Making nut milk is easy and a great alternative to milk.
Today you can buy most of these milk alternatives in the stores, but they are pretty pricy and most of them have added things, like oils, thickeners and starches. When you make your own milk, you choose how thick you want it, decide the flavor you like and it is much cheaper to do yourself.
You can use any nuts or seeds you like. I love almond-, cashew- or macadamia nut milk. But hazelnut-, walnut- and Brazil nut milk are also delicious. Sesame seed milk are filled with calcium and hemp seed milk are filled with protein.
Here is how you do it:
- Rinse and soak the nuts in water over night (seeds for at least for 4 hours). This process activate some powerful enzymes that makes the nuts (and seed) sprout. It also makes the nuts tender, so it is much easier to blend.
- After the soaking process, rinse the nuts and put them in a blender.
- Add water to the nuts. The less water you use, the thicker the milk and more nutty taste. I usually want my milk a little thick, so I cover the nuts with water, plus add a little extra water, ca. 2 cm over the nuts. But the general rule is 1 cup nuts to 3 cups water.
- You can add some flavoring to you milk. What taste are you in the mood for; sweet, choco, fruity or gingery? For regular milk, I use honey and a tiny bit of sea salt. But sometimes, I´m in the mood for vanilla taste or chocolate and the kids love banana and cinnamon milk.
- Blend everything together in your blender, until finely grounded.
- You can drink the milk as it comes from your blender. You will have some nut bites to it, that contain some fibers. But for more smooth milk, as we know it, strain the nut milk blend through a nut milk bag. My kids like it smooth.
- You can drink the milk from a glass, pour it over your breakfast, muesli or use it in your smoothies,
Here are some ideas you can use to flavor your milk with:
- Honey
- Vanilla extract.
- Maple syrup.
- Raw cacao powder.
- Almond extract.
- Stevia with or without flavors.
- Dates or raisins.
- Cinnamon.
- Ginger.
- Cardamom.
- Banana or other fruits.
If you strain the milk, don´t throw away the pulp. Here is how you can use it:
- In your muesli recipe or a sprinkle over your breakfast.
- In your cookie or bread recipe
- In your raw candy recipe.
- As a raw cheese – blend the pulp with nutritional yeast, garlic, fresh herbs, salt and lemon in a food processor and use as a spread.
- As a nut flour (need to dehydrate the pulp it in your oven first).
- As a body scrub.
- To feed the birds.
Enjoy!
