Rice Milk (Nut-Free, Flavor-Full)

As much as I like the nut milks I make on a regular basis, not everyone can drink nut milks. Whether you have an allergy, you just don’t like the flavor or you need to save some major bucks on your elimination diet, grain milks are often a reasonable choice. Although you could make milk from just about any grains you choose, the two most common are oats and rice. I covered oats in another recent blog post.

The approach to making oat milk and rice milk is very similar, but the result is quite different. Toasting the uncooked rice instead of boiling it eliminates the slimy texture you get from overcooking. But, with the oat milk, the sliminess came back after a day or two in the fridge. Not so with the rice milk.

Rice milk is a flavor that has been popular for quite some time. If you don’t agree, just drink some Horchata sometime. If you want to make the best Horchata, it’s best to start with rice milk. But, there is something you should know about rice milk. If you are making rice milk after enjoying a variety of homemade nut milks for awhile, you may be a bit surprised by the consistency. Rice milk, in my experience, is much thinner than the nut milks I usually make. So, if my cashew milk has the consistency of half-and-half, my rice milk is more like skim.

Let’s get started. For the rice milk, you need a cup of rice, a pan, water, a big measuring cup, a blender, fine mesh strainer and spoon. I did the research on the types of rice to choose, and couldn’t find a concrete recommendation for the length of the grain or the color of the grains (brown or white). So, I opted for the cheapest rice I could find. Start by dry-toasting the rice in the pan. It takes only a few minutes. Then, put the rice in a heat-safe cup or glass and submerge the rice with two cups of water. Cover the container and refrigerate overnight, or 12 hours.

In the morning, drain the rice and pour into the blender. If you have a powerful blender, you can start the blender right then. If not, add a cup of fresh water and start blending on high for a minute or two. Once you feel like you’ve crushed the rice pretty consistently, add the remaining three cups of water. Blend on high for 2-3 minutes. This is a very firm grain, especially uncooked. So, give the blender the time to crush the rice and saturate the water.

When you are done, just strain out the chewy bits with your fine mesh strainer and spoon. Pour into an airtight container and store in the fridge. If you want, add some cinnamon and maple syrup to give it a distinct Horchata flavor. Enjoy!

Rice Milk

1 cup rice
2 cups water (for soaking)
4 cups water (for making the milk)
 

Toast rice in a wide pan on medium heat until barely browned. Remove from heat and soak in two cups of water, covered in the fridge, overnight. Drain rice, then add to blender and blend on high for 30 seconds. Add one cup of water and blend on high for one minute. Add remaining water and blend on high for 1-2 minutes. Strain rice milk and store in an airtight container in the fridge.

Oat Milk, The Milk For The Dairy-Free Cheapskate

Most of the time, when people decide to go dairy-free, it's not about the money. But, it doesn't take long before you start looking at your food budget and wondering what happened. If you were accustomed to buying conventional cow's milk at the grocery store, you may have suffered an extreme bout of sticker-shock when you realized that drinking dairy-free milk costs at least $6 a gallon, but often $8 or more.

Making your own milks from home usually cuts down on the price. But, it depends on the ingredient you use. I haven't been able to find almonds at a very reasonable price except when they are rarely on sale. I can usually get dried coconut and raw cashews at a rate that puts making it at home a more practical investment. But, grain milks are just plain cheap. And, oats are the cheapest. In fact, if you do not care if the oats are organic or certified gluten-free, you may get them for around $0.75/lb, which is a significant cost savings. One pound of oats will make a gallon or more of oat milk, which makes this recipe as inexpensive as $0.19 a quart.

Special Note:  If you need to be gluten-free, oats may not be the best choice for you. Oats do not naturally contain gluten. However, they are usually processed with other gluten-containing seeds and flours such as wheat, barley and rye. The proteins in oats and gluten are similar, and so many people who react to gluten also react to oats. If you know that you do not react to oats, but you are trying to avoid gluten, be sure to buy oats that are certified gluten-free.

There's something you need to know about grain-based milks, however. Many recipes suggest that you cook them on the stove, just as you would before you eat oatmeal. And yet, this is not necessarily the best idea. Both get pretty sticky or gooey once they are cooked, and oatmeal is especially problematic on this front.

While doing research for this, I concluded that the best way to prepare grain milks is by toasting them uncooked and then soaking them, instead of cooking them. It gets rid of a lot of the stickiness or sliminess you get in the end product.

Let's get started! For this recipe, you need a wide pan for toasting your oats, a glass container to soak the oats, your blender, measuring cup, fine mesh strainer, spoon and an airtight container to store the milk. First, toast the oats in the wide pan on medium heat for a few minutes. You will know it is ready when they start to turn brown and take on a nutty aroma. Remove from heat and put in a glass container. Put two cups of water in with the oats, cover them and refrigerate them for 12 hours or so.

Once the oats are done soaking, drain the water. Dump the oats into the blender and start blending. Once nothing is moving anymore, add a cup of water (cold if you have a high-powered blender, hot if you don't) and resume blending for a minute or so on high. Then, add the remainder of the water and blend on high for another minute or two.

Pour the oat milk into a four-cup measure through your fine mesh strainer. Use the spoon to press out the excess water from the leftover oat fiber. Then, pour your oat milk into your airtight container and store it in the fridge.

You may notice that the oat milk will take on a slightly gooey texture as the days go on. I am not a fan of this. But, if you are looking for a drink to thicken your tea, or you want something to pour over your cereal, oat milk is a perfectly acceptable replacement to plain cow's milk. It's not my favorite alternative milk, but it is so inexpensive that it deserves special mention. Happy Cooking!

Oat Milk
1 cup oats
2 cups water (for soaking)
4 cups water (for making the milk)

Toast oats in a wide pan on medium heat until barely browned. Remove from heat and soak in two cups of water, covered in the fridge, overnight. Drain oats, then add to blender and blend on high for 30 seconds. Add one cup of water and blend on high for one minute. Add remaining water and blend on high for 1-2 minutes. Strain oat milk and store in an airtight container in the fridge.