Confession: I once accidentally served a man I was dating a bowl of granola with two-month old cashew milk in it. Worse yet, he immediately clocked it as tasting “off.” I quickly grabbed a spoon and confirmed that it had an eau du garbage, then apologized profusely and tossed it immediately, but the damage had been done. While there were no lasting health ramifications, I felt pretty terrible about it. I had rolled the dice with an apparently vintage box of cashew milk, and it was not cool.
It was sitting in the door of my fridge for an ambiguous period of time that felt like “a while,” but not dangerously so. That happens often, because as a person who lives alone and just finds use for a splash or a half-cup of dairy-free milk here and there, I am rarely able to get through an entire box within its expiration window. And until recently, I thought that this was just an unfortunate fact of life, similar to the “How It Feels When I Buy Another Bag of Spinach Just to Rot in My Fridge” shared experience meme.
I’ve made a glorious discovery that seems to be the antidote to this problem: oat milk powder. When I first heard of it, I scrunched my nose; it felt like a riddle about a solid becoming a liquid becoming a solid again. But once I thought about it, it actually made so much sense. Made by a brand called Wildly Organic that also makes other interesting foodstuffs such as coconut syrup (which I love in my yogurt) and fermented cacao nibs (surprisingly addictive), it’s a shelf-stable form of oat milk that just requires a little zhuzh back to life by mixing it with water or into another liquid, and voila, you have the creaminess you need without having to turn into the Math Lady GIF trying to remember how many days ago you opened your box of oat milk.
Here are a few uses I’ve already found for it, after having a bag for only a week:
I simply cannot drink black coffee. I couldn’t care less what that says about my character (I don’t believe you’re more special for suffering through joylessly bitter bean water), but it does create an issue if I wake up to the horrific discovery that I’m out of half-and-half. Schlepping to the grocery store at 8:30 in the morning feels at best inconvenient and at worst torturous. If you have oat milk powder chilling in your cabinet, this is not an issue.
You can just throw a couple of spoonfuls in the bottom of a mug or glass, top it with a double shot of espresso, mix it with a mini whisk or one of those handy frother things from Amazon, and you’ve got an impromptu cortado. (It has just three ingredients — oats, coconut oil, and enzymes — so it’s sort of like a healthier, hyper-minimalist version of Coffee Mate.)
Throwing a spoonful into your smoothie makes it extra-creamy and smooth. Since the flavor is pretty neutral, it enhances texture while letting your fruit, protein powder, or other ingredients take center stage.
I love Trader Joe’s instant oatmeal with flax, but instant oatmeal can end up a bit watery if you don’t absolutely nail the ratio of hot water to cereal. I’ve found that adding about a tablespoon of oatmeal powder results in a perfectly creamy porridge.
Make a latte or milk tea on the road
As someone deeply committed to a creamy caffeinated beverage every morning, I’ve encountered situations where I’m staying at a hotel or with a friend and don’t have access to oat milk, half-and-half, or any other suitable substitutes for topping off my espresso or tea. You could decant a bit of oat milk powder into a zip-top bag or small container and bring it with you to ensure that you could make a proper latte no matter where you’re staying.
Mix it with water and use it in anything else
While the powder itself is handy to add to a plethora of things, let’s not forget that when mixed with regular old water, it easily reconstitutes into oat milk that you can add to cereal, drinks, baking projects, soups, sauces, mashed potatoes — the list goes on. Use it to make hot chocolate; add some to pudding, cake batter, or even to a bath for extra-moisturized skin.
In short, this stuff is kind of magical — and now that I know of its existence, I’ll be keeping it on hand at all times (and I promise I’ll never serve a houseguest spoiled cashew milk again).
Oat milk powder is available at Wildly Organic.
