How to Make Oat Milk

I just made this today for the first time, and I followed some of the suggestions in the comments to use a 1:3 ratio of oats to water. However, I found the result to be much too watery to my liking, so I tried a 2:3 ratio and found it to be much creamier, though it took a litter longer to strain through a thin shirt than it did the first time due to the increased amount of pulp. I just mixed it in with some iced coffee and it’s not too bad! I still prefer the Chobani extra creamy, Planet Oat, or Oatly brands from the store, but this is a great recipe to have in a pinch or when trying to save money in these times.

I’ve made this several times and it is consistently delicious. So much cheaper and healthier than store bought. Not to mention it frequently saves me a trip to the store! Thanks for all of the simple and tasty recipes!

I don’t consume milk, but I used your recipe (using only 2 cups of water) as a base for ice cream and it came out great, thank you!

I made it with a Nutri bullet. It worked great, I added a touch of vanilla. I did have to strain it in a mesh strainer several times but that’s okay. I have been changing my diet over the last several months and trying to get rid of meat, salt, sugar, and dairy. Milk was going to be the hardest for me since I used it every morning in Wheaties with a banana or oatmeal with blackberries. I looked around for milk substitutes, ended up on Amazon (where else) saw oat milk, and thought, surely there is a receipt online for that. :D Thank you.

I made this today after extensively reading the comments for tips and tricks! Definitely made sure the water was ice cold and make it according to 3 cups rather than 4 cups and added maple and vanilla as per the recipe. I strained it through a metal mesh strainer then put it in a supa thin old tank top and strained it- boom no trouble straining! The past comments suggested was difficult to do such but no probs here! I made a mess using a food processor but that’s because I had nothing else and the results were still great! Thanks everyone for your comments and obviously yourselves for the recipe ! Totes going to try the barista style one now!

Awesome! Tastes better than store bought

I made this using 1/2 c of dry oats, blending them first before adding 1.5 c water and 1/2 tsp sunflower lecithin. Mmmmm! I really only wanted it to mix in with some cold brew coffee, but now I am re-thinking it and might make some extra for my morning oatmeal as well! I already have a nut bag strainer but it is not as fine as it once was so I did order the one you linked to for my next try. Thank you for all of the experimenting you do on our behalf!

What fantastic milk! Many thanks. I’m now adding 2 Canderel sweeteners at the blending stage, to give that hint of sweetness in fresh milk. Next time, I’ll try grinding the oats to a flour for 10 seconds before adding the water. I’ve sent for 2 fine mesh nut-milk bags, as my single layer of muslin takes a long time to drain. I squeeze the pulp in its muslin bag after each filtering, and this doesn’t make the milk at all slimy. I’ve also sent for a water-tight Lock and Lock storage/pouring container with a special fitting inside. With a quick shake, this will re-mix the contents thoroughly, so I will always have the best milk possible. Thank you so much for your recipe, and all your ideas and suggestions.
With all best wishes, from Ruth XXXXX

With my early morning sleepy head I read 3/4 cups of water 😂 Strained it twice. Still not thinking clear (why is my milk so thick, haha) Added cinnamon and now I have the creamiest sweet oat cream ever. So delicious with my morning fruit.

Thank you for this recipe. I was surprised how simple it was to just blend oats and then strain, no presoak etc. I however did not find the straining part easy or simple. It was a messy, tiring disaster my first 2 times. I used Tshirt like cloth, and if I just let it drip over a bowl like the video shows, it would take over a day because so much oat sediment and paste-like film coated the cloth. I had to squeeze and squeeze for any liquid to strain out and it felt pretty unpleasant.
However, I now pour the first strain through fine metal sieve to take out the bigger porridge remains, and then strain through flour sack towel (thank you for the person who rec. those). I do strain several times but now it flows out much easier. I also like using the date option to add sweetness and flavor

So easy! So tasty! So cheap! It’s never going to last for five days though – I’ll drink i faster than that.

Thinks: I’m going to try using the cheap porage oats that are fine ground as I think they might release the oat-germ (?) almost without blending. I’m interested in playing with the recipe just for fun.

Thank you for starting me off.

BTW, I cooked the pulp and ate it, hot like porage and cold like slices of cold porage – both were smashing!

