Oat Milk

Oat Milk recipe
makes 3 cups

Oat milk is a more sustainable and affordable alternative to almond milk that's been popping up at a lot of coffee shops lately.  Oats require less water to grow than almonds and are a Midwestern crop, which means I can source them locally if I like.  You can use either steel cut oats or rolled oats to make oat milk--I chose steel cut oats here because you are less likely to overprocess them in the blender (and make a slimy milk) and the remaining oat pulp is easy to fold into any kind of oatmeal for the next few days.  The oat milk and pulp will taste best if consumed within 3 days--store both in the fridge.  Soaking the oats for at least 30 minutes but up to overnight also helps make sure the final product is not slimy.

1 cup steel cut oats, soaked for 30 minutes in water
3 cups filtered water

helpful tool: a nut milk bag (I use this one*)
optional flavorings: pinch of sea salt, 1-2 teaspoons maple syrup, 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1. Strain and rinse soaked steel cut oats in a fine mesh strainer.  Combine in the blender with 3 cups filtered water and blend on medium for 10-15 seconds.  (Don't worry about it being totally smooth; overprocessing can make it slimy.)

2. Strain mixture through the fine mesh strainer into a bowl and remove and store oat pulp.  Pass oat milk through the nut milk bag into a quart mason jar (or whatever you'd like to store in it) to get the finer pieces of pulp out.  Store in the fridge for 3 days.

*affiliate link