It’s so easy to make your own homemade oat milk!
All you need is some rolled oats in your cupboard and you’re good to go!
Add some maple syrup, or other syrup of your choice, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt for some optional extra flavoring, blend it all up and strain it through a nut milk bag!
It has a lovely neutral oaty taste that is delicious to drink as is or to use in smoothies or over cereal or in your coffee and tea.
To soak or not to soak?
A lot of how to make oat milk recipes that I found online recommended soaking the rolled oats first and then rinsing them very well to remove any sliminess before blending. Yes, oats get slimy. It’s weird.
But I actually found in experimenting that the best results came about from not soaking the oats at all.
It’s also quicker this way.
I have heard that over-blending can cause sliminess as well, though I did not experience this at all, but just beware of this as a possibility. Blend only as much as needed, which tends to be around a minute to get everything nicely blended in.
Straining your oat milk
If you’re straining through a nut milk bag, (often also called a nut mylk bag), then it’s super quick and easy to do. If you don’t have a nut milk bag you can strain it through cheesecloth placed over a strainer.
However, if homemade milks are something you plan to make regularly, then investing in a nut mylk bag is very worthwhile.
This is the nut mylk bag I have and am very happy with.
Delicious in tea, coffee or over cereal
This homemade oat milk is great in tea or coffee or over cereal. However, it’s not great heated as it tends to get quite thick and clumpy when you heat it.
So you can add it to hot drinks and that’s fine, but don’t heat it up before adding it to hot drinks. 
You will love this oat milk recipe, it is:
- Creamy
- Delicious
- Great in coffee or tea or over cereal
- So easy to make
Keep it in the fridge where it will stay fresh for up to 5 days. Shake it up before use as it tends to separate in the fridge, don’t worry this is normal, give it a good shake and enjoy.
For more delicious ‘how to’ style vegan recipes, check out these recipes:
- How To Make Almond Milk
- How To Make Cashew Milk
- How To Make Vegan Buttermilk
- How To Make Vegan Condensed Milk
- Homemade Vegan Butter
What do you think of this homemade oat milk recipe? Let us know in the comments and rate the recipe too please. Thanks so much!
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Homemade Oat Milk – Creamy and Delicious!
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Prep Time: 10 mins - Total Time: 10 mins
- Yield: 4 cups
- Category: Beverage
- Cuisine: Vegan
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Pin RecipeDescription
Creamy and delicious oat milk! This homemade oat milk recipe is 5 easy ingredients, ready in minutes, and delicious in tea or coffee or poured over cereal.
Ingredients
- 1 cup (90g) Rolled Oats
- 4 cups (960ml) Water
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 2 Tbsp Maple Syrup
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
- Add all the ingredients to your blender and blend until well blended. About a minute.*
- Strain through a nut mylk bag or place cheesecloth over a strainer and strain it through that.
- Store the milk in the fridge where it will stay fresh for up to 5 days. Shake it well before use.
- Use in your tea or coffee or pour over cereal.
Notes
*Don’t soak your oats first, I found this caused sliminess, no matter how much they were rinsed.
*Don’t overblend as apparently it can also cause the oats to become slimy though I have not personally experienced this. About a minute of blending is usually sufficient.
*Don’t heat the milk as it causes it to get very thick. It can be added to hot drinks like tea and coffee though.
*This recipe is gluten-free as long as you use gluten-free rolled oats.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cup
- Calories: 114
- Sugar: 6.3g
- Sodium: 150mg
- Fat: 1.4g
- Saturated Fat: 0.2g
- Carbohydrates: 21.9g
- Fiber: 2.2g
- Protein: 2.9g
Keywords: oat milk
Hi… Can oat milk be used in baking and veggie dished. Thanks
It thickens when heated and gets a bit gelatinous, so isn’t a great milk to be heated in any way, though you can add it to a hot drink, you just can’t heat it up before adding it to your hot drink. I haven’t used it in baking, but because of how it acts when heated I would be wary to do so.