I’ve been making Almond milk for years but I’ve run out and I had a quick google considering I’ve got lots of oats and here we are on my goodness this was so so much easier than making Almond milk, for my personal taste buds it even tastes better, now I didn’t use any dates or salt and this did quite well for what I needed it for. I love to make an Almond milk but I’ve just found the cleanup process to be cringeworthy and I always had 600 g of pulp that I didn’t know what to do with or have the time to do anything with a literally had not even 100 g of pulp with this recipe, Plus Almond milk only last for three days and if I can get five days out of this that is fantastic but at the end of the day it was so quick to make there’s no reason why I couldn’t make it up on an as needed basis. I’m going to be raving on about this for anyone who will listen thank you so much!!!

Hi any update on that Barista-style recipe?

Thank you for sharing this recipe! I used macadamia nuts in addition to the oats for creaminess and sweetness, maybe 1/2 cup, soaked.

Also, the pulp is great to add to your bath or use as a body scrub. Oats leave skin very soft. Mix with some coffee grounds or baking soda for extra scrub.

I must have tried 10 different recipes, including this one. All are literally the worst things I have ever put in my coffee.

So…., sadly, I’ve gone back to store bought Oat Milk as life is too short to put up with this. Sorry.

Love this simple recipe! I made this in two batches. The first batch was made following this recipe to a T, but it turned out too bland for my taste. For the second batch, I reduced the amount of water to 2 cups and added 3tbsp of honey. After that, I mixed it with the first oat milk and the result was amazing! It’s creamy and sweet, not slimy at all. I will be making it again soon, because everybody just loved it so much, it didn’t even last a day. Thank you very much for this.

LOOOOOOOVVVEEE! I used a vitamix and over-blended the first time which turned out slimy but didn’t bother me much when adding it to my hot coffee. I add teaspoon of lavender flowers to make lavender infused iced matcha lattes and it’s my new obsession! Thanks for tip about using iced cold water and blending water and dates only before adding the oats, I will definitely make those changes for my next batch! I use the finest mesh strainer first then a nut bag and put my milk through twice for an amazing texture! I also add the pulp to my smoothies or feed it to my worms to make vermicompost! Looking forward to trying the OATLY copy cat with your golden milk mix!!!!

I usually don’t leave reviews but for this recipe it was a MUST. My daughter and I were out of oat milk so I pulled up this recipe I saved in my recipes folder and gave it a try. The results turned out A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! I took others suggestion of using ice cold water. Used 3 cups icy water instead of 4, 1 cup of oats, 1 tsp of honey, 1 tsp of vanilla extract and pinch of salt. blended for exactly 30 seconds, used a cheese cloth to GENTLY strain oats. The results were a delicious CREAMY oat milk. Used it to eat with our raisin cereal topped with cut up bananas and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Both my daughter and I ate it all. The only thing that I love more than this recipe itself is that when using a reusable cheese cloth this method is ZERO WASTE! No more cartons ending up in a landfill or in our oceans. That makes me feel so Happy! A recipe great for the body and for the earth! I’m in love!!! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe and opening up a new way to enjoy oat milk. XOXO

I find if you freeze the oats first, you end up with a smaller chance of slime. It’s warmth or heat that creates the gelatinous texture. A nut milk bag works perfectly for me with frozen oats.

Great recipe! So simple, fast and it worked with my immersion blender as well! I didn’t use any sweetener, only a bit of vanilla. It tastes really good but next time I’ll definitely add the dates. <3

Thank you for this. Ive made mine using juicing blender the one with build in fine strainer. It works well. Now I dont have to worry about buying mill for my protein shakes.
Thanks Heaps!

I tried a quarter batch using a stick blender (don’t have a normal blender) and strained/squeezed through a kitchen towel. Result was a tiny bit slimy so I think I overmixed (I thought it could handle it since the stick blender is less efficient than a normal blender). It’s also somehow a bit watery as well, my coffee tastes fairly black.

Verdict: use a normal blender. Otherwise it’s not bad but not great either.

Vitamix users: I kept making this and it turned out slimy every time. To fix that I now blend just the date and COLD water first on high and turn it off. Then I add the oats (and pinch of salt at some point) and immediately turn it to high and really only leave it on for 9 seconds or so. I then STRAIN but DON’t SQUEEZE it through a nut milk bag. Yes some liquid is left in the nut milk bag since I don’t squeeze – but it’s just not worth risking the slime lol.

