Let’s talk about OATS. If you’re like us, you are currently stuck in your house with a lot of bulk pantry items…and oats are more than likely to be one of those items. We want to talk about the Best Ways to Use Your Oats because they might be more versatile than you think! If your use of oats is mainly restricted to oatmeal and cookie batter, it’s time to open your mind.
Oats are capable little guys and nutrient-dense too. We talk more about the health benefits of oats in our Golden Immunity Milk recipe, so be sure to check that out, but for starters they’re full of easy-to-absorb fiber and high in protein. Oats can be used to make kitchen staples for your fridge and pantry as well as both sweet and savory recipes. Some of the Best Ways to Use Your Oats in our opinion? Making Oat Flour, Oat Milk, Oat Flour Pancakes, and Oat Vegetable Fritters. We’re gonna show you how to do it all (and link to a few more ideas!) below.
Hold onto your oats, everybody. Let’s get this party started.
oat flour
ingredients
- OATS! That’s it!
the process
Put 1 cup oats in a food processor and let that baby run for a minute or two until it’s not being ground any further. Guess what…YOU DID IT. Now you’ve got oat flour—it’s really that simple.
Oat flour is a great gluten-free flour option. We use it below in our Oat Flour Pancakes and Oat Vegetable Fritters below. You can also use it for things like breadmaking or as a binding agent in granola. Check it out!
oat flour recipes
- Five Ingredient Granola by Naturally Ella
- Asparagus & Potato Picnic Bread by Green Kitchen Stories
- Fluffy Almond Butter Gluten-Free Sweet Potato Muffins by Minimalist Baker
- Peach Oat Dutch Baby by Brewing Happiness
Oat Flour
Ingredients
- cup Rolled Oats
Instructions
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Add oats to a food processor. Blend until oats become a fine powder.
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Transfer to a storage container.
oat milk
ingredients
- OATS!
- Water
- Honey
- Salt
the process
There are a few different ways to make oat milk. We kept this one real simple, just the way we like things. All you gotta do is put 4 tablespoons Oats, 2 cups Water, 1/2 teaspoon Honey, and 1/8 teaspoon Salt into a blender. Blend it up real good and strain it. It’s tasty and takes hardly any time or effort to make. Yes please.
We used a fine mesh sieve (doubled up) to strain our Oat Milk to make sure we get the oat particles out. You could also use cheese cloth or a nut milk bag if you prefer those tools! Using a fine mesh sieve will leave some of the finer oat particles in the milk so you may notice a bit of settling at the bottom of your jar. Not to worry—just be sure to give that Oat Milk a shake before you pour.
Oat Milk is great to put in cereal, your coffee…anything you would put dairy milk in. Here’s a list of a few of our favorite Oat Milk ideas.
oat milk recipes
- June Coffee Date Iced Coffee by Pinch of Yum
- Mixed Berry Overnight Oats by Sprouted Kitchen
- Oat Milk Collagen Hot Chocolate by A Cozy Kitchen
- Creamy Tomato Fennel Soup by Brewing Happiness
Oat Milk
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp Rolled Oats
- ½ tsp Honey
- ⅛ tsp Salt
- 2 C Water
Instructions
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Add all ingredients to a blender. Blend on high for 20-30 seconds.
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Strain through a double strainer, nut milk bag or cheesecloth.
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Pour into a storage container.
oat flour pancakes
ingredients
- Oat Flour: that stuff you just made!
- Corn Starch
- Baking Powder
- Baking Soda
- Cinnamon
- Salt
- Egg
- Oat Milk: you made that too!
- Maple Syrup
- Coconut Oil (Melted)
- Vanilla Extract
the process
This recipe makes four oat flour pancakes so you can have them all to yourself or share with someone else if you’re feeling generous. It’s a real simple pancake recipe and it’s our favorite.
Start with the dry ingredients. Put 3/4 cup Oat Flour, 1 tablespoon Corn Starch, 1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder, 1/4 teaspoon Baking Soda, 1/4 teaspoon Cinnamon, and a pinch of Salt into a large bowl and stir them all together.
Now you can add your wet ingredients into the same bowl. That’s 1 Egg, 1/4 cup Oat Milk, 1 tablespoon Maple Syrup, 1/2 tablespoon Melted Coconut Oil, and 1/4 teaspoon Vanilla Extract. Mix until combined and then let it sit for about five minutes. That’ll allow the batter to set and thicken up a touch before you cook it. This is a great time to heat up your pan.
Be sure to use a high heat cooking oil (like coconut oil) and heat your pan on Medium Low heat. We use a 1/4 cup of batter per pancake. Dollop that batter into the pan and wait a couple minutes. Keep an eye on your pancakes. You’ll know when they’re ready to flip because the edges will puff up pretty solidly and you’ll see bubbles throughout the batter. Then flip it! You’ll only have to cook the other side about one minute—just until you’ve got a nice golden color to it.
