Nowadays many people are turning towards veganism. Veganism includes a diet free of animal-based foods like milk, cheese, egg, fish oil, chicken, and fish Veganism promotes animal love.
Milk is one such animal-based food item that is rich in nutrients. It keeps your bones strong. It is rich in Vitamin D, calcium, and Vitamin B12. It is an all-rounder when it comes to proper nutrition.
Since veganism doesn’t allow any dairy product to be used in your diet, you need a vegan substitute for milk.
Oat milk is the perfect replacement. It is a blessing for lactose-intolerant people as well. Dairy milk drinkers also enjoy delicious oat milk. So, how is oat milk made?
1. What Is Oat Milk?
Originating in Sweden, oat milk is cruelty-free and dairy-free milk. It is a kind of plant milk. Oat and water make oat milk.
It is loaded with all the nutrients found in oats and gets its creamy texture from the fine particles of oats mixed with water.
Oat milk is the second largest market for plant-based milk. Almond milk tops the market but oat milk is gaining more popularity with each passing day.
Usually, people drink store-bought oat milk. You can make it at home easily. Homemade oat milk is a great way to save money and stay healthy at the same time.
The question is, how is oat milk made at home?
2. Health Benefits of Oat Milk
How is oat milk made at home? If you want to know the answer, you must learn how good is oat milk for your health. There are many health benefits of taking milk made from oats regularly and you must know these benefits before proceeding to make your oat milk at home.
2.1. A Good Source of Antioxidants
Oat Milk is a great source of antioxidants. A rare group of antioxidants, Avenanthramides are found in oats.
Avenanthramides increase the production of nitric oxide which in turn lowers blood pressure. It allows easy blood flow.
Because of the presence of many antioxidants, it is great for repairing damaged skin.
It keeps your skin healthy and glowing. It is very well known for its anti-ageing effects. It brings youth to your skin.
2.2. Rich in Vitamins and Minerals
Oat milk is a rich source of Vitamin B2 and Vitamin B12. It helps in combatting vitamin B deficiency, and stress. It helps in proper hair and nail growth. It also improves your skin.
Oat milk has minerals like magnesium, zinc, phosphorus, calcium, and copper. These minerals are known to manage various needs of your body.
Phosphorus is needed to get energy for body functions and other chemical processes.
The presence of calcium promotes better communication between the brain and the body.
Photo by Polina Tankilevitch: Pexels Copyright 2020
2.3. Good for Lactose-Intolerant People
There is a special kind of sugar in dairy products known as lactose. Lactose helps keep your body energized
People who have less amount of lactase enzyme in their body tend to grow allergic to lactose and suffer from diarrhoea, bloating, or gas after eating any dairy product.
Oat milk is a great choice for those who can’t digest lactose in milk. It provides them with proper nutrition without making their body suffer.
2.4. A Good Substitute for Soy and Nuts
Soy milk is free from soy and nuts. To those who are restricted from soy intake, oat milk is a great alternative.
Many people get severe allergic reactions from drinking soy milk and using it in any other recipe. Oat milk also compensates for your allergy to nuts.
2.5. Strengthens Your Bones
Oat milk is full of calcium and vitamin D which keep your bones healthy. Calcium is a primary component in the making of bones.
It protects your bones from getting brittle and fragile. It protects your bones from any damage caused by a sudden blow.
Vitamin D helps in storing calcium. Without calcium storage, your bones can’t remain strong.
These two work together to keep your bones strong. And oat milk provides you with these two nutrients in ample amounts.
2.6. Keeps Your Blood Sugar Level Low
Oats have a high content of fibre and a lower glycemic index. That is why oat milk helps in keeping the blood sugar level low.
It improves insulin sensitivity and balances the ratio of insulin and sugar in your body.
Diabetes is one of the most troubling diseases among adults. Nowadays even children are getting diabetic.
It is important to keep your blood sugar in check so that you can live a healthy life for a long time.
Don’t add sugar is your oat milk if you are diabetic.
2.7. Reduces Cholesterol
Heart diseases have become horrifying to many people globally. Increased level of cholesterol is the major reason for heart disease.
