Oats are one of those amazing ingredients that can be used in many ways. You can make oatmeal, oat flour, oat milk, and the list goes on. Oat Milk is a great dairy-free option for those who are lactose intolerant or simply trying to reduce their dairy intake. It's also great if you're vegan because it provides some important nutrients that aren't found in other plant-based milk. In this post, I'm going to show you how do you make oat milk at home. It's really easy and only takes a few minutes! So let's get started.
Oat milk is a great dairy-free alternative to cow's milk. It's high in fiber and has a nutty flavor. Making oat milk is easy, and it only takes a few minutes.
We use plant milk every single day of our lives, from our morning homemade gluten-free, oil-free granola to savory recipes like Vegan mashed potatoes, and Vegan Bechamel Sauce. the bechamel sauce. Homemade Oat Milk is by far the cheapest and fastest plant-based homemade milk option.
We like that this recipe is super adjustable and perfect for your smoothies, like our Superfood Green Detox Smoothie. You can make it creamier, sweeter, or flavor-infused.
Jump to:
🧾 Ingredients
It requires 2 ingredients, 5 minutes, and a blender.
- Rolled Oats (whole grain oats; use gluten-free option if needed)
- Water
Note: keep your oat milk unsweetened if you are planning to make vegan buttermilk to use it as a leaving agent on recipes like vegan apple cake, or vegan mashed sweet potatoes.
Optional
Salt: acts as a flavor enhancer.
Sweeteners: dates, raisins, agave syrup, or maple syrup.
Flavorings: cocoa powder, vanilla extract, banana, strawberry, or hazelnuts.
🍽️ Equipment
Blender, mixing bowl, and filtering fabric of choice.
I like using a piece of fabric for Oat Milk because it is thinner, and nut milk strains more pulp out of it.
🔪 how is oat milk made
So, how do you get milk from Oats?
Well, it is much easier than getting cow's milk and definitely healthier than dairy milk!
Step 1: The first thing you need to do to make your own oat milk is to soak your oats overnight in water.
Step 2: drain the oats and add them to the blender. Blend for 1 to 2 minutes along with 4 cups of water.
Hint: If you don't have the time and want to make it quick, you can also soak them in warm water for 5 minutes and proceed.
Step 3: Optionally, add a pinch of salt
Step 4: add your preferred sweeteners such as maple, syrup, or dates, or flavor enhancers like cocoa.
Oat milk is typically a little sweet, but you can add one or two pitted dates if you want sweetened oat milk. Remove the inner stone from the dates, as the stone can break your blender, or use homemade date paste.
Step 5: Liquify, blending for 40 seconds.
Step 6: Pour the liquid into a container covered with your filtering fabric of choice; you can use a nut milk bag or fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth.
Hint: you can even use a clean t-shirt or canvas fabric bag.
Step 7: Squeeze the liquid out.
Step 8: bottle freshly made milk in an airtight glass container.
💡 Expert Tips
Preparing Your Oats
Opt for soaking your oats either at room temperature or in the refrigerator.
Should you forget about your oats for over a day at room temperature, simply refresh the water and transfer them to the fridge. Prolonged soaking at room temperature can lead to a gooey texture. In such instances, it's best to rinse them briefly under running water in a colander before proceeding.
For a quicker approach, immerse the oats in warm water and let them soak for about 5 minutes if you're planning to make oat milk the same day.
While you can bypass the soaking stage, remember that an overnight soak enhances the milk's creaminess, yielding a texture that's not only akin to store-bought oat milk but even surpasses it!
Note on Gluten
Oats are naturally gluten-free. Still, they are usually processed in places with gluten; hence, oat milk may contain gluten.
They typically don't guarantee they are gluten-free, so make sure you either look for a certified gluten-free alternative or, as we do, make your oat milk with certified gluten-free oats.
🫙 Storing: how long does it last?