Top with maple syrup or whatever else you prefer on your pancakes!
more sweet oat recipes
- Vegan and GF Maple Doughnuts with Salted Almond Glaze by The First Mess
- Fig, Oatmeal, and Chocolate Cookies by Edible Living
- Fast and Easy Jam Crumb Bars by Foodness Gracious
- Mint Chocolate Almond Butter Cups with Salted Oatmeal Crust by Brewing Happiness
Single-Serve Oat Pancakes
Ingredients
DRY
- ¾ C Oat Flour
- 1 tbsp Cornstarch
- ½ tsp Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Baking Soda
- ¼ tsp Cinnamon
- Pinch of Salt
WET
- ¼ C Oat Milk
- 1 Egg
- 1 tbsp Maple Syrup
- ½ tbsp Coconut Oil melted + more for cooking
- ¼ tsp Vanilla Extract
Instructions
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Add dry ingredients to a medium bowl and whisk until combined.
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Add wet ingredients to the bowl with the dry, whisk just until combined.
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Let batter rest for 5 mins.
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While the batter is resting, heat a pan over medium-low heat and add coconut oil (or other high heat cooking oil).
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Use ¼ C measurement to scoop pancake batter into pan. Heat on one side for 2-3 minutes, or until the outside is solid and bubbles have formed.
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Flip and cook on the second side for 1-2 minutes more.
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Remove from heat.
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EAT UP.
oat vegetable fritters
ingredients
- Your Vegetable of Choice, Shredded: We used cabbage today, but whatever you’ve got is good! Carrots & squash are great options.
- Salt
- Onion
- Garlic
- Butter
- Oat Flour: Made by you!
- Baking Powder
- Salt
- Ground Black Pepper
- Oat Milk: Homemade, obvi.
- Egg
- High Heat Cooking Oil: We used ghee.
the process
For a savory option, these Oat Vegetable Fritters are great because you can really use whatever vegetables you have on hand. Whatever’s seasonal or in your fridge is an awesome place to start!
Whichever veggie you choose, start by grating, shredding, or chopping it up. You’ll want about 2 cups of whatever shredded vegetable you’re using. Place in a bowl and liberally salt it (about 2 tablespoons), then massage the salt into the veggie. Let that sit while you move on to the next step.
Dice 1 cup of Onion (about 1/2 to 1/4 of an onion depending on how big yours is) and mince about 3 cloves of Garlic. Then get 4 tablespoons (1/2 cup) of Butter hot in a pan over Medium heat. Once it’s melted and slightly browned, add your onions and garlic. Let it all develop some color over Medium Low heat—it should take about 5 minutes—then remove from heat.
While your onion and garlic are cooling, squeeze the water out of your vegetables. That salting you did earlier was to help remove any water your veggie was holding onto. We like to squeeze and wring it out over a fine mesh sieve, but you can also squeeze it through a clean kitchen towel. Get as much moisture out as you can! It’s like a shredded veggie stress ball.
Batter time! We’re obvi using Oat Flour here. Start with 1 cup Oat Flour in a bowl and mix in 1/4 teaspoon Baking Powder, 1/4 teaspoon Salt, 1/8 teaspoon Ground Black Pepper, 1 Egg, 1/3 cup of homemade Oat Milk, and then add your onion and garlic mixture. Whisk all that together! Then gently fold in your vegetable.
Heat a high heat cooking oil (we used ghee) over Medium heat. Once that pan and oil are hot, put in a heaping tablespoon or so of batter. Let one side cook for about 3 minutes until the fritter shows a nice brown color, then flip it! Cook the other side for about the same amount of time until the color has developed and your fritter has a nice crisp to it.
Season with salt, pepper, or whatever herbs you’d like! Versatility is key so get creative.
more savory oat recipes
- Savory Oatmeal by Eating Bird Food
- Chickpea, Cauliflower & Old Bay Veggie Burgers by The First Mess
- Savory Miso Oatmeal by Betty Liu
- Sweet Potato Rosemary Overnight Chia Oatmeal by Liz Moody
Vegetable Oat Fritters
Ingredients
- 2 C Vegetable of Choice Shredded (ie. cabbage, carrots, squash, etc.)
- 2 tbsp Salt
- 1 C Onion Diced (about ½ of an onion)
- 1-2 tbsp Garlic Minced (about 3 cloves)
- 4 tbsp Butter
- 1 C Oat Flour
- ¼ tsp Baking Powder
- ¼ tsp Salt
- ⅛ tsp Ground Black Pepper
- ⅓ C Oat Milk
- 1 Egg
- 1-2 tbsp High Heat Cooking Oil we used ghee
Instructions
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Add shredded vegetable to a bowl along with 2 tbsp Salt. Massage the vegetable with the salt. Set aside.
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In a pan over medium heat, melt the butter, allowing it to brown slightly. Add in onion and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes, tossing occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside.
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Pour salted vegetable into a fine mesh sieve and squeeze out all of the water you can. (You can also do this by rolling it in a clean towel and wringing it out.)
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In a large bowl add oat flour, baking powder, salt, ground black pepper, oat milk, egg, and butter-onion-garlic mixture. Whisk together until combined.
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Fold in squeezed vegetable.
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Heat a pan over medium with high heat cooking oil. Once hot, add a heaping tablespoon of fritter batter to the pan, pressing the tops to flatten. Let cook on one side for 2-3 minutes, flip and cook on the other side for 1-2 minutes.
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Transfer to a plate, season with salt and pepper or fresh herbs, and EAT UP.
Stay safe and stay healthy everybody! And use your oats! Until next time.