Sometimes I’m guilty of getting lazy and wasting money for convenience. I’ve been doing this for practically two to three years in regards to plant-based milk. I’ve been buying store bought plant-based milk, mostly oat milk, rather than making it myself. Last month I realised that this habit was costing us £10-£15 per week, so a whopping £40-£60 per month just on branded plant-based milk! This had to stop. I’m going to share with you just how easy it is to make your own plant-based organic oat milk at home using two ingredients.

Save money and make your own plant-based oat milk

I’ve been eating a plant-based (vegan) diet for 15 months now, but I was vegetarian for several years before this and I was always curious in a fully plant-based diet and wanting to cut down on dairy. The first thing I cut out dairy wise was drinking milk, so we switched to plant-based milk before I followed a vegan diet. Even Ben and the kids switched to the plant-based milk for health reasons. As with anything, the taste was a little strange at first, but we quickly got used to it. It’s been so long now that the thought of actual milk makes me gag!

I can’t even begin to imagine how much money we have wasted over three years buying cartons of oat milk and other plant-based varieties. It must be extortionate!

A long time ago I tried my hand at making some oat milk and was surprised at how easy it is. But I didn’t continue. I thought I didn’t have the time to make it myself being a busy mum of two who also works full-time and then some on my own businesses.

It was definitely convenient to buy ready to go cartons and not have to put any effort in myself. The problem is these delicious cartons of ready-made oat milk cost anywhere from £1.70 to £2.50. I always choose to support the smaller independent brands with good values, opt for those with the least ingredients that can be easily understood and who are organic. I have nothing against these companies, I support what they’re doing, and my favourite organic oat milk brands were Oatly and Rude Health.

How to make your own organic oat milk at home

When looking at ways to reduce our shopping bill, which is always tricky when choosing organic, I was shocked at how much we spent on plant-based milks. This was an obvious choice to reduce how much we spent each week on food.

I’d usually buy 6 cartons in our weekly online shop, but usually we would end up buying more from the local supermarket each week!

It sounds a lot, but the cartons are only one litre in size, which is 1.75 pints. We’re a family of four and the children drink some milk each day, Ben and I use it in hot drinks, some days we all eat cereal and I love to make cacao and banana milkshakes for the kids as treats. We are milk guzzlers!

In comparison to buying the milk at £1.70 to £2.50 a carton, I can buy a big 750g bag of organic oats from our nearest supermarket Tesco for just £1.60!

I predict this bag will be able to make us milk for up to four weeks, depending on how much milk we consume each day. It’s enormously cheaper than us buying cartons of oat milk that sometimes barely last a day. Yet I can make several cartons worth of milk from a pack of oats that costs less than one single carton!

The best part is, it’s actually really easy to make your own oat milk at home and to save a small fortune. It takes me only a few minutes each day and I already had all the equipment I needed.

Here’s how to easily make your own organic oat milk at home:

Equipment

High speed blender (I use my Nutri Ninja with the largest cup)
Large jug (I use a Pyrex 1L glass measuring jug)
Sieve
Storage jug / cup (at the moment I use a shaker style cup to store it in the fridge, but I want to get some sort of fridge door glass jug)

Ingredients

Oats (I prefer organic)
Water (I use distilled water)

Method

Add one part oats to four parts water.
Blend at high speed for 20 seconds or so.
Pour through the sieve into the jug to separate the pulp from the liquid.
Pour the liquid into your storage container and store in the fridge.

It really is that simple! It’s so quick and easy to do. I guestimate the amount of oats I need just by looking at my large blender cup. If you like it more creamy and thick then add more oats. Use fewer oats to make it more watery.

Method in pictures

Should I soak oats overnight when making oat milk?

I tested leaving the oats soaking in the water overnight before blending to see if it made it more creamy/milky, but I honestly don’t think it made any difference. So now I just make it on the spot whenever I need milk, or each morning so we have some for that day and even the next day. It tastes best for about two days, so I wouldn’t bother making a huge amount, just enough for a day or two each time.

How to reduce the residue left in homemade oat milk

There is a small amount of residue left in the storage cup, but this doesn’t bother me. To reduce this then you can buy nut milk bags/cheese cloths to drain the blended solution, rather than using a sieve. I might buy these one day to try, but the slight residue doesn’t bother me and I’m happy to just use the equipment I already have.

A great idea which my friend suggested I try was to use a cafetiere. I did start by doing this and it does reduce the amount of pulp left in the milk, but I found it more of a hassle to clean than just rinsing the large sieve.

What can I do with the leftover pulp from homemade oat milk?

You will have a large amount of pulp leftover. I usually add this to our compost at home, but I did try and make some biscuits with some last week and they were quite tasty!

If I have the time then I will definitely make biscuits again and learn more ways to use this pulp so it’s not wasted. There are lots of creative recipe ideas for oat milk pulp here.

Hopefully this blog post will inspire you to try and make your own oat milk and stop wasting so much money on ready-made cartons at the supermarket. I’m pretty sure making nut milk is the same process, but the nuts will need soaking overnight in the water. I’ll try that soon.

I love plain oat milk and to use only two ingredients, but if you like a little more flavour or texture then experiment with adding some salt or oil until you get your perfect taste and consistency.

Enjoy!

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