This homemade rice milk is a super simple recipe, it helps you avoid all of the additives typically found in store bought rice milk, and works great for all of your vegan baking, cooking, and more.

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This recipe can be made using either brown or white rice, and literally can be made with only 2 ingredients and in just minutes.

Whether you are dealing with a milk allergy or intolerance, or you just want a simple option on hand for a last-minute handy milk substitute, I have an answer for your troubles that you and your wallet will truly enjoy (and the environment will love as well.)

For years now, we've been making our own rice milk and other dairy-free milk alternatives. Our oldest was diagnosed with a life-threatening allergy to dairy before he was even one year old, and my husband is lactose intolerant, so having a milk substitute on hand has been a constant need in our home. While we mostly made homemade coconut milk now to reduce carbs, homemade rice milk was a mainstay for us for a very long time.

Rice is an easily digestible grain, so making rice milk a fantastic choice for someone who is struggling with a digestive sensitivity or upset, plus rice is gluten-free and fairly non-allergenic, so rice milk works well for almost any special diet.

How I Discovered How to Make DIY Rice Milk

This discovery came one day, years ago, while shopping at a health food store, way before dairy-free milk substitutes were in vogue. While looking at the pricey options in the “milk substitute aisle”, I noticed that the only ingredients listed on the boxes were grain, water, and occasionally sweetener and flavoring.

There just had to be a way to make this myself and save a lot of money.

So I went home, got out my blender, and did just that.

Why Make Homemade Rice Milk?

Control Over Ingredients

Here is an ingredient list from a store bought rice milk:

Filtered Water, Organic Whole Grain Brown Rice, Organic Brown Rice Syrup, Organic Expeller Pressed Canola and/or Organic Expeller Pressed High Oleic Safflower Oil, Tricalcium Phosphate, Sea Salt, Organic Vanilla Flavor, Natural Flavor, Carrageenan, Vitamin A Palmitate, Vitamin D2, Vitamin B12.

Now, it's nice that they are using filtered water and organic rice and rice syrup and oils and flavoring, but I would rather avoid the natural flavors, carrageenan, and the synthetic vitamins. And ideally I'd rather sweeten my dairy-free milk with stevia, if at all.

Protect the Environment

By making your own rice milk, you are avoiding not only the added waste of the cartons, tetra-paks or bottles, but also the gas needed for additional trips to the store.

Save money

Homemade rice milk is incredibly inexpensive to make—just pennies per batch compared to store-bought versions.

Ways to Use Rice Milk

Drink it straight
Use in hot drinks like coffee, tea, or this coffee substitute
For cooking as a non-dairy base for soups, like this Creamy Root Vegetable Soup
As a base for vegan ice cream (like this Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Almond Chip Ice Cream, etc.)
For baking, like in this Grain-free Coffee Cake

Recipe Tips

Rice Amount: Use more or less rice, depending on what you would like the consistency of the final product to be. Standard rice milk is thinner than full fat cow's milk, but it's of course your choice what consistency desire.
Water: It's crucial that you use filtered water for this recipe. My post on how to make your tap water safe goes into more details about tap water contamination concerns.
Time Saving Tip: Prepare extra rice ahead of time and portion it out in 1 cup increments in small food-safe plastic bags and store in the freezer for future rice milk making. For this purpose, I love using Twixit Clips (any kind of clip will work, but these clips are simply amazing. They last a very long time, have a lifetime guarantee and are so much easier to use than those pesky twist-ties! Simply thaw out the rice whenever you need rice milk. Bonus time saver, if you have a Vitamix or other high speed blender, it can handle the rice frozen! Simply pop the frozen rice into the blender with the filtered water and blend.
Flavored Milk: Add flavorings like chocolate, strawberry, or coconut–the sky's the limit! Think of all the variations you could make.
Buy a Vitamix: If you've been thinking about a Vitamix and someone in your family has an allergy to dairy, you won't believe how much time and money this machine will save you. And clean up is a breeze! There are other high speed blenders, but the Vitamix is my hands down favorite.
Quick Beverage Cooling Tip: Make ice cubes out of this Homemade Rice Milk to increase longevity, or to have on hand for putting into hot cereals, hot coffee, hot tea, hot chocolate (or this coffee substitute) to cool them off more quickly than regular rice milk would do.

cooked rice in small plastic bag with twixit clip. — These clips make storing anything so simple–including a small amount of cooked rice to use later for making rice milk.

homemade rice milk in carafes with brown rice scattered on marble tabletop

Ingredients

1 cup cooked rice
4 cups water (filtered, if possible)
pinch salt
1 tablespoon sweetener (or to taste; optional)
vanilla extract (for vanilla-flavored milk; to taste)

Instructions

Add ingredients to blender. Place the cooked rice, water, salt, and any optional sweetener or vanilla into a blender.
Blend until smooth. Blend for about 30–60 seconds (high-speed blender) or 1–2 minutes (regular blender), until the mixture looks well combined. For a smoother texture, you can blend longer (up to 2–3 minutes in a high-speed blender).
Strain (optional). For smoother rice milk, strain through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth.For a faster option, you can skip straining—just shake before using.
Use or store. Use immediately, or store in the refrigerator for up to 3–4 days. Shake before serving.

Notes

Texture: Rice milk is naturally thinner than dairy milk. For a creamier result, use less water or blend longer.
Straining (Optional): For smoother milk, strain through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth. For a faster, more rustic version, you can skip straining—just shake before using.
Sweetener & Flavor: Add sweetener and vanilla to taste. You can also blend in cinnamon or cocoa powder for variations.
Make Ahead Tip: Use leftover cooked rice or freeze portions of cooked rice to make this even quicker.
Storage: Store in the refrigerator for 3–4 days. Shake before using, as separation is natural.
Freeze in ice cube trays for easy use in smoothies or hot drinks.

