Creamy, homemade rice milk costs pennies to make, needs just 2 ingredients, and is ready in 2 minutes. Naturally dairy-free, lactose-free, allergen-free, and great for nearly all diets!
If you buy rice milk on a regular basis but you’ve never considered making it yourself, here’s your gentle nudge: You need two ingredients and two minutes. It costs mere pennies, and it tastes WAY better than any rice milk you can buy from the store!
Easy Rice Milk Recipe
My recipe is incredibly easy, with the hardest part having to start with cooked rice.
That’s easy to overcome though, especially when you can make Instant Pot White Rice in under 10 minutes. Or better yet, use leftover rice you have stashed away in your fridge or freezer!
Tip: If you don’t have leftover rice, go ahead and make extras when you make it for this easy recipe. Freeze it one cup portions, and then you’ll be ready to go for your next batch!
Rice Milk Benefits
The greatest benefits come from the fact that it’s naturally dairy-free, lactose-free, allergen-free, and great for nearly every diet. It’s a great plant milk for those who cannot have nut milk or soy milk either.
The only catch is when you BUY rice milk. Most brands (like Rice Dream and Better Than Milk) contain unhealthy fats, artificial sweeteners, and preservatives that can interfere with the digestive system.
You’ll get all the benefits when you make it yourself. Keep reading for my easy recipe!
Homemade Rice Milk Recipe Ingredients
You need just two ingredients:
- Rice. Any kind of cooked rice will work. White rice, brown rice, jasmine rice, basmati rice, short grain rice, long grain rice… if you like the way the rice tastes when you make it plain, then it’s suitable for this recipe.
- Water. Filtered water is preferred.
You do need a blender in order to make this recipe. I’ve tried making this in a food processor and it just doesn’t come out as creamy.
How to Make Rice Milk
Step 1: Measure the rice and water into the blender. This recipe starts with 1 cup of cooked rice and 4 cups of water and makes one quart.
Step 2: Blend the ingredients. If you have a high-powered blender, you may only need to run the blender through one round of blending. If you have a regular blender, you may need to blend the milk two or more times. The more times you blend, the smoother and creamier it will be.
Step 3: Strain the milk. Pour the blended milk through a fine mesh strainer to remove the pulp. Another option is to strain the mixture with cheesecloth or a nut milk bag. Keep reading for ways to reuse rice pulp and prevent food waste. The liquid you’re left with is your non-dairy milk!
Tip: When you blend for longer, the rice nearly disappears entirely. This eliminates the need to filter the milk through the sieve.
Store your finished rice milk in a glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 7 days. I like to store in a mason jar and use a pour spout lid like these.
Homemade Rice Drink Flavor Variations
While the basic recipe calls for just cooked rice and water, you can easily change the flavors with just a few tweaks:
- For a thicker drink, you can use more rice or you can also use less water
- Add Ground Cinnamon
- Add Extracts: Almond Extract, Coconut Extract, or Vanilla Extract (or vanilla powder)
- Use Leftover Coconut Rice
- Use coconut milk in place of some of the water
- Horchata Flavor: Cinnamon + Vanilla + Almond Extract
- Add cocoa powder or cacao powder for “chocolate milk”
- Use maple syrup to sweeten and make maple milk
- Add fresh berries for “berry milk”
- Use hot water instead of cold water (this makes creamier milk)
My homemade rice drink recipe is unsweetened, but you can add one whole date (pitted) or 1 teaspoon of coconut sugar if you’d like.
How to Use Leftover Rice Pulp
Reducing food waste is vital to working within a grocery budget, so use rice pulp to make rice pudding, rice porridge, or even to my favorite Minestrone Soup. If you don’t have enough pulp left over, you can always freeze it until you have enough for another recipe.
Rice Milk FAQs
Is rice milk good for you?
Yes, homemade rice milk is good for you! Store-bought, on the other hand, often contains processed and unhealthy oils like safflower oil, canola oil, and sunflower oil. They’re also enriched with synthetic vitamins, contain unnecessary additives, and are loaded with sweeteners.
Which is better rice milk or oat milk?
Neither rice milk nor oat milk are better than the other, but some may tolerate one drink over the other. One is made with rice, while the other is made with oats. I think milk from oats has a distinct oat taste while rice milk taste neutral. It’s just a matter of preference!
Is rice milk the same as horchata?
