This past weekend I finally decided to try to make my own almond milk. Each week I buy myself a half gallon of almond milk; I just love it. I use it in cooking, in my coffee, and just to drink with dinner. But, as you've heard me talk about it before, I loathe long ingredient lists on my food. The almond milk I was buying had 10 ingredients. Some of those ingredients are thickeners and stabilizers. The third ingredient (after almonds and water) is evaporated cane sugar. So, I decided to give homemade nut milk a try. And why only test making almond milk when I can test almond, pecan, and walnut!
This recipe is SO easy.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup nuts of choice
- 3.5 cups water
Directions:
- Put 1 cup of nuts in a bowl and fill the bowl with water so i cover the nuts completely.
- Let them soak for 8-12 hours or overnight.
- After nuts have soaked, drain them in a colander.
- Add the nuts to a high speed blender and add 3.5 cups of water.
- Blend, blend, blend until smooth.
- Take a nut milk bag - or a knee high pantyhose (preferably clean and never before used) - and find a person to help you.
- Put the knee high pantyhose over a bowl. Slowly have someone pour the blender contents into the pantyhose. The milk will begin to drain out but you will also have to squeeze the leftover pulp to make sure all milk if drained.
- Put the milk into a mason jar and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
- You can also add a vanilla bean, pure vanilla extract, or dates to the mason jar for flavoring.
BONUS: You will end up with a lot of left over "pulp". You can take this pulp and make a "cereal" out of it.
Ingredients:
- 1 cup leftover pulp
- 3 Tbsp. maple syrup
- A pinch of sea salt
Directions:
- Mix together all ingredients
- Spread mixture out on a cookie sheet into a square.
- "Pre-cut" the pulp into mini wheat size squares.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
- Break into square size pieces.
- Enjoy by itself or with your homemade milk!