Really simple to make and delicious as well!
★★★★★
I have read that you have to soak the oats for quite a long while, what is the purpose for this and how necessary is it? Also, I have read 4 cups is too much. Would 3 or 2 be okay? Let’s say for mixing in with a scoop of protein powder.
I didn’t soak them at all and explained why in the post. I found 4 cups to create the best flavor but you can definitely try using less water for a richer result.
Thank you! Just went online to buy Oatly and they’re sold out – then I found your recipe. I make almond milk all the time but hadn’t thought about oat, silly me!! Cheers!
★★★★★
Hahaha, hope you love making this as much as almond milk. I must say it also took me a while to try my hand at oat milk, it isn’t the first one to come to mind when you think of diy plant milks, but it’s so easy, so why not! All the best. 🙂
My wife and I have tried to make oat milk a few times and every time it comes out slimy. The last time we did it we even soaked overnight and rinsed them well. We only blended it for maybe 15-20 seconds in a vitamix.. Not sure why ours doesn’t look near as thick as your pictures do. It comes out thin and slimy. Any suggestions.
I want to be able to make oat milk that is thick and good in coffee and cereal etc.
Thank you and God bless,
Hi G, my suggestion for this recipe is not to soak the oats at all. I tried it both ways and also found that when I soaked the oats first I couldn’t get rid of the sliminess no matter how well I rinsed the oats. I also found that you don’t need to soak them as it works just fine even without soaking, so it’s definitely my recommendation that you not soak them first, this alleviated the sliminess when I made it. You can also start with a little less water just to make sure it’s thick enough for you, you can always add more water later to thin it.
Alison,
Thank you very much. I will give that a try!
God bless,
G
Just tried it today and I’m very pleased with the result. I had previously tried a store bought one which I didn’t like because of the consistency.
I didn’t have maple syrup so I used muscovado sugar which worked nicely.
I was wondering if you ever use the strained oats for anything?
I thought maybe it could be used for a cookie recipe but I’m afraid the slimy consistency might not be great for it.
Thanks
★★★★★
Hi Jane, so glad you liked it! I haven’t really used the leftover pulp for anything as it’s not a big amount that’s leftover, but you definitely can if you want to, you could add it as is to smoothies to bulk them up a bit, or you could make cookies using the pulp, I found a recipe that does exactly this:
Very easy to make and delicious as well! Just one question though, do you have a recipe for that bowl of what I think is oatmeal? Looks very beautiful and delicious, I’d love to prepare that for my family.
Thanks in advance!
★★★★★
Hi Adrian! So glad you like the recipe! The bowl just has some granola in it with dried fruit, coconut flakes and sliced banana. We just used a store-bought version of granola so there’s no recipe, though that would be a good idea to create a recipe for that! Thanks for posting! 🙂
Easiest recipe ever and yields super tasty results. Ended up doing the weirdo thing and using the leftover pulp as a face mask. Great for the skin:)
★★★★★
Haha, that’s an awesome way to use the pulp! And so glad you enjoy the recipe. 🙂
Amazing! I think I’m going to make this every week! I was buying oat milk in the shops but this is SO easy to make that I don’t think I’ll need to buy milk again! Washing up was easy, it was quick to make, ingredients are easy to obtain, cheap too and it tastes great. I bought a large 1 litre milk bottle especially for this recipe and it fits perfectly. I’ve eaten it with cereal all week and thoroughly enjoyed it. It does need shaking in the morning, but so does shop bought milk. Saves on so much packaging too. Can’t fault it to be honest, thanks Alison x
★★★★★
That is awesome to hear Cherry! Thanks so much for your fabulous review! 🙂
I Concur Wholeheartedly!!
I found that when I tried frothing the oat milk for a hot chocolate, it just didn’t want to know. Plus, it turned into more of a watery custard consistency – not great! Not sure if you have any advice on the matter?
Secondly, I’m aware that you do not soak your oats to help prevent gloopiness. I’ve read in other posts (not yours) that if you don’t soak the oats, your body will find it a lot harder to digest. Do you have any knowledge or thoughts on this?
