Nut Milk
Nut milks are so darn easy to make I cannot believe that people go to the grocery store and pay gobs of money for a boxed processed almond milk. There is just nothing that can compare with the sweetness of home-made 100% pure almond milk. Almond milk is the most versatile nut milk - it has a nice ratio of fat to liquid and a mild slightly sweet taste that does not compete with other flavors. For me, almond milk is the best nut milk to drink in tea (especially when it has vanilla in it)!
But almond milk is only the tip of the ice berg. I highly recommend playing around with other nut and seed milks. I really like to make walnut milk (amazing in raw soups such as my Cream of Celery Soup, because it’s so velvety), brazil nut milk (extremely delicate and so very white in color), hazelnut milk (fantastic on raw granola or for soaking raw muesli), cashew milk (terrific as base for raw ice cream or other raw desserts), sunflower seed milk (great in green juices or green smoothies) or hemp seed milk (quick and easy, cuz you don’t have to soak hemp seeds, but definitely an acquired taste…good blended with raw cacao powder for a chocolate milk with some funk!). I have never tried making macadamia nut milk…my gut tells me it would be way too oily, so I’ll leave that for my readers to try if they are so inclined.
Almonds and brazil nuts will make the whitest mildest milk if you are trying to fool people into thinking it is cow’s milk. These two nuts will also leave behind the most pulp. The pulp can be dehydrated overnight, ground into nut flour and used in raw breads, raw cookies (and even baked goods if you are not 100% raw). For convenience, the pulp can be frozen until you are ready dehydrate it. Flour made from pulp should be kept in the refrigerator and will not last more than a few weeks, while nut flour made from whole dehydrated nuts will last longer.
The basic recipe for nut milk goes like this:
1 cup raw nuts or seeds, soaked overnight and rinsed extremely well
3 cups clean filtered water
1 tablespoon vanilla (optional if you want a sweeter milk)
Blend nuts with water on high until nuts are liquified.
Pour into a fine mesh strainer or better a nut milk bag held over a bowl. Allow fluid/milk to drain out of strainer into the bowl. If using a nut milk bag pull drawstring tight and begin to “milk” the bag, squeezing until all of the milk has been squeezed out.
Add water to the nut milk if consistency is too thick for your liking.
Add vanilla to the nut milk if desired.
Enjoy!
Storage: Nut milk will last in the refrigerator about 5 days. It will smell kind of grassy when it’s too old to drink. (If you know you are not going to use all the nut milk you made, freeze fresh nut milk in ice cube trays and use later in smoothies).
Note: Nut milk will separate in the refrigerator. Shake well before consuming.
Note to non-raw vegans: Almond milk is delicious steamed on an espresso. I find the best way to do this is with an Aeroccino milk steamer by Nespresso.