Oat milk is creamy, delicious, energising and…, notoriously, bought in plastic and aluminium lined cartons from supermarkets, rather than made fresh in the home. With the following simple tips you will learn how to easily make your own organic, digestible oat milk from scratch. I will start with a few good tips on how to make your own homemade oat milk and end with the most important tip of all – one that all the store bought brands do to ensure smooth, pourable perfection. Further to this, oat milk is naturally good for vata and pitta doshas. At the very end, I have added an easy addition to make oat milk more acceptable to those with a Kapha constitution as well.
Basic recipe foundation (keep reading the tips). Blend 1 cup (250ml) of Organic steam rolled or quick cook oats in 4 cups of water.
Tip 1. Do not pre-soak the oats or the final product will have a slimy consistency to it due to the swelling of the starches.
Tip 2. Blend for the minimum time possible to make smooth.
Tip 3. Strain in an unbleached Organic cotton bag. Using a sieve, strainer or common nut milk bag, tends to let too much pulp into milk. The tighter weave of the cotton stops this from happening.
Tip 4. If you require a slightly sweeter, less watery consistency, blend with a little less water. For increased energy and creaminess add 10g of soaked seeds or nuts.
Tip 5. Sweeten as you would any nut/seed milk. Add a date or two, or a little dried fruit, into the blender and strain with the oats. Maple syrup, raw honey or lucuma powder can be added after the oat milk has been strained or it will get partially lost in the oat pulp. Liquid stevia is a good sugar free option. Vanilla essence goes well with the flavor of oats.
Gamechanging Tip. Even with Tips 1 and 2 in place, the final product might come out a tad too “slimy” for your taste or requirements. Well I have the solution for you here. It is secretly used by all the oat milk companies and involves enzymatic predigestion. Principally, the enzymatic predigestion stage works through the addition of the enzyme amylase at the very first blending stage. The amylase helps to break down the long chain sugars (i.e starches) that are responsible for the “gooiness” often involved in oat milk making, especially when the oats have been subject to water for too long. Simply open up one or two capsules of a good broad spectrum digestive enzyme supplement (which will naturally contain amylase) into the oats and warm water at the very first stage (prior to blending). If you have a top product like Digest Gold, you would only need to use one capsule. Blend for minimal time until smooth (as per Tip 2) and then let sit for 1 hour for the digestive enzymes to do their work on the entire oat matrix, starches and all (which are now thorougly dispersed in enzyme-rich water). At the hour mark, simply strain as usual.
This action provides the greatest effect on the consistency, pourability and drinkability of your oat milk. You may also notice it enhances the sweetness of the milk as the starches are broken down into simpler (sweeter) sugars. It’s like store bought only better: much fresher, with nutrients still intact, and now with active enzymes too. If you intend to make a lot to store beyond a single sitting, consider that an enzymatically active product is typically in a state of flux and deconstruction, and the product will likely continue to undergo further predigestion. This may well be fine for some people, but its volatility may also produce unwanted taste or consistency effects further down the line. You can stop this process by warming the milk to 70C for a minute or so, so as to deactive the enzymes and give it a much longer shelf life. Once again, if you make fresh each day, you will not need to worry about this step.
Final Bonus tip for Kaphas. Blend 10g approx (to your taste) of organic raisins or figs at the initial stage to make your oat milk more beneficial/pacifying for your dosha.
