Thick, frothy, creamy oat milk perfect for pouring into coffee and matcha lattes, eating with cereal, and blending up into smoothies! With just three basic ingredients and lots of options for flavor mix-ins, this easy, affordable DIY Oat Milk will become your new favorite plant based milk option!
Usually, if I can’t perfect a recipe after, say, 15 tries, I take it as a sign from the universe that it just wasn’t meant to be. Oat milk was one of those recipes: for some reason, the internet is in love with oat milk and every single time I made it I was totally underwhelmed.
Thin, goopy- dare I say, slimy- milk that tastes like a sad bowl of uncooked oatmeal juice? No, thank you. I’ll gladly stick to homemade coconut milk coffee creamer or grass-fed organic dairy in my coffee or almond milk in my cereal, thanks.
I get requests for a homemade oat milk pretty frequently on Instagram, and usually just reply saying: sorry, oat milk is the nectar of the devil and I have no interest in meddling in such nonsense.
Okay, my reply is actually more like: Hi! I’m so humbled that you’d think of me when hoping to recreate your favorite store-bought recipe, but I personally have never had success with oat milk (it’s always slimy and kinda gross? idk) so I can’t really help you out there! If I ever crack the code to delicious homemade oat milk I’ll be sure to put it on the blog and let you know!
But, even though I sounded hopeful and friendly in my Instagram messages, I knew, deep down, that oat milk was just not in the cards for me.
UNTIL NOW.
Ladies and gentelmen, may I present to you: OAT MILK, in all it’s glory.
I finally cracked the oat milk code, and it’s a suuuper short soak (we’re talking 15 minutes, tops, just to rinse out some of the starch), an ultra speedy trip in the blender (to reduce the possibility of heating the oats, which leads to sliminess), a double strain, and chilling it fully. FULLY, I tell you. There’s a world of differece between freshly made, sort-of-room-temperature oat milk and refrigerator-ice-cold oat milk.
I also like to blend up a tablespoon of coconut oil into the oat milk to get it extra rich and frothy, and to add some healthy fat to the equation. In a side-by-side taste test comparison, I found the flavor of oat milk without coconut oil and with to be virtually identical, but the body and mouthfeel of the version with coconut oil to be slightly more unctuous…which is to say, add the coconut oil because fat is your friend.
And now I’m pouring it over cereal and granola, drizzling it into iced matcha lattes, and although I’m personally not a huge fan of it in coffee (this oat milk is on the thin side and I like my coffee extra bold + black or with something ultra thick and creamy like heavy cream or this homemade creamer), I poured some into a cup of coffee the other morning, for the sake of science, obviously, and found it to be similar to pouring 2% milk into coffee- that is to say, not enjoyable for my personal coffee preferences, but potentially quite tasty if you’re into such a thing as using thin milk in your coffee.
As with all homemade nut or grain milks, the opportunity for customization is immense: add a splash of vanilla, a few dates, a drizzle of maple syrup or honey, a pinch of sea salt, cinnamon or cardamom, a handful of frozen mixed berries (if you need some pretty pink berry milk in your life), a few tablespoons of cocoa powder, or extracts like almond, hazelnut, or coconut to the blender and transform your oat milk into an artisan, house-made, fancy oat milk.
I hope you love this recipe for Easy DIY Oat Milk as much as I do. If you try it out, leave a comment below letting me know what you think, or take a picture of your oat milk and share it with me on Instagram! I love seeing my recipes in your kitchen.
- 1/2 cup rolled oats + 2 cups cold water, to soak
- 3 1/2 cups cold water
- optional: 1/4 teaspoon sea salt and 1 Tablespoon virgin coconut oil
- flavor add-ins: 1 teaspoon vanilla, almond, coconut, or hazelnut extract; 1-3 pitted Medjool dates; 1-4 Tablespoons maple syrup or honey; 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or cardamom; 1/4 cup frozen mixed berries; 2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
- 1. Put oats and 2 cups of water into a bowl and let soak for 15 minutes. Strain the oats over a fine mesh strainer, rinsing under cold water to remove as much excess starch as possible.
- 2. Pour rinsed oats into a blender, add 3 1/2 cups of cold water, salt, and coconut oil (if using), plus any flavor add-ins of your choice, and blend on high for 15 seconds, or until the oats are completely pulverized in the water.
- 3. Rinse out your fine mesh strainer and sit it on top of a large bowl, then pour the oat milk from the blender into the strainer. Once all the milk is poured through, discard any thick residue/chunks from the strainer and place the strainer on top of the blender. Then, pour the oat milk from the bowl back into the blender to strain a second time. This double-straining ensures minimal oat residue left behind in the milk. Alternately, if you own a nut milk bag, feel free to pour the blended oat milk straight into it and let the oat milk strain just once.
- 4. Pour the strained oat milk into a jar with a lid and store in the fridge for up to 5 days, shaking before using. Serve cold over cereal, granola, etc.