Rice milk is similar to horchata, but it’s not exactly the same. Traditional horchata uses whole milk, uncooked rice, almonds, cinnamon sticks, and it’s sweetened with a good bit of sugar.
You can get a similar flavor to horchata by making the recipe below and adding cinnamon, almond extract, and vanilla extract.
Is rice milk a good milk alternative?
Yes, it is a good alternative to cow’s milk if you don’t tolerate dairy. This recipe is a great vegan dairy-free milk that’s gluten free and nut free if you have an allergy. It can be used in recipes like The Best Vegan Lemon Scones and Dairy-Free Alfredo Sauce, as well as common uses like coffee creamer and in a bowl of Oatmeal.
OTHER PLANT-BASED MILK OPTIONS:
$50 Weekly Meal Plan
Sign up to get instant access to my $50 Weekly Meal Plan, complete with recipes and shopping list!Watch How to Make Homemade Rice Milk
Dairy Alternative: Homemade Rice Milk
Creamy, homemade rice milk costs pennies to make, needs just 2 ingredients, and is ready in 2 minutes. Naturally dairy-free, lactose-free, allergen-free, and great for nearly all diets!
- Prep Time: 2 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 2 minutes
- Yield: 4 cups 1x
- Category: Beverages
- Method: Blend
- Cuisine: American
Instructions
- Measure the rice into a blender and add 4 cups of filtered water. Blend until smooth, approximately 1 minute. You may want to blend again for ultra-smooth consistency. Store in the refrigerator and enjoy cold; shake before using.
Notes
- For two cups: ½ cup rice, 2 cups water
- For one cup: ¼ cup rice, 1 cup water
Nutrition
- Calories: 169
I tried with the cooked rice method and I dare to say I like it better than the uncooked one. My strainer isn’t as soft as most people and it’s quite hard to find a nut bag around my area so the leftover small bits have better aftertaste with the cooked rice one, also it tastes more glutinous?? But it’s thicker and better!
Yay! I’m so glad you found a homemade version that you like!
I’m looking forward to making this for my 2-year-old, who has eosinophilic esophagitis and after being on an elemental diet for several months, has just gotten back rice. I couldn’t find any rice milk in the store that didn’t have additives that he can’t have yet. Can I use an immersion blender for this? My regular blender has been used for milk and he’s highly allergic to milk, so I’m afraid to use it on his food.
You could probably Ahuva, but it might take significant blending. Can you put your blender jar in the dishwasher to sterilize it?
Have you ever tried combining cashew milk and rice milk? My thought on this was I find rice milk not quite rich enough or creamy enough and cashew milk maybe a little too rich. I thought an easy way to do this might be to add cashews to rice before cooking. Also, I suspect you are right that the companies add rice sugars to make it palatable to a wider audience. I would suggest to readers who are looking for that taste that they might try adding rice malt to taste. Rice malt is rich and a little creamy as well as very sweet so it might make it more milk like. Anyways, thanks for the recipes. I am sure they will be good base recipes for making something to my taste without all the additives. My main issue with those is it takes practically nothing to go over my b12 requirement for the day since I am not a vegetarian.
Hi Anne Marie! I haven’t personally combined the milks, but I would definitely give it a go! I’d try making them separately first, and then combining them to find the ratio that you like best. Plant milks are freezer-friendly, so freeze whatever you don’t mix, and you’ll have it for next time!
Hi Tiffany do you have a formula with rice milk for highly sensitive and highly allergic infant?
I do not Jackie, and I would encourage you to speak to your pediatrician about infant nutrition if you haven’t already. Their tiny bodies need so many nutrients! ♥
Thanks for this.
I am currently looking at 30 empty boxes of rice milk and so angry about the waste involved I could scream (remember those days where milk was delivered in glass bottles, that were then picked up and recycled? The same could be done for rice milk too).
So I decided I needed to start making my own milk instead of spending money on 7 boxes of rice milk a week, and then being forced to find a way to get the boxes recycled properly.
Will be buying a blender this week 🙂
We should also talk about how awful those non-recyclable cartons are! Theyre like a mishmash of paper plastic and Metal, completely landfill bound.
Hi
I was wondering what the difference is with other recipes that use uncooked rice to make rice milk? Chalky? Smooth? Thanks!
g
Hello,
What a nice simple recipe, thank you! With the cooked rice, was it rinsed prior to cooking??