Thanks in advance!
I am playing with this recipe of yours. Had my first attempt and now trying one more time. I see not to heat too high and that was one mistake made in my hot chai. My question is, the type of oat. I buy the extra thick whole oats. Is there a “best” oat to use as far as best result in your opinion?
★★★
I have only made this with regular rolled oats, and I have a link in the recipe card it. Not sure how extra thick oats would affect this recipe, if it all.
Would it be OK to not strain the Oats out of the milk?
Have you tried toasting the oats before integrating them into the recipe? Thought it might add some extra flavour that could be nice, but I’m not sure if it would change the texture (assume no, but haven’t made it before!).
Hi Sara, I haven’t tried it like that, no idea how it might work out. I went looking on google to see if I could find any info but came up blank! So it would be a total experiment! Let us know if you try it. 🙂
Tried with with toasted oats – super good flavour! I’d really recommend trying it 🙂
★★★★★
Awesome! Thanks for letting us know, will definitely try it. 🙂
Hi Alison,
I’ve made quite a lot of milk lately (Oatly is sold out in all shops too recently in Brighton, UK.
I’ve tried soaking and non soaking and both seem to be the same tbh to me. I’ve found the best flavour is with steel cut oats.
I’ve managed to heat it gently and add to my morning coffee- however it doesn’t froth well.
Also, it always separates even in the cup- so usually I have to leave a spoon in to keep it together! I know that Oatly and other commercial milks use some oil so I might try that, which may help to bind it together better?
Also re the leftover oats. I toasted some mixed nuts, ground them in my cofeee grinder, added them to the oats with some Biona
Coconut powder, half a vegetable stock cube and mixed herbs, and made them into sausage shapes, put in oven for twenty mins, and absolutely delicious!
Any hints on how to stop milk separating would be great, thanks!
★★★★
Can I use a strainer instead of a nut milk cloth? Thanks 🙂
You can put cheesecloth over a strainer and strain it through that. The strainer alone likely isn’t fine enough.
Hi I love watching your videos! They are so simple and easy to make at home. One question not regarding the post: what’s the name of the song in the video? Thanks!
Hi Ida, thanks very much! I don’t know the name of the song, we buy all our music for videos on Premium Beats and it’s just a loop it doesn’t necessarily state the song name, and would require some searching to find out. All the best. 🙂
The name of the song found on Premium Beats is “Doo Wop Does He” by Grace Mesa.
It’s lovely!
★★★★★
Oh thanks for tracking that down Mel! 🙂
Loved the recipe!! Can you also please let me know the song name??? It’s been stuck in head and I need to hear the full song, thank you ❤️🙏🏾
Hi Nathan, Mel helpfully answered that question in a comment above, it is called: ‘Doo Wop Does He” by Grace Mesa. We buy our music on premium beats so sometimes I don’t know offhand what the songs are called. 🙂 So glad you like the recipe! 🙂
If I am not mistaken the soaking (and rinsing) is suggested in other recipes in order to dilute the phytic acid content of the oats.
It is said that Phytic acid interferes with the digestion of the minerals/etc in the oats..
That may be true, but it’s not something I am too worried about since you would usually just eat the oats as is without soaking, so why not drink the oat milk without soaking the oats first and save some time. 🙂 Also the extra sliminess from soaking was not something I was keen on.
Hi there! Quick question. HOW LONG can you keep this milk refrigerated? thanks
★★★★★
Hi Brenda, up to 5 days in the fridge, it does tend to separate in the fridge, so give it a good shake before using.
Thanks!
★★★★★
Forgot lol! Can you bake with this milk in recipes? Like muffins? I understand you cannot heat milk for drinking but think it may be ok for baking muffins etc….?
Hi Brenda, I am not sure. I know that it clumps and goes thick and weird when you heat it, which may not make a difference in a baked good but it also might! I haven’t tried it in baking, so I’m not sure!