When the cholesterol level in the body increases, it starts blocking the veins and arteries connected to the heart. This leads to sudden cardiac arrest or heart attack.
Oats have beta-glucan fibre. Beta-glucan is known to reduce bad cholesterol as well as total cholesterol level.
Thus, the presence of beta-glucan in oats makes oat milk a healthy choice for your heart and reduces any possible risk of heart disease.
2.8. Maintains a Healthy Body Weight
The high content of fibre and protein in oat milk gives you the feeling of a full stomach for a long time. It helps you better control of appetite and promotes healthy body weight.
Since sugar increases body weight, you should take unsweetened oat milk for a better result if you want to lose weight. The same idea works with unsweetened almond milk as well.
2.9. Helps in Digestion
Oats have a high amount of fibre. Beta-glucan is a type of fibre that has a gel-like formula.
This fibre allows easy movement of food particles in the gut. Digestion becomes easy if you take this beverage on regular basis.
2.10. Reduces Chance of Colon Cancer
Colon is the lower part of your digestive tract and it is also called colorectal cancer. Even though colon cancer is common among adults, it also affects young kids. Colon cancer forms clumps of cells in your colon. These clumps are mostly benign or non-cancerous but sometimes these cells turn out to be cancerous. It starts affecting your bowel habits and causes immense discomfort in the abdominal area.
There are many treatments available for colon cancer but what is better than taking preventive measures before it knocks on your door? Eating right is the first thing you should do if want to reduce the risk of colon cancer.
The presence of fibre in oats allows the easy movement of food particles through small and large intestines and colons. This reduces any possibility of colon cancer.
3. Things You Will Need for Homemade Oat Milk Recipe
There are a few things you will need if you are here to know how is oat milk made.
3.1. Two Bowls
You will feel the need for two bowls. You will use one bowl to soak the oats and another to collect the strained water.
Prefer using one medium-sized and one large bowl for your convenience.
3.2. A Strainer
You will need to keep the extra pulp out of your oat milk. Extra pulp will result in slimy oat milk. A woven tea towel should be preferred over a nut milk bag even though a nut milk bag is made for straining plant-based milk.
If you don’t have a woven tea towel, you can also use a fine-mesh strainer or a cheesecloth which may let extra solids pass. It is important to choose the right kind of strainer for avoiding the slimy texture. Make sure you double-strain the liquid if you’re using a nut bag.
3.3. Any Blender
A powerful high-speed blender is recommended for a finer consistency and quick blending.
But you can use any blender if you don’t have a powerful one. Just blend the mixture for a little while longer. Keep checking the blend at regular intervals.
3.4. A Water-tight Container
To store extra milk, you will need a container that is water-tight so that it won’t leak if you shake it. You will have to shake the liquid many times if you want to store it for a long time.
3.5. Good Quality Oats
The right ingredients always give the right product. For the oat milk recipe, rolled oats are the best choice.
The use of rolled oats makes smoother milk. Quick oats and steel-cut oats are not the right choices because they don’t give the right consistency to this recipe.
Let us proceed to answer the actual question. How is oat milk made?
4. How is Oat Milk Made?
How is oat milk made at home? Many people find it difficult to make oat milk at home because of the habit of using store-bought oat milk. But you must know making such dairy-free glasses of milk at home is a very easy task. It won’t even take 10-15 minutes. Follow these simple steps to make your favourite oat milk at home:
4.1. Take one cup of rolled oats and four cups of water.
4.2. Mix oats and water in a bowl. Put them in the blender. Blend the mixture for half a minute. Try not to over-blend it otherwise, you won’t get the desired result.
4.3. Take a woven tea towel or any desired strainer. Let the mixture pass through the strainer. For creamy texture free from you need this step. This step plays a major role in making oat milk.
4.4. Remove the pulp. If you want, squeeze extra liquid from the strained pulp. Don’t squeeze too much to avoid slimy consistency.
4.5. Put the mix in the blender. Power the blender. Blend for 5-10 seconds
4.6. Strain the mixture again. Straining twice will give you a fine texture and it will save you from any bizarre oat milk texture.