Thanks, Angela
Thank you so much for this easy recipe. I am starting to make my own rice beverage because Rice Dream uses fluoridated water ! I just found out ! Yikes. Very harmful to the thyroid function. How would one flavor the beverage when making it home made ? Vanilla extract ? Thanks again.
Yep! Extracts and oils and spices are a great way to flavor at home. 🙂
OMG! I have been drinking approximately 8 cartons of RD for years and have thyroid problems! Now I know why!!! Going viral with this on SM! Thanks!!!
Just wondering if you are aware of the arsenic I. Rice?! I can really only drink rice milk and tolerate it but then I find out about the arsenic in all
Rice. Organic or not. Apparently you can cook some of it out with a lot more wAter when cooking. And I’ve been drinking rice
Dream milk. 😬.
How much is a serving for 51 calories?
This is great. Thanks for the recipe. I’m just confused- do we use uncooked rice? That seems hard to digest. I have a very sensitive stomach.
Use cooked rice Stacey!
You cook it first
I like that rice milk has no waste and is super cheap to make ☺ I’m going start making it again, I’ll probably add dates and vanilla though. Last time I made it, it was thick and creamy, so i may water it down, depending.
I will be trying this for the first time tonight! I threw a tablespoon or 2 in with my cooking rice for a little extra nutrients and I figured it would give it a deeper flavor : ) Can’t wait to try it tomorrow!
*a tablespoon or 2 of lentils
Hello! So I was making rice milk, and when I was reaching for the cinnamon I accidently grabbed turmeric. I didn’t realize it until after a few hefty servings, followed by an OH NOOOO. Well I wasn’t going to let it go to waste (because don’t waste the crumbs) and it ended up turning out well!! It’s like a premade golden milk! I’m looking forward to see what it will be like in my coffee tomorrow.
Lesson: sometimes mistakes turn into great discovers (Penicillin anyone?)
LOL – exactly! I’ve heard golden milk is good, but haven’t tried it myself. If it’s a bit weird in coffee, consider pouring some into a glass, adding cinnamon to just that little bit, and then try adding to coffee. That way if it doesn’t work out, you’re not ruining all the golden milk. 🙂
Tiffany have you ever used your fresh rice milk, or another Vegan milk to make a condensed milk substitution? I want to find a good creamy substitute for making pies and other baked goods that use Dairy Condensed Milk. I am going to make some fresh rice milk and see about reducing the water if possible, then “cooking it down” more and adding a bit of a sweetening agent and see what happens! Thank you for the recipe(s).
Hi Kathie! I have made dairy-free sweetened condensed milk before! Here’s the tutorial I wrote up: https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/2013/11/dairy-free-sweetened-condensed-milk/
I tried this and found the texture to be slimy. I’m really struggling because the raw milk is still chalky no matter how many times I filter it with a good not milk bag, and all the cooked recipes are slimy to me. Any suggestions? Also, had anyone tried using the Magic Bullet juicer attachment? I was wondering if the mesh is fine enough. I need a solution because three of my grandchildren can’t do dairy and the cost of commercial is killing me, not to mention the additives. I’m also really concerned about the arsenic levels in the Rice Dream that we’re using. I can reduce the arsenic drastically by using Lundberg rice and washing it well. Sorry about all the questions but I need help!!
Slimy and chalky? I haven’t had either of those issues Deb. My best guess is an issue with the filter process, OR you’re using rice that’s been undercooked. I’m sorry I can’t help more than that – maybe someone else has had a similar issue and has been able to resolve it?
51 calories for how much?
If I’d known it was this easy to make, I would have made this ages ago! Plus now you can play with flavorurs. My little brother loves chocolate rice milk, now I can make it with a bit of cocoa and vanilla extract WITHOUT all the added sugar and chemicals.
Isn’t it crazy how simple this recipe is?! Enjoy the experiments, Nikolai!
Is there a recipe using Uncooked Short Grain
brown rice …?
I don’t Zahrah, but you can substitute brown rice for the white rice in this recipe 🙂
This recipe sound terrific! One question though, can you drink the milk immediatly after making it because I know other recipes make the “milk” sit for three hours before making it.
Yes, you can Clara! It might be slightly warm, because of the heat generated by the blender, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t, or can’t, drink it immediately. 🙂