How To Make Your Own Almond Milk

I like to add almond milk to my smoothies, but I don’t like buying it from the store. While store-bought is much more convenient, it isn’t as fresh, contains questionable additives and chemicals can potentially leach out into the milk from the container it’s in.

When I first heard of people making their own almond milk, I was a little intimidated. I thought it was going to be expensive and be a big hassle. After going online and looking at a few recipes, I realized just how easy it is to make your own almond milk (or any other nut milk for that mater.)

Homemade Almond Milk Ingredients

• 1 cup raw almonds, soaked
• 4 to 5 cups of water
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 3 to 5 dates, soaked for 20 minutes (this is optional, I don’t use sweeteners, but some people do.)

Directions

Step 1: Place the almonds in a large bowl and fill the bowl with water until the almonds are covered. Cover with a towel and let sit in a cool place for about 24 hours. You can soak them in the refrigerator to avoid risk of fermentation.

After the almonds are done soaking, they should be plump. Pour out the water the almonds were soaking in and rinse them with fresh water.

Step 2: Place the almonds in your blender with about 4 to 5 cups of water. Add the vanilla and dates if you are using them. I have a Vitamix, but you can use any high speed blender.

Blend on high for about 50 seconds or until you don’t have any more large date or almond pieces. (Note: I didn’t use dates this time, and they are not in the photo.)

After you are done blending, you’ll have a thick white liquid with lot of froth on top.

Step 3: Strain the almond milk through a bag strainer, or through a fine sieve, into your original bowl or another large container. A nut milk bag will allow you to get more of the milk, but it may be slightly messier.

If you are going to use a sieve, use a spoon to scrap the bottom of the sieve to remove built-up almond pulp. Once all of the almond milk has been drained, remove the pulp before adding more milk to be strained. You can use a large spoon to press the almond pulp into the sieve and get more of the milk.

The finished product will yield about 4 to 5 cups of fresh almond milk. Store in the refrigerator and try to use within a week. You will need to stir the almond milk every time you use it, since it does settle. Use as a liquid in smoothies or drink it straight. Use it as you would regular milk.

What To Do With The Almond Pulp

How you’ll have a bunch of leftover almond pulp. If you blended it with vanilla and dates, it will be slightly sweet – too good to throw away! Some people make raw cookies with the pulp while others spread it like a paste or nut butter on celery. Feel free to experiment with new uses for almond milk pulp!

Find recipes using almond milk.

Tags: almond milk, nut milk, raw food recipe, recipe