4.7. Collect your milk in the water-tight container and your oat milk is ready for use.
Don’t throw out pulp away. You can use leftover oat pulp for making baked goods and other oatmeal recipes.
5. How is Oat Milk Made that is Not Gritty?
Now you need to learn more about how is oat milk made that is not gritty or slimy. You can avoid the slimy texture of oat milk by simply avoiding a few mistakes in the process. Even though many people will suggest you soak your oats for the whole night, don’t ever do that.
It allows the enzymes to bring the particles of oats together. Soaking makes it difficult to get a texture like store-bought oat milk.
Oats are usually cooked in warm water. But you should avoid using hot water to avoid getting slimy oat milk at all costs. Always use cold water. Ice-cold water is the best choice when it comes to making it smooth and fine.
Over-blending is one major issue that causes the final product to turn slimy. It comes in the way of making smooth milk. This usually happens because of simply blending the mixture without checking its consistency at regular intervals.
6. How to Use Oat Milk?
You can drink oat milk straight and also add vanilla extract to enhance its taste. Many people love chocolate oat milk as a beverage.
The texture of creamier milk makes it a good choice for making coffee and different smoothies. It also forms frothings in coffee like regular cow milk.
If you want a gluten-free oat milk recipe, buy your oats after checking if the packaging has gluten-free oats mentioned. The result of oat milk on your body also depends on how is oat milk made and what kinds of oats are used.
7. Can You Make Flavored Oat Milk?
You may get bored of taking only plain oat milk. Many people in your home may love different flavours and hate some particular kind of taste.
Like everyone else, you must be thinking of giving a twist to your taste buds. Then, you can try making it flavoured. It will serve the demand of different people with different tastes as well.
How is oat milk made with different flavours? You can make flavoured oat milk by adding different ingredients like chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. To make vanilla oat milk, add half a teaspoon of vanilla extract to the oat milk.
You can make chocolate oat milk by adding cocoa powder to it. Add 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and you are good to go. You can also use maple syrup for adding flavour.
8. What to Expect from Oat Milk?
Oat Milk tastes a lot like cow milk. But it is on the sweeter side because of the presence of natural sugar molecules.
How is oat milk made? What ingredients are used in oat milk? These questions matter when it comes to the taste of oat milk. Since it is made of oats, you will get the taste of oatmeal in it. The taste of oats is faint and it doesn’t overpower the sweetness.
Unlike nut milk, coconut milk, and almond milk, oat milk has a creamier texture. It makes the making of beverages easy.
The thickness of oat milk depends on your choice. Even though it doesn’t contain fat like cow milk, it is still rich in useful nutrients.
Check Out: How to Make Almond Milk in 5 Simple Steps
9. Life of Homemade Oat Milk
After going through the process of how is oat milk made, you need to know the validity of this oat milk. If you store your homemade oat milk in a sealed container, it will last for almost 5 days.
To know if it is still usable, you can check its odour. If it starts to smell differently, you should avoid using that oat milk.
You can also taste it to check if it is stale or not.
Most people think that homemade oat milk has gone bad if it settles after storing. But this is not true. It is normal for oat milk to settle after a while.
You should simply shake the container well before using it. Shake for a little while and you will get a similar consistency as earlier.
10. Bottom Line
Oat milk is a healthy option that can easily replace cow milk from your diet. It is rich in different nutrients. It has many perks if added to your regular dietary routine.
Anyone can use it from vegans to lactose-intolerant people without even thinking about any side effects.
Buying oat milk from the store must have been your primary choice till now. But is there any way you can cut your expenses on oat milk? How is oat milk made? Is it possible to make oat milk at home? In this article, you have found an alternative to store-bought oat milk. After knowing everything about how to make creamy oat milk at home, I’m sure you’re tempted.
Try this easy homemade oat milk recipe and enjoy it any time you want.
Share your experience of making this oat milk at home and tell us about any unique oatmeal recipe developer idea you know in the comment section below. Let us know any other methods of how to make oat milk. Have a good day!
Last Updated on by Himani Rawat
