If you’ve always bought plant-based milk, you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to make your own oat milk. Oat milk is one of the easiest and least expensive. All you need is a blender, a fine mesh strainer, and your flavorings to get started.
Flavored milk can be loaded with fat and sugar, but this plant-based Oat Milk recipe is lightened up by using a base of oats and sweetened with your choice of sweetener. I recommend date paste or even soaked dates, but maple or date syrup works in a pinch too.
We all know that oats are great for your diet, but did you ever think of making oat milk? Like other nondairy milks made of almonds, rice, and soy, oat milk is just as refreshing.
The strainer is important because you want to get all the sediment out of the milk so it’s not grainy. You want it silky smooth if you’re drinking it plain, adding to your morning coffee or pouring it over a bowl of cereal. After blending the soaked rolled oats and water together you’ll strain the mixture.
I use a mixing bowl with a spout so I can easily strain it from the blender into the bowl (I like to strain a second time when I pour it back into the blender).
You can stop right here and have plain oat milk or add in some vanilla and the sweetener of your choice. Or take the next step and add chopped fresh strawberries, vanilla, and sweetener of your choice.
When you blend in the strawberries, you add in another layer of sediment – the seeds. So you’ll strain it again and surprisingly enough you may see some more oat sediment too. Make sure to rinse your mesh strainer, as well as the blender, in between so you have the smoothest oat milk that you can.
At this point you can stop and have sweetened strawberry oat milk. It reminded me of strawberry quick because that’s what I grew up with – but this tastes so much better! The oats give this milk somebody, so it’s very creamy.
Feeling like stepping out of the milk carton? Add some cocoa to make this taste just like a chocolate-covered strawberry. Or you could skip the strawberries altogether and make it a chocolate treat. The variations are only as limited as your imagination. Think of all the seasonal fruits you could use!
Find even more cool oatmeal recipes in OATrageous Oatmeals!
Easy DIY Strawberry Oat Milk with Flavor Variations
Equipment
- 1 Blender
Ingredients
- 3 cups water
- 1 1/2 cups chopped strawberries
- 6 pitted dates , or sweetener of choice to taste
- 1 cup crushed ice
- 1/2 cup rolled oats
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 tablespoons cocoa powder optional
Instructions
- Add the water and strawberries to your blender and blend until smooth
- Add ice and oats and pulse the blender, making sure the blender does not get hot. It's okay if there are some oat pieces.
- Pour oat mixture through a mesh strainer into a bowl with a spout or a pitcher.
- You will need to scrape the bottom of the strainer with a spoon if it gets backed up.
- Discard the sediment in the strainer, rinse the blender then strain the mixture back into the blender.
- Strain the mixture into the rinsed bowl, discard the sediment which is mostly strawberry seeds, rinse the blender and strain back into the blender. Stop here if you want plain strawberry oat milk.
- Add the cocoa powder if you want to make your milk into chocolate covered strawberry oat milk and blend. No more straining needed!
James Emmer says
Funny story Kathy… I looking at your website and found this great recipe for Strawberry Oat Milk and made a batch. I then was looking on your site for more great recipes and found your book “OATrageous Oatmeals” and thought, what a great book.. I make a lot of different meals with oats.. I pulled my book out of my bookcase to compare to yours and got a laugh.. It is your book!! No wonder it looked familiar on the website 🙂 Thanks for all of your hard work bringing great healthy and delicious recipes to the world!
Kathy Hester says
That is awesome!