Just Almond Milk
This recipe was originally published on the bare sprout.
I do not recommend avoiding dairy, especially high quality raw milk, pastured milk. However, if you have strong convictions against it, or wish to try something different just for fun, this is a creamy, decadent, delightful, and quite simple homemade milk. You need to soak the nuts over night, then blend it (which takes all of 4 minutes) and strain it. Compared to store-bought nut milks, there is no comparison to making it yourself because this is void of all the fillers, the over-watered and sweetened flavors you get from the store-bought concoctions. This recipe requires only 2 ingredients: almonds and water. The other stuff you probably have, but if not, you can find them at most grocery stores: blender or food processor of some kind and cheese cloth. That’s it! You don’t need to add sugar. You don’t need to add vanilla. Those things mask the creamy, nutty aroma we dairy-free-milk-drinkers so long for. Want to make it creamier? Reduce the amount of water you use. I made this recipe as is to use in my coffee, and it is plenty creamy. Want to try a different nut or seed? Go for it! And what about the leftover almond/nut meal from the milking process? We have got you covered: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Muffins Banana Bread (Made with Almond Flour) Sweet Potato Brownies with Walnuts Alright, alright, but I don’t have time to make these things… That’s fine, freeze that almond meal and use it later. The point here is to utilize all your ingredients; spend less money in the long run; and you become in complete control of what goes in to it. Isn’t that in and of itself just a beautiful thing worth the extra time and effort put in? We think so, and hope you find you do too. Enjoy!
What You’ll Need:
- 1 cup raw, organic almonds (or other nut of choice)
- 2 cups spring water
- 1 tsp sea salt
- more spring water for soaking
- Add almonds to bowl with salt and cover completely with room-temperature spring water. Allow to sit out uncovered for at least 7 hours, or overnight.
- Drain the soaking liquid and rinse the almonds to remove anything that was pulled out during the soaking process. You can leave the skin on or take them off, it is up to you.
- Combine soaked almonds and 2 cups of spring water in a blender or food processor. If using a blender, blend for 2 minutes. If using a food processor, blend for 4 minutes. Be careful, the food processor may leak if it cannot hold that much liquid.
- Pour your almond milk through a cheese cloth or other fine mesh strainer into a bowl or glass measuring cup. Squeeze the contents ensuring you are getting all the milk out. You should get 2 cups of almond milk from this process.
- Save the almond meal for baking (see above for recipes).
- Store the milk in a sealed glass container in the fridge and enjoy within a week.
Makes 2 cups of almond milk
