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Want to try something other than dairy milk? Or you want to drink something vegetarian? Maybe you are watching your acid intake? This nut milk is the perfect answer! We have been making nut milk for a while now, and it is actually quite easy to make
Making the nut milk:
The first thing you need to do is put some nuts into a bowl; we have been using almond but any nut will do.
Raw almonds in a bowl
Now, fill the nuts up with water (you can use tap for now) until they are completely submerged; some float to the surface, but you can push them down to the bottom and they should stay.
filling up bowl of nuts with water
bowl of nuts completely submerged with water
Place them in the refrigerator and let them soak, we do it overnight but you can do it for two nights if you want.
Bowl of nuts with water in the refrigerator
This is what it should look like once it is done soaking (do not use this water!).
Nuts that soaked overnight while still in water
Instead, drain the nuts through a strainer and give them a good washing.
Washing the soaked nuts
Now is the time to add the nuts to the blender. Use a large one; we use one that holds 9 cups and multiple blades because they grind up whole nuts better and smaller blenders might overflow. You wouldn't want that!
soaked and washed nuts in a blender
Pour in the clean, filtered water. We use cold spring water from our water cooler; any type of drinking water, not unfiltered tap water.
Adding filtered water to the nut milk
Add the salt, sea salt or kosher salt.
Adding salt to the nut milk
This is optional, but recommended; add the vanilla extract to give it an even nicer flavor.
Adding vanilla extract to nut milk
Now (also optional), add a sweetener of your choice, such as honey, maple syrup or pitted dates (not using honey will make it vegan).
Adding honey to the nut milk
Nut milk using dates
Now is the time to puree all your ingredients together. Do this for about 1 or 2 minutes.
Blending the nut milk
Blended nut milk
Now it is time to strain the nut milk. We have a special nut milk bag for this, but we've heard that cheesecloth works as well. Hold the bag over a large pourable container and pour all of the nut milk contents in the bag.
Straining the nut milk
Once you've poured in everything, twist the bag as much as you can and squeeze out as much liquid as you can over the pourable container.
Straining the nut milk
All that should remain in the bag are the ground up bits of nut (Do not throw the ground up nuts away, you can be resourceful and make nut flour!).
Strained nut milk with ground up nuts in the bag
This is why you should strain the nut milk into a pourable container. Pour the nut milk into a container large enough for about 1 quart of milk. You can use a funnel if you like in case you are concerned that some might be spilled.
Filling up a glass jug with the nut milk
It tends to get foamy at the top of the bottle before you pour all of the nut milk. When this happens, you can wait for some of the bubbles to deflate and fill in as much of the liquid as you can into the jug or whatever container you choose.
Glass jar filled with nut milk
Once you've filled your jug, you could technically consume it now, but we find it better to refrigerate it till it is nice and chilled. We recommend chilling it overnight.
Jug of Nut Milk in Refrigerator
Once done chilling, use it like any other nut milk. We tend to pour it over cereal, but it also works in foods such as smoothies or pancakes. Another way to consume it is just drinking it as is. There is so much flavor in this that you can't get in the jugs sold at grocery stores.
Pouring nut milk onto cereal
Nut Milk
- Prep Time: 12 hrs.
- Total Time: 12 hrs.
- Yield: approx. 1 quart
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 1 cup nuts, any kind*
- 4 cups water, filtered
- ½ tsp. sea salt or kosher salt
- ½ tsp. vanilla extract, optional
- 2-3 Tbsp. sweetener, such as honey or maple syrup or 3-4 whole pitted dates, all optional
Instructions
- Soak the nuts in a bowl of water, overnight or up to 2 days.
- Once soaked, drain the nuts through a sieve and pour into a large blender. Measure out 4 cups of new fresh filtered water and pour into the blender along with the salt, vanilla extract, and sweetener of choice or dates, if using.
- Cover and blend for 1 to 2 minutes. Using a nut milk bag or cheese cloth, pour the blended nut milk mixture through the bag/cloth over a large pourable measuring cup, then twist and squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can (You can reserve the nut bits in order to make nut flour).
- Pour the filtered nut milk into a quart container, cover and chill overnight, if preferred.
Notes
*We have even tried seeds like sunflower seeds, if you aren't nuts for nuts (pun intended). You might want to change after one night and soak for 2 nights total if the seeds have salt and oil on them.
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