Oat Milk substitute

Best substitute

Unsweetened soy milk

Use the same amount as the oat milk you are replacing

Best for baking of every kind

Different taste

The best general-purpose swap. It is the only common plant milk with protein in the same range as dairy, which is what determines how a batter browns and whether a custard sets.

Other oat milk substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Cashew milk
Close match
Use the same amount
The creamiest and most neutral of the nut milks, because cashews break down completely and need no straining.
What changes
Best for
creamy soups and chowders, dairy-free pasta sauces, mashed potatoes, smoothies, curries finished off the heat
Rounder and richer than oat milk with almost no flavour of its own, and it does not carry oat milk's slight sweetness, which is an advantage in savoury cooking. Boxed cashew milk is much thinner than homemade, so read the label: if cashews are two or three per cent of it, treat it like almond milk. It foams badly, so it is a poor choice for a flat white. Blend half a cup of raw cashews with a cup and a half of water for a homemade version that genuinely out-creams oat milk.
3Almond milk
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount plus 1 teaspoon cornstarch per cup if creaminess matters
The most widely stocked plant milk and a perfectly good swap as long as you account for how much thinner it is.
What changes
Best for
cakes, muffins and quick breads, cereal and smoothies, pancake batter, light sauces with a thickener added
Thinner and more watery with a distinct nutty note, and the difference shows most in anything meant to be creamy: a dairy-free alfredo or a chowder made with almond milk will taste thin and slightly hollow. Cornstarch, a spoonful of nut butter, or a couple of tablespoons of coconut cream all close the gap. It flakes and separates in hot espresso more readily than oat milk does, so it is the weakest coffee swap of the group.
4Dairy milk
Different taste
Use the same amount
If dairy is not the reason you were using oat milk, whole milk is a direct swap in every recipe with no adjustment at all.
What changes
Best for
all baking, sauces, custards and puddings, coffee, anything at all
Less sweet than oat milk and with more protein, so a bake made with dairy milk browns very slightly less than the oat version and tastes marginally less sweet and less soft. Oat milk's own sugar and starch make cakes a touch moister, which is why some bakers prefer it. In coffee, dairy foams better than any plant milk. Whole milk is the closest match for richness; skimmed milk behaves more like almond milk.
5Carton coconut milk beverage
Different taste
Use the same amount or 1 part tinned coconut milk to 2 or 3 parts water
The carton kind, sold as a milk alternative, not the tin.
What changes
Comparable richness to oat milk with a coconut note.
Best for
curries and Southeast Asian dishes, smoothies, tropical baking, nut-free and soy-free households
Coconut flavour is the whole consideration. In a curry, a banana bread or a chocolate cake it is welcome or invisible. In a bechamel, a mashed potato or a cup of tea it is not. Do not use tinned coconut milk neat in place of oat milk, since it is several times richer and will make anything you put it in heavy and greasy. Diluted it works well and is a good option for people avoiding nuts, soy and gluten at once.
6Make your own oat milk
Taste and texture differ
1 cup rolled oats to 3 cups cold water
Cheap, quick and made from something already in the cupboard, with one rule that must not be broken.
What changes
Best for
baking, cereal and smoothies, cooking liquid, an emergency mid-recipe
Blend for no more than thirty seconds, in cold water, then strain through a fine cloth without squeezing. Break either of those rules and the oat starch gelatinises and you get a thick, slimy liquid that is genuinely unpleasant and cannot be rescued. That is the single most common failure with homemade oat milk. It also lacks the enzyme treatment that makes commercial oat milk sweet, so it is blander, and it is a poor coffee milk because it splits and thickens in heat.

What is Oat Milk?

Oat Milk is oats blended with water and strained, usually with an enzyme step that breaks some of the oat starch down into sugar, which is why it tastes faintly sweet, pours creamier than most plant milks and foams well in coffee, and in cooking its job is to supply liquid plus a little body and sweetness, though it carries far less fat than dairy milk.

