Mary! I'm not a doctor so definitely ask your doctor before listening to me, but I don't see why you couldn't give this to a baby. I've heard about making quinoa milk too but I've never tried it! When in doubt I just google things. Sorry I'm not much help. Good luck with everything and thanks for your comment!
Emily says
You can certainly give this to a baby. It can be given as a complementary food, but it should NEVER replace breast milk or formula in the diet for a baby under 1 year old, and should probably not replace breast milk, cow's milk or formula in the diet for a child under 2-3 years. Commercial non-dairy milks are usually fortified with some of the vitamins and minerals you expect to find in milk, and so are acceptable from 1 year of age, but homemade non-dairy milks are not, so they won't supply growing children with appropriate doses of calcium or vitamin D. You don't say how old your child is. Some people wean their babies from the breast at 4 months and others at 4 years. This makes all the difference in what milks we can give them. Babies under a year must have formula or breast milk as the major component of their diets. If you want to follow a vegan diet, soy infant formulas are available. They are necessary until 12 months, but also nutritious for toddlers if they like the taste.
suus says
Hi. I just made oat milk using another recipe which required washing soaked oats to wash off oat slime... have u heard of this? You have not had any problems with the slime that comes from the oats? This recipe is much simpler so will try next time
Faith says
Hi! Oat slime is definitely a think, but I usually only noticed it when straining my oat milk in a nut milk bag with my hands. Other than than, I just don't heat this homemade oat milk or else it get's thick and gloopy! It's great for baking, pouring over cereal or in smoothies!
Marsha says
I be it would work well for pudding or yogurt because it thickens as it heats p
Faith says
Definitely!!
Janice Marie Foote says
I love homemadey Oat Milk! So I'm going to try your recipe next!
FYI I found your Oat Milk recipe by googling "why does oat milk thicken when heated?"
'Cause when I use it to make my hot chocolate with, I get goop, and now I now why!
Oh well, I'll have to use it for only cold mil recipes.
Faith says
Oh great, I hope it works out for you Janice! And so funny how you found my recipe. I definitely remember the first time I tried to make hot chocolate with homemade oat milk...it turned out more like pudding!