Affordable plant-based milk at home

I’m not sure when oat milk got so popular but - here we are! I don’t know about you, but I don’t love spending $5 or more on a teeny bottle of oat milk or oat milk creamer that will only make a week’s worth of coffee. I decided to say no thanks to that and try making my own. And it worked!

It costs me less than $2 at Aldi to purchase a giant tub of oats, and that makes so many bottles of oat milk (and by “so many” I mean each container is about 15 cups, so I should theoretically get 10 quarts of milk from each container), which is undeniably cheaper than buying it at the store. Even if you factor in the time to make your own milk, it’s a no-brainer.

With only a few ingredients, this is probably one of the simplest recipes you’ll ever see (on my blog and elsewhere), but think of how much of an impact it could make on your life! YOU get to decide what goes into it - every single ingredient. No thickeners or preservatives. Plus, it saves you money. Double plus, it only takes like 5 minutes to make.

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups Oats - any kind will do

• 4 cups (1 quart) of COLD water

• A splash of vanilla, to taste (I just start with about a teaspoon)

• Optional: Honey, Maple Syrup, Dates - pitted

Equipment:

• Blender (doesn’t have to be anything fancy, mine is like a $20 Hamilton Beach one from Meijer)

• Fine Mesh Strainer, Cheesecloth, Thin Dish Towel that you don’t care about, Nut Milk Bag, etc. (any of these works)

Instructions:

Step 01:

Add all ingredients to the blender, and blend on the smoothie setting (this is on “high” for my blender - you can just choose a similar setting if your blender doesn’t say “smoothie”) for 30-40 seconds! No more, no less. Or else it’ll turn out a bit slimy if over-blended or too chunky if under-blended. We don’t want either of those things!

Step 02:

Set whatever vessel you’re pouring it into in the sink, then set your fine mesh strainer (or whatever you’re using) into the vessel & pour your milk into it so that it strains out all of the leftover oat pieces. If you’re doing this into a bottle or jar, I suggest placing your strainer into a funnel, also, so it doesn’t spill everywhere.

Step 03:

With the leftover oat pieces, you can compost them, OR you can add them to a protein shake/smoothie, make them into a sort of oatmeal, or look up different ways to utilize “oat pulp” - I will share some resources for that here soon and will link them in this post.

There ya go - milk! I often froth this to add to my morning coffee and I am just in love with it - I like to make it sweeter for coffee so that I can call it homemade creamer (you know, in my own brain, at 7am).

As always, I encourage you to send me a message on my Instagram account (@calicocowacres) if you have any recipe questions or need advice while making it. I want my recipes to be something you can adapt and make your own - and I’m happy to help you do it!