Cooking tips

In baking, swap oat milk one for one for dairy milk or any other plant milk with no other change. It is one of the few genuinely painless substitutions, because at the quantities in a cake the difference in protein and fat between milks affects browning slightly and structure barely at all.
Buy unsweetened for savoury cooking. Anything labelled original or barista carries added sugar, and a bechamel, a leek soup or a mashed potato made with sweetened oat milk tastes faintly of oatmeal cookies in a way that is hard to place and hard to fix.
Barista oat milk is a different product from the plain kind: it has added oil, usually rapeseed, and often a phosphate salt that stops it curdling against hot acidic coffee. That is why it steams and foams and plain oat milk does not. It is also why barista oat milk makes richer sauces than the standard version, so if you have both, use barista for cooking and plain for cereal.
Oat milk browns faster than dairy milk in pancakes, French toast and grilled sandwiches, because of the sugar the enzymes have released. Drop the pan heat a notch or you will get a dark exterior over an underdone middle.
It thickens slightly when heated, thanks to the residual oat starch, which is useful in a soup and a problem if you reduce it hard. Reduced too far it turns gluey and grey. Add it toward the end of cooking and take the pan off a hard boil.
Oats are naturally gluten free but are almost always grown, transported and milled alongside wheat, so only oat milk explicitly labelled gluten free is safe for coeliac disease. If you are cooking for someone coeliac and the carton does not say so, use soy, almond, cashew, coconut or rice milk instead.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use oat milk instead of regular milk in baking?

Yes, one for one, with no other adjustments. Cakes, muffins, pancakes, quick breads, scones and most custards all work. Two small differences worth expecting: oat milk carries its own sugar and starch, so the crumb comes out very slightly moister and browns a touch faster, and it has much less protein than dairy, so anything relying on milk protein for structure, such as a firm baked custard or a panna cotta, sets softer. For those, soy milk is the better plant choice.

Is oat milk gluten free?

Oats contain no gluten themselves, but they are routinely cross-contaminated with wheat during growing and milling, so oat milk is only safe for coeliac disease if the carton is specifically labelled gluten free. Several major brands are and several are not. If you need certainty and the label does not say, use soy, almond, cashew, coconut or rice milk, all of which are naturally free of gluten.

Why did my homemade oat milk turn slimy?

Because the starch gelatinised, which happens for two reasons: blending too long, or using warm or hot water. Blend for thirty seconds at most, always with cold water, and strain through a fine cloth or nut-milk bag without squeezing it hard, since the last of the liquid you force through is the gluey part. Once it has gone slimy there is no fix. Soaking the oats first also makes it worse rather than better, unlike nuts.

What is the best oat milk substitute for coffee?

A barista-blend soy milk, which is the closest thing for both foaming and not curdling against hot espresso. Barista almond and barista cashew blends are the next best. Plain unstabilised almond, cashew and rice milks are the ones to avoid in coffee, since they tend to flake into visible specks when they hit acidic espresso. Warming the milk gently and pouring the coffee into the milk rather than the reverse reduces curdling with any of them.

Can I substitute oat milk for heavy cream?

Not directly, because oat milk has almost no fat and heavy cream is around a third fat, so it will not thicken a sauce, will not whip and will split if you boil it hard in place of cream. For a dairy-free cream, blend half a cup of raw cashews with half a cup of water, or use the thick part of a chilled tin of coconut milk, both of which behave much more like cream. If oat milk is all you have, a tablespoon of oil or vegan butter and a teaspoon of cornstarch whisked into a cup of it will get you a passable enriched sauce base.

Can I just leave the oat milk out?

In a savoury dish where it is one of several liquids, often yes, and stock or water takes its place with the dish coming out less creamy. In baking, no: the milk is most of the moisture, and removing it leaves you with a dough rather than a batter. Water plus a teaspoon of neutral oil per cup is a surprisingly decent emergency stand-in for oat milk in a cake, since oat milk is mostly water anyway.

Related substitutes

More dairy alternatives substitutes

Oat Milk substitute

Other oat milk substitutes

2Cashew milk

3Almond milk

4Dairy milk

5Carton coconut milk beverage

6Make your own oat milk