There are so many reasons I’m in love with this oat milk recipe, I’m not sure where to even begin! For those who have never tried it, I have to say you’re missing out. As far as flavor goes, oat milk is creamy, rich, and has a nice thickness to it. It’s also the cheapest non dairy milk, easy to make, and good for you and the planet.

I’ll go into each of these details one by one as we talk about this oat milk recipe. But hopefully by the end of this you’ll agree with me when I say oat milk is the best non dairy milk there is!

An Oat Milk Recipe So Easy, Anyone Can Do It

To make this homemade oat milk recipe, all you need is a nut milk bag, or fine mesh strainer, and a blender. I’ve talked about the uses of these kitchen items before when I wrote about celery and cucumber juice.

Basically, a nut milk bag is like a cheese cloth, allowing you to pour liquid through it so any pulp or grittiness is caught in the bag, while all that liquid goodness can get passed through into a bowl below. See the video below for more info on how to use them!

Nut milk bags aren’t just good for oat milk recipes though, you can use them to make homemade almond milk, cashew milk, soy milk, rice milk, and more! This is the exact one I got on amazon. I use it multiple times a week, so it’s been a great investment for me to have!

A fine mesh strainer works great as well though. And sometimes, I interchange using my nut milk bag and fine mesh strainer. This is the exact fine mesh strainer I have, and it works great for homemade oat milk or for making fresh juice! It’s very multi-functional.

Oat Milk Recipe Ingredients

For this oat milk recipe, all you need is 2 cups of rolled oats, and 8 cups of water. That’s literally it. Easy, right? You can of course add in additional things like a pinch of salt, vanilla extract, etc. But the base of this recipe is just 2 ingredients. Some ideas for additional add-ins are:

• Vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt
• Date paste or maple syrup
• Almond extract
• Unsweetened cocoa powder
• Strawberries

A quick note for those with wheat sensitivities, you may be wondering – Is oat milk gluten free? It can be! Simply use gluten free rolled oats, which can be bought in bulk, at your local store, or online.

How To Make Homemade Oat Milk

The first step to making this oat milk recipe, is adding your base ingredients to a blender or food processor. Depending on the size of your blender bucket, you may need to cut the recipe in half, and do it in two stages.

The Dangers of Over Blending Oat Milk

Being mindful of the blending time is very important. Depending on the power of your blender, anywhere from 20 seconds to 60 seconds is the sweet spot. It’s very important you don’t over-blend the oats and water, or the mixture will take on a slimey texture.

For some reason, this only happens when making oat milk. I’ve yet to make homemade cashew milk or almond milk, but I hear this potential slimey-ness is not a worry with those. So just be careful of the blending time. I’ve found that for my blender, 25 seconds is best.

Additional Equipment for Homemade Oat Milk

Once blended, you’re ready to pour the mixture through your nut milk bag or fine mesh strainer. I place a large bowl in my kitchen sink and pour over it to catch all the liquid. Once it’s al poured out, really squeeze and twist your nut milk bag to get all of the liquid out!

Now all you need to do is store it! I picked up these awesome glass half gallon containers on Amazon for storing oat milk in all week. With this recipe being 8 cups, it’s exactly enough to fill up a half gallon container like this, just like you would get if you picked up a carton of milk at the store.

I also picked up this stainless steel funnel for making the pouring job easier between my large bowl and glass half gallon containers.

Homemade Oat Milk Nutrition

When it comes to homemade oat milk, and oat milk recipes, some people can be concerned about the nutrition. It’s a fair thought to have.

When you buy almond milk, oat milk, or soy milk at the store, they’re usually fortified with extra vitamins and minerals for an extra nutritional boost. The infamous B12 vitamin is a popular nutritional addition to these store bought non dairy milks.

When you make homemade oat milk recipes though, you don’t have those fortifications in your end result. So, is homemade oat milk still healthy? Are there dangers to oat milk because of this?

In my opinion, no. And here’s why I think that.

Non Dairy Milk and Vitamin B12

First let’s back up to that crucial nutrient. B12 is a crucial vitamin that is essential for our survival. It supports healthy brain function, arterial health, immune system health, and overall mental function.

Yet a large percentage Americans are deficient in this crucial nutrient. Why is that?

To answer that, it’s important to understand where vitamin B12 comes from. Vitamin B12 isn’t found in plant or animal sources. It’s a microorganism that lives in the soil. We used to get Vitamin B12 by drinking out of rivers, and rooting around in the ground for vegetables/fruits without washing them off (mmm, soil…).

In today’s sanitized, modern world, our water supply is commonly chlorinated to kill off any bacteria though. And we are all taught to thoroughly wash our fruits and vegetables from the store before eating them. So, while we don’t get much B12 (soil) in our water and food anymore, we also don’t get much cholera, either, which is a good thing!

This is why so many things are supplemented with B12 these days though, not just non dairy milk. Farm animals are fed B12 supplements, dairy milks are fortified with B12 supplements, and even common commercial products like cereal and bread are fortified with it. The government really doesn’t want us to deficient in B12 (which 44% of us are). Which is why the FDA recommends that everyone take a B12 supplement, regardless of what diet you follow.

Just answer the question already! Are Oat Milk Dangers Real or Not?

So no matter what you eat or drink, be it meat, cereal, bread, dairy products, non dairy products, pescatarian, vegan, vegetarian, organic, whole30, keto, paleo, etc… no matter what or how you choose to eat, it is still recommended that you take a B12 supplement daily or weekly.

