Tasty, Fast and Cheap Alternative to Soy Milk

When I was a pre-teen in 1979, my family and I moved to a hippie commune in Summertown, Tennessee called "Stephen's Farm". We only stayed for a couple of months, but during that time my mother got a crash course in strict vegetarianism. We also got a great cookbook we still use to this day. (Although the term "vegan" was coined by Donald Watson in 1945 in the UK, it was not used in the US at that time.)

My mother made all the food we ate from scratch, including homemade soy milk. There was none available in the stores back then. The commune did have a soy dairy where I had the most delicious ice cream I have ever tasted! They called it "ice bean". For the most part, however, it was a DIY life. It was for my mother anyway, my brother and I didn't help her one bit - I'm sorry to report.

It's very time consuming to make soy milk the old fashioned way. I did it a couple years ago and I made a huge mess while I was trying to get all the milk squeezed from the beans by standing on a pot which was pressing into another pot holding the beans in the cheese cloth on the floor! Milking beans is hard work! It came out great, but I never did it again.

Even with a soy milk maker, the one collecting dust under the counter, it's time consuming because of the clean up of getting the husks off the strainer before they harden into little barnacles and you have to chisel them off.

In addition to the clean up involved, you've got to remember to soak the beans at least 12 hours in my opinion (in the fridge so they don't sour) so that you don't explode from gas!

Purchasing ready made soy milk is so much easier. Last I checked, it is not as expensive compared with organic dairy milk. Besides, who can afford to raise their own cow these days?

My daughter and I agree that the best tasting milk, which is super easy and cheap to make, is oat milk. Organic oatmeal from the bulk section of your health food store is very inexpensive. You can flavor oat milk in so many ways with vanilla, almond, or raspberry extract for example. Oatmeal itself has 10 grams of protein per cup plus lots of fiber. So you're getting at least 5 grams of protein per cup of oat milk, if you don't strain it.

Have I sold you on it yet? Good.

Mooo Over Oat Milk Recipe

Makes a half gallon / half this recipe to make a quart

Ingredients:
5 cups cooked oatmeal as per the directions on the package or on the bulk bin cover at your health food store.
8 cups cold water
2 tsp. vanilla or almond extract (try raspberry and orange too)
1/8 teaspoon of sea salt

You can add 3-4 stevia packets (1/2 a packet per cup) or 1-2 tablespoons of maple syrup or agave nectar to sweeten, but it's not necessary. Alternatively, you can remove one cup of oatmeal and put in one ripe banana to make it naturally sweetened.

Directions:
Put everything in a in food processor, or half this recipe to make a quart, and use your blender. Process until super smooth, which takes a few minutes or more depending on your equipment. Pop it in the refrigerator to chill. To thin it out, if you wish, add a little more water, or you can strain it with a cheese cloth. If you strain it, much of the fiber content will be removed. Either way, be sure to shake before using. Use it to replace milk in all recipes, including baked goodies. Decrease the sugar in your recipe if you've sweetened your oat milk.

I prefer the taste of oat milk over hemp, rice, and soy milk and much, much more than cow's milk. My daughter and I like almond milk the best of all and we generally buy it, but it's also easy to make. Almonds though, were over $7 a pound bulk last week.