Making Almond or any nut milk at home is so easy! I'm going to give you instructions on almond milk and cashew milk. As I experiment with other nuts, I'll let you all know how that goes. All you need is some raw almonds, water, and patience. I follow Dr. Fuhrman's Eat to Live program, so I only use raw unsalted nuts. But I know people who use salted and roasted nuts, so it depends on your eating style as to what kind of nuts you use. So, let me give you the recipe :)
First you need to soak 1 cup raw almonds (whole, sliced, or whatever you have on hand). I put them in a drinking glass and then cover them with water. They need to soak for at least 8 hours. I'll fix them and leave them overnight and that works too. When they are ready, drain them and rinse them off. Now you are ready to add them to your blender with 4 cups of water. And blend away!! I have a Vitamix and it takes less than a minute on a medium speed. I haven't tried another blender, but from my past experience making nut-based salad dressing in an Oster blender, it will take a lot longer to blend.
When it's well blended I use a nut bag to strain the 'milk' out. I've used cheesecloth as well, but found the nut bag to work a bit better and it's much easier to use! I hang my nut bag on my cabinets over a quart size mason jar to let it do as much of the work for me as possible, then I squeeze the bag to get every bit out. It's a messy process, but well worth it. Now, I don't like to throw the pulp away, almonds are expensive, so I have started re-blending the pulp with 2 cups of water. So I figure I get 6 cups of milk for 1 cup of almonds. It's a bit more watery, I'm sure, but it's worth it for me to get more out of it. I have a baggie in my fridge of the pulp waiting to be dehydrated to make almond flour. I store the finished milk in the quart sized mason jar in the fridge. It will last for about a week, smell it if you aren't sure. It will definitely tell you when it's bad, yuck.
You might ask, 'Why make your own almond milk, when there are good brands at the store?' I don't like to eat or drink anything that has too many ingredients and those nut milks seem to have a lot of ingredients. My homemade nut milk has 2 ingredients, nuts and water! That's it! It's so easy too.
I also make cashew milk. You follow that same guidelines, just soak for less time. Which is great for those times when you want it practically now and don't want to wait 8 hours. Take 1 cup of cashews (I use unsalted raw) and put it in a drinking cup and soak for 2 hours (instead of 8). Then follow the guidelines for almond milk, the rest is the same, even the baggie in the fridge to make cashew flour.
What do I do with all this milk? My 14 year old son figured out that cow's milk does not agree with him, so he uses the nut milk on his cereal and to make oatmeal. I use it for this divine 'Chocolate Shake'. That shake is well worth the 2 cups of nut milk that it calls for. My kids LOVE it!! You can make any sort of 'ice cream' with these milks. You can freeze the milk in ice cube trays and blend it up with your favorite frozen fruit. I also make 'ice cream' with a frozen banana, some nut milk and whatever frozen fruit I have on hand. I also make a chocolate 'ice cream' with 2 frozen bananas, 2 tbsp cocoa powder and enough nut milk to get the desired consistency I want and blend it up. YUMMY! You will always find frozen squished bananas in my freezer, those things save me when I want a yummy dessert. You can use the nut milk for anything you would use cow's milk for. It's a different taste, so kids who aren't used to it, might balk, but overtime they will adjust. My son said it was very different at first, but now he really enjoys it in his cereal.
Enjoy :)
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