Oat pulp is the leftover gooey mess that remains after homemade oat milk has been strained. If you’ve stopped paying for water and started avoiding single-use packaging, you’ve probably begun making your own non-dairy milk at home. That’s good news for the planet because oat milk is one of the easiest, cheapest and most environmentally-friendly milk choices. It has a divinely creamy texture and versatile flavour.
If you’re living a more sustainable lifestyle, limiting plastic or aiming for zero waste, you’re probably wondering what to do with the leftover oat pulp from your oat milk-making adventure. Oat pulp has lots of nutrients including fibre, vitamins and minerals that can help make a recipe healthier. If you can’t find a dish that floats your boat, you can always use the pulp for skincare purposes. It certainly doesn’t belong in landfill.
Here are 12 things to do with oat pulp leftover from making homemade oat milk:
Cookies
Sub out 1/3 cup of flour or oats in your favourite cookie recipe for the same amount of pulp to make them even gooier.
Brownies
Swap some of the butter, mashed banana or oil in your favourite brownie mix for oat pulp. Not only does this lighten the calories but it adds a hit of fibre and micronutrients.
Muffins
Fight food waste by adding the pulp to your muffin recipe in place of some wet ingredients.
Banana bread
Try using one less banana in your banana bread recipe and add 1/3 cup of oat pulp instead.
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Overnight oats
Sneak leftover pulp into your overnight oats or regular oatmeal recipe. Simply replace 1/4 cup dry oats with 1/4 cup of pulp.
Pancakes
Use the pulp to replace some eggs, butter or mashed bananas in pancake batter by subbing in a few tablespoons. Stick to a 1:1 ratio to keep things simple.
Hummus
Oat pulp has a similar texture to hummus. It can replace some of the chickpeas or can be added in on top of recipe ingredients to prevent food waste.
Smoothies
Make smoothies thick and creamy with a few spoons of gooey oaty goodness.
Oat bath
If you’re not much of a baker and don’t drink smoothies, try adding the pulp to a bath. An oatmeal bath soak is an old fashioned yet effective remedy for dry skin as well as naturally soothing chickenpox.
Oat scalp mask
Oats can also soothe itchy and flakey scalps. In fact, colloidal oats are a common ingredient in many store-bought treatments. Soak your oat pulp further for an hour, strain and dab the creamy oat liquid onto your scalp before running it through the lengths. Finally, leave in for 30 minutes then rinse as normal.
Oat foot soak
If you don’t fancy a bath with the stuff, find a bucket or container that’s big enough to fit your feet. Fill it with warm water and the leftover pulp. Soak your feet for 30 minutes before enjoying soft and moisturised tootsies.
Compost
Lastly, if you don’t have any other use for leftover oats, at least make sure it’s returned back to nature by composting it. Sending food waste to landfill results in the production of methane gas which is even worse for global warming than carbon dioxide.
>>> 10 MIN RECIPE: 3 ingredient oat milk that doesn’t separate <<<
Don’t forget to Pin this list on Pinterest for later. Say hi on Instagram while you’re at it and tell me what you’ve been using your leftover pulp for!
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for this wonderful list of ways to use oat pulp! I’m very excited to try some of them. I do have a comment about the methane gas/landfill issue. Now a days it is advantageous for landfill owners to capture methane gas and recycle it or use the gas to power their facilities. Even many pig farm ser to that. Just an FYI, don’t down the landfills; technology is constantly improving to be better for the earth/environment. 🙂 Since I’m very frugal and don’t believe in wasting food or money, I will definitely be using the oat pulp in multiple ways. Thank you again for your great ideas!
Hi joanna,
Sorry, appreciate the methane comment you left, but engineered waste-as-input systems are meant as last resort. The better goal is to eliminate that input (waste) altogether. Landfills, aka waste, is a human-invented concept that does not exist in nature. Championing the same technology-will-save-the-world narrative that screwed up the environment in the first place is counterproductive to sustainability. Yes, pig farmers can now take methane gas from their awful industrial sites to ‘offset’ some of their GHGs. But what does that mean for pigs? Yet another justification for living a stressful life in their own feces, because the methane they produce is now considered “advantageous”? Really not trying to be a jerk. There is simply ALOT to unpack behind a comment like “technology is always improving to be better for xyz”; yeah, maybe, incrementally, but at what cost?
In any case, glad to hear you will have a variety of uses for oat pulp!
Thanks for expanding on this topic, Sicellia. Very interesting points that I agree with. I hope one day we will not have any landfills, with a fully functioning circular economy!
Best,
Sarah
This is a great point! I’m an advocate for a circular economy and want to see the end of landfills as soon as possible. Reduce, reuse, recycle! Thanks for stopping by!!
Sarah xx
Would you believe the “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle” slogan was started by the ‘plastics industry.’ They hired a ‘front man’ to sell the idea to the masses. It somehow bamboozled us into thinking this was good. Then the ‘plastics industry’ INCREASED exponentially their making of plastics. I’m sure there is a documentary about this somewhere on the internet. I was shocked to learn this…
Yes, I have heard this! It really does show the hypocrisy of greenwashing. It’s a great concept but unfortunately, the creators had no intention of following it up with action 🙁
hiya! how could i use it in a face masque?
k
Hi Kitty! I usually reblend the pulp with a little olive oil or argan oil and apply for 10 mins. It’s a bit messy, so I usually do it in the bath. In fact, I often just dump my oat pulp in the bath for an oat soak, which leaves my skin so soft and hydrated. Let me know how you get on!
Sarah xx
I have just discovered oat milk and I’m super excited about trying it. Being able to use the by-product in so many ways is wonderful. I’m not from the Northeast, but they have a saying that I try to live by:
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.
And when I do have to buy whatever I try to find one with the least amount of plastic and wrappings.
Amanda
Hi Amanda, thanks for bringing this wonderful saying into my life! It sums up my lifestyle just perfectly 🙂 Let me know if you try the Oat Milk. Sarah xx
I just made oatmilk, It turned out marvelous for my first time making it. Will be making two more batches today and freezing the left over pulp for other uses. I will mainly use left over pulp for smoothies, fish and turkey loaf as well as diy self-care.
Mahalo!
Mai
I’ve started experimenting with adding the pulp to smoothies in place of milk, as it seems so wasteful to use plant milk from a carton in a smoothie. It also freezes very well to be used later on. I love the fish and turkey loaf ideas too 🙂
Is there a way to make oat milk more creamy and rich for use as a coffee creamer?
PS: used coffee grounds are great in the garden soil or planter soil. My mom always put them around her roses, as did my grandma, their roses were always so beautiful and very fragrant!
Unfortunately I live in a 2nd floor condo, so no plants for me, windows are few and not facing a good direction ?.
Yes! I’ve experimented with making creamer with 1 part oats and 1 part water. The final product is very thick and creamy, perfect for coffee. Only thing to note is you may need to stir it a few times while drinking. I find I have to do this with storebought oat milk anyway so not a big difference 🙂 Thanks for commenting!
I want to know how many calories in the leftover pulp
Hi Jana, thanks for stopping by! I’m not certain as to what the exact calories would be. But should be similar to the calorie content of raw oats 🙂