OMG This is absolutely the best. I like it much better than almond milk! I added a tsp of maple syrup and a tiny bit of vanilla. I used a thin t shirt and squeezed it through. I threw out the pulp and gave my t shirt a rinse and threw it in the laundry. I will cut out the front and back of this t shirt and use it exclusively for oat milk.
Thanks for sharing.

Linda

I’ve made this several times and each time I have the same problem. I use 3.5C of water. I blend it for 30 seconds in my Vitamix with the dial turned all the way up, but at the lower Variable speed, not the High speed. I pour it through a dish towel like your video shows, but your video doesn’t show what happens after the first few seconds. In the beginning it pours through great, but by the time you’ve poured half through it stops filtering. I have to pull all 4 corners of the dish towel together and hold it up to begin draining again. I can get about 1/2 to drain this way and the rest stays in the dish towel, dripping Very slowly. And then what to do with the gloppy left overs if you don’t have a garbage disposal in your sink. I’m concerned about putting any of this gluey mess down there and it is a nightmare to get out of the cloth. What am I doing wrong. I haven’t heard anyone else complain about these things or maybe I didn’t read enough comments. Thanks. I’d really like to get this to work.
Jayne

I made this but sadly as soon as I slowly heated for coffee it turned into a gloopy slimey mess. I tried again with a double straining through muslin but still the same problem. It was good in tea though where I didn’t have to heat first.

YUM. I’ll never buy almond milk again. Love the flavor and it lightens my coffee perfectly. Thanks so much!

Do you have the oatly mimic recipe yet?
This is so easy and fun to make!

This is a great recipe! For me it made a huge difference to use refrigerated water. With room temp water it was slimy even straining it through a t-shirt, but with very cold water I can use a nut milk bag (which is quicker and easier for straining) with zero sliminess. The nut milk bag might leave an extra bit of sediment in the bottom but for me that’s no problem.

1 cup rolled oats + 4C water produced 5 cups of unstrained oat milk. I used 2C for a muffin recipe and froze 3C in a freezer tray containing six 1/2C slots for the next batch of muffins. No plans to use it in coffee. For muffins, this is perfect! It was the 4th batch using this particular recipe and this batch was the best, maybe because of the oat pulp. Who knows!

I made it! Sooo easy, I’ll never buy milk again! Thank you so much!

Great recipe, took no time at all, and I tried sweetened and unsweetened- great to have options !
A few places online suggest you can freeze oat milk. Has anyone tried with this recipe?

I had been using oat milk in my granola for a few weeks and noticed I started getting headaches everyday. I thought it may have been one of the preservatives so I tried this recipe instead. Not only did my headaches stop, but I found my new favorite non-dairy milk alternative! Thank you for this wonderful and easy recipe!

This recipe is so easy and delicious! I’ve made it every couple of days and it consistently turns out well. I just use a fine-mesh strainer because I’m lazy and the texture isn’t too slimy for use in iced coffee. Using just a fine-mesh strainer makes the oat milk a little to slimy for my taste to use with other things like cereal. Thanks for the recipe!

Great recipe, I’ve been using this with generally very good results depending on my different experiments, I tend to use about 1/4 tsp salt and a cap full of vanilla to a litre of the stuff and it has the desired taste, thanks minimalistbaker!

Sad to say this recipe was too thick and way too slimy for my liking. I added a few more cups of water to thin it out and 1 extra date to try enjoy the taste however still not the consistency I was hoping for like other homemade plant based milks I’ve made. Thank you though!

I made this tonight, made both a chocolate and a plain. They both turned out great and not slimy at all. I used my fine mesh produce bags and hist doubled them up. I strained twice and didnt squeeze so not as much particulates went through. It’s a little gritty but not bad if you are having it with something. Defiantly will be buying a better bag solution to make this again. I used 2 tbsp of honey for a sweetener which made it really yummy. Very happy with this recipe and I am excited to make this again and again and to save a few bucks by making my own oat milk. Thanks for the recipe :-)

Pretty good recipe for oat milk. This was my first time making it. I modified based on comments and ground the date up a little bit with water first. I made half a batch to try it out. I blended my oat/water mix for 30 seconds and then strained with a thin towel. It turned out pretty decent. Straining did take some time but the result was relatively smooth. I added some to my french press coffee and didn’t heat the mixure up further.