It depends on whether you sterilize your equipment and how fresh are the ingredients you use. In general, we have found it lasts about 2-3 days.
We often use oat milk for our morning smoothies or Homemade Granola and lemon blueberry overnight oats, so one batch only makes it to the third day. If you are like us, you don't need to sterilize your ingredients as it reaches the 3rd day without any problem.
If you find that it goes off before expected, easily sterilize your bottles either:
- Pouring boiling water inside, ensuring the jars are not cold so that they won't break.
- Then, put them in the dishwasher.
If you have unexpectedly left home or didn't use your milk soon enough and want to prevent it from going off.
You can freeze it in ice cube trays and save them to add to your morning smoothies.
👨🏻🍳 How to use it
We like to drink oat milk as it is, as unsweetened oat milk is naturally slightly sweet, just like rice milk. It is one of best milk for smoothies.
You can use it the same way you would use regular milk: in smoothies, in your morning granola or breakfast fruit bowl, in bechamel sauce, or baking.
Below are some recipes where you could use your milk:
- Post-Work Out Smoothie
- Easy Strawberry Banana Smoothie
- Vegan Cauliflower Wings
- Creamy Vegan Sauce for Everything
Lastly, you can also make vegan chocolate milk with this milk.
🥛 Why should you do your own DIY oat milk?
Convenience
- This plant-based milk alternative is effortless to make; it only takes us 5 minutes.
- You can make only the quantity you need.
- It is dairy-free milk, so it is apt for people with lactose intolerance.
- Can be used in a number of recipes
- This vegan alternative is fully adjustable in flavor, thickness, and sweetness.
- It's nut-free, in case you have nut food allergies.
- It has no added sugars as most commercial brands do.
Pocket-friendly
Making it is super cheap; out of 1 cup of rolled oats, you get 4 cups of delicious plant milk.
If you are on a budget, Oat Milk is the most suitable of them all, including cow's milk. It is also the most sustainable plant-based milk alternative, including almond milk and coconut milk. You can either let it in or make it part of your smoothies in terms of the very little remaining pulp.
In general, plant-based kinds of milk are more sustainable than dairy milk (cow's milk, goat's milk, and sheep's milk).
✅ Health: 10 Benefits of Oat Milk
Is oat milk healthy? Let's dive into the health benefits of milk and why it is an excellent dairy alternative.
- Low in Calories: if you are looking into keeping your waist, this easy oat milk should be one of your allies. Although all vegetable kinds of milk are significantly lower in calories (46kcal per cup) than regular milk, homemade oat milk is lower than its peers (even lower than Homemade Almond Milk (88 kcal per cup) and Homemade Soy Milk (138kcal per cup)).
- Skin: oat milk's benefits for skin come from its anti-inflammatory properties, which help reduce acne flare-ups. Oat milk is a humectant that helps skin retain water and is widely found in moisturizers. Oat milk contains Vitamin D, which is great for your skin.
- Bone Strengthening: oat milk contains potassium, magnesium, and zinc, which are potent minerals and are essential for forming and strengthening bones.
- Fats: Oat milk has zero saturated fats and three times less fat than whole milk.
- Dairy-Free: oats are low in fat and dairy-free, so they are an excellent lactose intolerant choice. It also has a naturally sweet taste.
- Cholesterol-Free: it contains zero cholesterol. Regular consumption may even lower LDL cholesterol (the bad one) in the blood. This is not the case with dairy milk. Dairy products like butter, cheese, and cow's milk are high in cholesterol.
- High in Fibre: oat milk has twice the dietary fiber as cow's milk making it an excellent choice for adding fiber to your diet for a healthy gut and digestive functions. Soluble fiber plays a role in strengthening the immune system, so regular consumption can prevent infections and also helps the body to heal itself naturally. If you want to keep more from its dietary fiber, you either avoid straining your milk or use a mesh that is not fine.