With all that in mind, do I worry that my homemade oat milk isn’t fortified with vitamin B12? Do I think my oat milk is dangerous? No! Because I take my daily/weekly B12 supplement just like we all should be doing.

Why Homemade Oat Milk Is The Best Non Dairy Milk

Ok, we’ve gone over nutrition, but why else is homemade oat milk totally awesome? – you may be wondering.

I’ll cover two things in this section. Price, and environmental impact.

Homemade Oat Milk Is One of the Cheapest Non Dairy Milks

Let’s start with price. Rolled oats sold in bulk go for about $1.39/lb. 1 lb of rolled oats equals 5 cups.

A regular half gallon of non dairy milk at the store goes for around $2.99. You’ll need 2 cups of rolled oats with this oat milk recipe, in order to make a half gallon. Because you get 5 cups out of that 1 lb, you could make 2 half gallons of homemade oat milk and then some for $1.39, versus buying 1 carton of non dairy milk at the store for $2.99.

That’s a pretty good value to me! Buying rolled oats in bulk is awesome because they’re so versatile too. You can use them in oatmeal recipes, bread, oat milk recipes, oat milk creamers, and more.

Homemade Oat Milk Is One of the Most Environmentally Friendly Non Dairy Milks

Next, let’s talk about the environment. Something I love to talk about! Specifically, let’s talk about water usage.

Homemade oat milk has an extremely low water footprint. It also has one of the lowest land use footprints, and emissions footprints.

Check out the handy graph below to see a comparison of milk and popular non dairy milks.

As you can see, oat milk ranks pretty good! Cow’s milk, not so much…

When it comes to the best non dairy milk, really, any of them is good when you compare it to cow’s milk. The negative impacts of animal agriculture are devastating, far reaching, and much worse than plant based alternatives.

So while homemade oat milk has a very low environmental impact, so do the other non dairy milk alternatives. When it comes to picking the best non dairy milk, whether you pick up an oat milk recipe, or almond milk recipe – I think it’s just important to keep it plant based! Switching from cow’s milk to any non dairy milk alternative will make a huge impact on your environmental impact.

Homemade Oat Milk Produces Less Waste

The final reason I started making my own homemade oat milk, was to produce less waste. I’ve talked about my zero waste journey in the past, and how inspired I’ve been lately to try and live a more sustainable life.

Sometimes those cartons of milk from the store can be recycled, and sometimes they can’t. Often times those containers are lined with a plastic coating making them unrecyclable. It’s unfortunate, because you would think those cardboard-like paper containers could go right in with the rest of your paper recyclables. But they can actually pollute the purity of that recycling category when they are thrown in with the rest of your paper.

So…. I decided to learn how to make my own homemade oat milk! I was totally open to making homemade soy milk, almond milk, or cashew milk my go-to, but when I did the research and crunched the numbers I found homemade oat milk to be far more economical.

Do I think it’s bad when other people buy oat milk or almond milk from the store in those paper cartons? No! Again, I think the most important thing to remember is that any plant based milk is going to be far better and more environmentally friendly than cow’s milk.

Plant based non dairy milks and dairy alternatives are going to win every time when it comes to the environment. That being said, when I decided to create an oat milk recipe for myself it was because I was really motivated and interested in reducing my waste and environmental impact as much as possible. And for me, that meant learning to make my own homemade oat milk so I don’t have to buy it packaged anymore.

If you’re not ready to dive into an oat milk recipe yet, or start making it yourself regularly that’s ok! But it really is stupid-simple to make, and fun! Making homemade oat milk from scratch doesn’t have to be a regular thing for you, but it could be something you enjoy from time to time when you do feel like making it in a week.

Homemade Oat Milk is Versatile

Another reason I think homemade oat milk is the best non dairy milk, is because it’s so versatile. It has a really nice creamy consistency that’s not too watery, and it doesn’t have an overwhelming flavor either.

At this point I think I’ve tried every single non dairy milk that’s out there Soy, rice, almond, cashew, coconut, hemp, pea, oat, etc. And to be honest, I like all of them for different reasons. When it comes to finding a go-to though, I settled on oat milk because it’s kind of a middle-of-the-road option out of all of these.

Some people find that coconut milk and rice milk are too watery and thin. While others think that soy or cashew milk is too thick. Some people think coconut or almond have a noticeable/distinct flavor to them, while others think there isn’t enough flavor.

I think oat milk strikes a nice balance, in my opinion.

It’s a great addition to lattes for its creaminess – I love adding it to green tea lattes or the (very rare) occasion I have coffee.

It works well in cereal, smoothies, dressings and sauces, chia seed pudding, etc. As long as you don’t sweeten it with dates of maple syrup, it can easily be used in savory dishes. But if you did add a bit of sweetness, that’s ok too! I will sometimes use dates in my oat milk depending on my mood that week if I just want to use it for sweet treats and morning lattes.

An Oat Milk Recipe For All

I think that just about sums this post up. Homemade oat milk is healthy, tasty, easy, cheap, environmentally friendly – seriously what’s not to love?

I hope this post outlined in detail for you all the great reasons homemade oat milk and oat milk recipes are awesome, and maybe gave you some inspiration to try it out yourself!

If you make this oat milk recipe, I’d love to know what you think! If you think of any other fun add-ins that I didn’t list, I’d love to hear those as well. The more I dive into the world of zero waste, and DIY products, the more fun I have talking about it with others too. So if you have any thoughts on the topic, I’m all ears.

As always, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy this homemade oat milk recipe.

Tags: Zero Waste