This is getting my family of 5 through our stay at home time!
I could fill my entire refrigerator with soy milk and it wouldn’t be enough for a month at our rate. :) For public health reasons we are trying to grocery shop once a month right now. It’s so easy to store the simple ingredients, and this consistency is very similar to the original soy milk we prefer.
My blender couldn’t handle the dates but I now soak them in hot water for half an hour and then it’s fine. My friend recommended 1.5 cup ice instead of 1 of the water cups. I haven’t had texture problems yet. Cheers!

This was so easy. With the current situation, I’m trying to avoid going to the grocery store more than once every 7-10 days. I drink smoothies almost every day, or have oats or use for tea. I used to buy oat and almond milk, and really don’t plan on it anymore because this recipe is perfect. This is WAY cheaper and creamier without the unnecessary ingredients in store bought varieties.

I used Quaker whole rolled oats, a pinch of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla like the recipe suggested. Blended on the Ninja for 35 seconds. Next time I might try almond extract. I used a cloth produce bag to strain the milk and I only had to do this once, though it probably took a few minutes to strain through (with a little help from me squeezing the bag). It was not slimy after 1 time of doing this. Did this whole thing twice and came out great both times. Thank you Minimalist Baker for this oat milk recipe :).

Made this yesterday and I ABSOLUTELY love it! I didn’t experience a slimy or gummy product as some others did. I mixed some of the oat milk into lukewarm coffee to avoid any alteration to the oat milk and then heated this coffee/oat milk mixture up– tasted great and texture was smooth. I also used the leftover oat pulp from the straining process as a mix-in for my morning bowl of oatmeal- a great way to repurpose that which may be tempting to toss out. Thanks so much for this sustainable and totally do-able recipe!

Since my 2 year old and I don’t do well on dairy milk, we go through quite a bit of almond milk (which is not cheap!) I had some oats in the cupboard and after seeing how easy it would be to make oat milk, I gave it a try! I only got a little frustrated when it took forever to strain. I used a thin kitchen towel over a bowl. I ended up hand squeezing it which made it go much faster. :) I used 1 tbsp maple syrup and 1 tsp imitation vanilla extract for some flavor. This made a good 24oz. My son loves it, and it costed me next to nothing, so this may be my new go-to for his milk :). Thanks for the recipe!

Thank you for this awesome recipe! My daughter recently developed an allergy to almond milk so I had to find an alternative and stumbled upon your recipe. She loves this oat milk even more than the almond milk! So it’s a win win!
However, the first time I made it the dates didn’t blend up enough in the 30 seconds the recipe states to blend the dates with water and oats . I would kindly suggest updating the recipe to blend the dates with water for 2-3 minutes before adding the oats and blending for 30 seconds. This is what I do and it’s perfect. We have a Ninja professional blender.

For me 1 date has never been enough :) it is more like 2-2.5 as you have on your picture. Keep up the great work, dear Minimalist Baker!

I made this as above. Although the oatmilk looked good it didn’t taste anything like the oatmilk we buy and it curdled upon heating while trying to make a latte.
Poor information above as you did not specify this was not the right mix for coffees.
Looking at the comments below and on the other page this mixture clearly does not work.

Waste of time and energy.

This was a great, quick substitute for my regular almond milk, which I ran out of. I had it immediately with some homemade granola, and then again this morning in my smoothie. I simply poured mine through a fine mesh sieve, not minding the extra oat pulp that came through with it as it’s pretty fine. It settles at the bottom of the jar, so you get just the milk if your pour it without shaking. I shake mine up for a good mix since I’m using it mostly for smoothies.

Just made this (about half the quantity). Added a small tsp of sugar, and a drop of vanilla, then whizzed it up in Nutribullet.
Poured into my tea, lovely !
I did not strain the milk, and there is pulp in the bottom of the jug, but a gentle swish thickens the mixture and makes it creamier.
It’s my first time making this, and i imagine i can use the last thicker part of the mixture to add to oatmeal, soups, pancakes and so on.
Great to come across this recipe, very useful, thank you !