Nutrition

Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.

More DIY Pantry Staples

Here are some more pantry staples you can easily make yourself

I'm sure you'll appreciate how this Homemade Rice Milk helps stretch your dairy-free and healthy eating budget!

77 Comments

What a great idea, and an easy recipe! My daughter is sensitive to dairy, and we use boxed rice milk, it is nice to have an alternative! Thanks for sharing! ~April

Thank you for sharing this. I use rice milk and this will help me out.

Hi, Adrienne! Thanks for thinking of this as a kitchen tip for running out of milk! Would you say the homemade rice milk can be used in any baking or cooking recipes, or would certain ones work better than others? 🙂

Secondly, I was thinking of linking directly to the tip at Money Saving Mom… would that be okay? 🙂

Great post, by the way — I saw it earlier this week! 😀

Tammy

Adrienne says:

Oct 4, 2011 at 12:35 pm

Hi Tammy –
I guess you could link to either one (my blog or Money Saving Mom), but it might be confusing to some readers since I submitted it…whatever you think :-). Since it’s my guest post maybe it won’t be confusing. Just use your best judgment.

Yes, you certainly can substitute for either baking or cooking. It’s more an issue of what kind of recipe since rice milk tends to be a bit lighter than regular milk (maybe not skim :-). I should add more info to my post about it….I have been using this for years, actually. It’s gotten me out of quite a few binds in the kitchen.

Thanks for the compliment!

Reply

Great, simple recipe. Half of my kids only drink rice milk due to lactose intolerance. We switched to raw milk, and they can tolerate it, but they don’t like the taste. Rice milk, even at Costco, is pricey. I will definitely try this. I’m visiting from Not Just a Housewife.

You cannot even imagine how excited I am that I found this post. My son was just diagnoised with several food allergies, including dairy. We are about to go broke trying to buy all of these special foods. So the more things that I can make myself, the better off we are. Thanks for posting the link.

Adrienne says:

Oct 4, 2011 at 10:45 am

Brandy,
I am sorry to hear about the allergies. I hope you stick around. My oldest has a number of life threatening allergies so all of my recipes should be helpful to you. Anything else I can specifically help with? Are they life threatening allergies or not?

Reply
1. Brandy says:
  
  Oct 4, 2011 at 2:59 pm
  
  Adrienne,
  Fortunately, my son’s allergies are not life threatening. He kept having severe cold/sinus problems. He had numerous ear infections and the poor child was living on Omincef antibiotic. We were referred to an ENT and allergist doctor. They decided on putting tubes in his ears and while he was under doing an allergy test. We had prepared ourself that the test may come back for something like dust, dogs, cats, etc. Never in a million years would I have ever dreamed it would be food allergies that were causing his respitory problems. Come to find out my son is allergic to peanuts, eggs, soy beans, wheat, and dairy. So his foods are very limited right now. We are hoping and praying that we can have him retested in a couple of years and he will out grow most if not all of this. (He’s only 16 mnths right now). This has been a life changing event for us in more ways than one. But we are adapting and so is he. So yes your recipes will be very helpful. Thank you.
  
  Reply
  1. Adrienne says:
    
    Oct 4, 2011 at 3:12 pm
    
    Brandy, I empathize with you. We have been through a lot of the same things. My son had allergies to all of those things and the only thing he has grown out of is soy. It’s not great for boys anyway, in my opinion. Please keep in touch. We have a number of friends who have kids who had respiratory issues that cleared up when they removed allergens. It really is interesting, isn’t it?
    
    Reply
  2. Shannon says:
    
    Oct 17, 2011 at 12:54 am
    
    Brandy, I just wanted to say I can totally relate. My daughter (14 mos) was diagnosed with the same allergies your son has, just 2 months ago. I was pretty emotional and overwhelmed at first, and spent a lot of money buying special foods. I tried to stick with whole foods, meats, fruits, vegetables, and rice, and lot’s of beans (good protein) but recently figured out (based on a reaction) that she is allergic to beans as well. Also, dinner time was always a challenge. I recently found this site, and some other resources, and it is helping me alot. I can’t afford to buy special foods, and hate to feel like I have nothing to feed my daughter. The more I am learning about making things from scratch (like this) and substitutes for things, the more comfortable I am getting, and saving money. 🙂 Good luck on your journey.
    
    Reply

I love your idea of setting aside the extra rice from cooking and freezing it in a one cup portion. I saw a recipe for rice milk in Sally Fallon’s book, Nourishing Traditions, but haven’t made it yet. Your post definitely inspired me especially with seeing how frugal it is! 🙂

What a fantastic idea. We don’t have any dairy allergies in our house, but what a wonderful idea for those who do!

Thanks for linking your great post to FAT TUESDAY. Hope to see you next week! Be sure to visit RealFoodForager.com on Sunday for
Sunday Snippets – your post from Fat Tuesday may be featured there!

Thanks for doing the math, it’s always really helpful.
I used to make rice milk for a little girl a babysat(PPD,on the autism spectrum)who could not have dairy.
Question:do you think it’s worth it to sprout the rice before turning it into milk, or doesn’t it matter?

Adrienne says:

Oct 1, 2011 at 7:03 am

Mary, I think it’s worth it, sure. It always is. I haven’t done it. Actually, I am completely not an expert on sprouting and I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around the difference between sprouting and soaking. So if you can enlighten me, I would love it. I almost always forget to soak my grains now because it appears I was having a reaction to soaked grains, but I hope to try again soon.

Reply