Choosing to drink a plant-based alternative to milk is no longer a rare and isolated choice. More and more people, in fact, prefer to drink Nondairy Substitutes for Milk instead of the classic cow’s milk for many reasons. Among these there is certainly the increase, year after year, of the number of people who discover to be lactose intolerant. The impossibility to produce the enzyme lactase does not allow the breaking down of lactose into smaller components which can be assimilated by the body. Another reason is environmental. It is well known that livestock farming requires a lot of energy, water, and food to feed animals but most importantly it impacts the planet in terms of deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions such as methane. In this post, I show you how to prepare homemade oat milk in a short time. A few ingredients to prepare a good and healthy drink but above all not to contribute to large wastes of water and pollutant emissions.
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Gabi
Non Dairy Milk
Milk has always been a food in my diet since I was a little girl. My breakfast was for a long time, a cup of hot milk with cocoa powder and with about twenty cookies inside. Ah so good! Growing up, however, I tried to change my habits by choosing to introduce in my diet more non-dairy milk (also called mylks) such as soy, almond or oat milk, precisely because I was concerned about the environmental impact of cattle farms. While researching a bit on the internet I found some articles from The Guardian that definitely convinced me to prefer these plant-based beverages to ordinary dairy milk. I’ll leave them here, if you’d like to check them out. (more info)
Trying the various non-dairy beverages, I soon appreciated their qualities and their taste and it turned out to be not so difficult to replace milk. From here to the idea of preparing them at home was an almost natural step.
How to make oat milk | Video
How to make oat milk
Among the drinks I have tried, the oat and almond ones are among my favorites. Making them at home is a very simple and fast process, and intrigued by their simplicity I wanted to try preparing the oat one. A simple recipe that will help us save a little money and be eco-friendlier and more sustainable. If you want to find out the top DIY recipes that give great results and save us money, check out my article about “My Best 7 DIY Things to Make at Home“.
How to make oat milk | Ingredients and tools
- organic oatmeal or oat bran
- water
- bio-raisins
- a strainer
- a blender
- a glass container to store it in
How to make oat milk | Procedure
To make the oat milk, I poured four tablespoons of organic oat bran into a glass container and added water until all was well soaked with water. I let the oat sit for 24 hours, shaking the container from time to time.
INFO: I used oat bran because I had it at home, but you can totally use organic oatmeal. If you use oatmeal instead of bran, it will be easier to soften them and grind them in the blender.
On the other hand, oat flakes could make our drink slimy. To avoid this, try not to leave them in the blender for a long time or avoid crushing them during the filtering phase.
The next day, I strained the oatmeal using a sieve to separate the water from the oat.
At this point, I poured the well-washed and hydrated oats into a blender. I then poured in about 3 cups of cold water and some raisins to make the drink a little sweeter. You can add honey as an alternative. If you’d rather adjust its flavour and keep it from being sweet, however, add a pinch of salt.
Now, all that remains is to turn on the blender and leave it for about 3-4 minutes. At the end just filter with a fine mesh sieve and the oat milk is ready.
It will last for 2-3 days. This is why I prefer to prepare small amounts at a time to avoid wasting food.
Tip: Clearly the oats that will collect in the strainer don’t throw them away! Keep it in the freezer and use it when you make a cake by adding it to the ingredients!
The recipe is really simple and it’s a shame not to try it at least once. Try it at home and tell me what you think, you can write me here or on my social channels!
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