Oat Milk is versatile and inexpensive alternative to Dairy milk. Even organic oats in bulk cost pennies per pound. To make oat milk, you only need a half cup of oats per 3 cups of water! Oat milk is creamy and mild tasting. You can add flavors and sweetener if you choose; and it can be used for drinking, cereals, baking, almost everything you would use with dairy milk!
I will say the only thing I don’t recommend oat milk for is hot beverages (like coffee); because putting oatmilk in hot beverages makes for a somewhat odd texture. The recipe I will share here makes oat milk that is NOT slimy; but putting it in a hot beverage WILL make it slimy! So keep cool / cold for best results.
Nutrition Info per 8oz cup (unsweetened):
120 calories
3 grams protein
5 grams fat
16 grams carbs
2 grams fiber
350 mg calcium
390 mg potassium
144 iu of Vitamin D.
So Oat milk in many ways is similar to Cow’s milk in nutritional value; except that Cow’s Milk has about 2-3 times the protein and twice the fat (if whole).
Anyhoo; here’s how you make it!
Equipment needed:
Blender or Food processor
Fine mesh strainer (yes I recommend this over cheesecloth; but if you only have cheesecloth, then go for it)
Spoon
Jar for storage
Bowl
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of oats per 3 cups of water.
If it was up to me, I would not want chlorinated / fluoridated tap water in my oat milk; but that’s a personal preference and I live on a well; but I would use filtered water or tap water that has sat for 24 hours to get the chlorine out. Again, not necessary; just my personal preference as far as healthfulness goes.
If desired: 1-3 dates OR 1-3 tsps cane sugar OR 1-3 Tbsp maple syrup for sweetness.
You can also add if desired: vanilla extract, chocolate syrup, cinnamon, whatever flavoring you think would taste good.
How I personally do my Oat milk is with no sweetener and just a bit of vanilla extract. I know pure vanilla is REALLY expensive right now, so you may not be able to do this; but just to share, that’s what I do.
STEPS TO MAKE:
1) Put oats and COLD or VERY COOL (prevents sliminess) water in the blender, and blend for 30-50 seconds until completely smooth.
2) Pour contents of the blender through a fine mesh strainer into a bowl. I say a fine mesh strainer because the least amount of squishing the better (prevents sliminess). You can stir the contents of the fine mesh strainer as you pour for the water to go through more thoroughly. Set the leftover pulp from the strainer aside for later (you can bake with it or make granola bars!)
3) Here is what the milk will look like after you pour it off into the bowl. Pour this into a jar or jug for storage in the fridge. It should last a couple of weeks. You will need to shake it before use because it does settle.
WHAT TO DO WITH THE OAT PULP?
There are a lot of things you can do with the pulp when you are done. I love to make this delicious raisin bread; I found the recipe online; and I’ll share the link with you here. I make mine gluten free with Bob’s Red Mill All purpose Gluten Free flour. I imagine you could make a vegan version by substituting the eggs with applesauce or bananas.
https://www.justapinch.com/recipes/bread/bread-sweet-bread/raisin-bread-from-oat-pulp.html