- High in Vitamins: oat milk has our beloved B vitamins folate and thiamine, which support the normal function of red blood cells and the breakdown of carbohydrates, respectively.
- Helps Regulating Blood Sugar Levels: this good friend for people with type 2 diabetes slows down the absorption of carbohydrates in the gut, providing a slower and steadier supply of sugar into the bloodstream. This property is brought to us thanks to its content of soluble fiber.
- Oat milk is perfect for your needs if you’re looking for plant-based milk without added sugar. It provides the same creamy texture as dairy milk, but oat milk benefits include the same array of health benefits associated with consuming oats.
❓FAQ
We find that using Old-fashioned oats also called rolled oats, which are flat and flakey, make the most creamy oat milk.
If you are on a Gluten-Free diet, look for rolled oats that clearly state it.
This creamy oat milk recipe is already in the mid-range of thickness. If you want thicker milk, increase the amount of oatmeal.
We find the perfect thickness for our taste is 1 cup of oats / 4 cups of water.
Suggested thicker oat milk options:
1 cup of oats / 3 cups of water, if you don't mind sacrificing the final volume.
1 ½ cups oats / 4 cups of water, if you want the same volume.
If you want thinner oat milk, reduce the number of oats flakes to ¾ cup or increase water by one cup.
If you are experiencing gassiness or digestive problems after consuming oat milk, you could do a few things to alleviate the symptoms. First of all, consider switching back to their soy milk or almond counterparts.
You may be particularly sensitive to oats, which might help quite a bit. The main issue with oat milk is that it contains oligosaccharides. This carbohydrate is complex for our bodies to digest because we lack the enzyme necessary to break them down.
Because oligosaccharides and other undigestible sugars travel through our digestive system whole, they feed bacteria that produce gas in return.
This issue can be partially solved by thoroughly straining oat milk to remove the solids. If you experience great gassiness from drinking oat milk, try mixing it with another plant-based milk lower in oligosaccharides, such as soy or almond.
Another trick is to add some additional ingredients, such as ginger and chia seeds which help fight gas production. Although these products are not guaranteed to work for everyone, many have reported relief from these changes.
The answers are yes; it is possible that oat milk could make you nauseous. It also depends on how much you drink and what other recently consumed foods. Oat milk contains polyunsaturated fats, the building blocks of prostaglandins, and lipid compounds that have hormone-like actions.
There are both beneficial and harmful prostaglandins in the human body. The negative ones can promote inflammation, intestinal cramps, diarrhea, nausea, etc.
The positive ones help reduce inflammation, lower blood pressure, and ensure gastrointestinal tract health.
Yes. Like other plants, oats contain fiber (or roughage), essential for a healthy digestive system and maintaining a healthy weight. Oat fiber contributes to a feeling of fullness after consumption, making you less likely to snack between meals.
Studies have shown that consuming food containing high levels of viscous fiber/oats resulted in significantly reduced hunger ratings of the test subjects.
Oat fiber also slows down carbohydrate absorption, which can help to regulate blood sugar levels and keep you feeling fuller for longer.
Start making the best of all oat milk benefits today; you just need a cup of oats, water, and a couple of minutes.
Regular oat milk is bad and unsuitable for those with gluten intolerance or celiac disease. This is because oats are often cross-contaminated with gluten during their production. And so the majority of oat milk isn't gluten-free unless it is explicitly certified as such. That's why we recommend using certified gluten-free oats if you want to make your milk gluten-free.
📚 More DIY milk recipes
⭐ If you try this recipe, let us know! 💬 Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag us @ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!
🎥 Video
📋 Recipe
How do you Make Oat Milk?
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 cup rolled oats raw, Gluten-Free (if in a GF diet)
- 4 cups water
Directions
- Soak the oats overnight in freshwater.
- Drain the oats and discard the water.
- Add the soaked oats to a blender and water and blend at high speed for 1 to 2 minutes (in this step, add the salt and dates if you choose to).
- Strain through a canvas fabric, nut milk bag or fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth, squeezing out as much liquid as possible.
- Store in a closed bottle for up to 4 days.
Video
Notes
Nutrition Facts
Nutritional Disclaimer
The information shown is an estimate provided by an online nutrition calculator. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist's advice. See our full Nutritional Disclosure here.
Affiliate Disclaimer
Please note that some of the links here are affiliate links, and I will earn a commission if you purchase through those links. I recommend all of the products listed because they are companies I have found helpful and trustworthy.
As the lead content writer and recipe developer at Our Plant-Based World, he combines his passion for health and sustainability with a Plant-Based Nutrition Certification to create accessible, delicious vegan recipes. His expertise in plant-based cooking supports the blog's mission of fostering a healthier, environmentally conscious lifestyle through simple and seasonal dishes. His commitment to making vegan cooking enjoyable and inclusive for everyone shines in each recipe and article.
Lory
Earoy confubcida, primero dice 8 1/2 tazas porciones y después en lanreceta dice 4 tazas ????. Yo cuabto macros y necesito saber la cantidad exacta de calorias y micronutrientes en cada especifica cantidad ( 100ml o 1 taza medidora ) para poder registrarla en MYFITNESSPAL
Gus
Hola Lory, disculpa si no se lee claramente. Lo que dice son 8 porciones de 1/2 taza = 4 tazas 8 x 0.5 = 4 tazas. Una taza tiene 236 ml , media taza =118 ml.
Saludos,
Gus
Shadi Hasanzadenemati
Love how easy this recipe is. It’s perfect for our family!
Bianca
Thank you so much for your great instructions and informations! This turned out amazing
Gus
that's great Bianca! Thanks for letting us know how your homemade oat milk turned!
Vicky
I have been having oatmeal every morning for breakfast and using almond milk in it. It never occurred to me to make my own oat milk, but really the recipe could not be simpler. This is a game changer!
Gus
Thank you for your review! That is so encouraging! Nothing like homemade oat milk!
Angela
What a great informative post! I love oat milk and I've always wondered how to make it. Thanks so much for sharing!
Gus
you are welcome, Angela! I am glad you enjoyed the read!
Dannii
We love homemade oat milk. It saves us a fortune too.
Gus
that's so true!
Elizabeth
Such a great recipe! I had no idea how easy it was to make oat milk!
Gus
Yup, oat milk is the easiest homemade milk!
Heidi
I consume and buy so much oat milk, I should really start making my own! Thank you for sharing this detailed recipe.
Gus
You will love it and never go back ! I promise you!
Mirlene
I have never tried making my own oat milk. I'll be trying this soon. Might be better for my kids to drink!
Gus
Oh, yea! Oat milk is such a healthy option!
Maria San Juan
Wow! It will be more exciting now to learn to make new recipes with milk! Thanks for sharing! I will surely try this. Didn't know making oatmeal is this easy!
Biana
What a great idea to make your own oat milk. You know the ingredients that you are using, and cheaper than the store, too.
Gus
Yes, we really love being in full control of what is inside of our milk! 🙂
Chenée
I've always wondering how to make my own oat milk so I'm glad I found this! Thanks for the easy to follow recipe!
Angela
The instructions for making oat milk were easy to follow and just what I was looking for. I use certified gluten-free oats to be sure I have exactly what i need for my diet. I will be trying this oat milk in a biscuit recipe, wish me luck!
Andrea
Had no idea making my own oat milk was this easy. Will be trying this right away.
Gina
So much better than 99% of store bought brands! I love oat milk but got sick of all the preservatives, sketchy oils and additives from store brands. This is the perfect easy recipe for making it at home.
Taly
Consulta... puedo usar cualquier tipo de avena (arrollada, tradicional o instantánea) o alguna de ellas es más recomendable para hacer la leche de avena?
Gracias!!!! Saludos!!