Yes… Madelyn, lover all things dairy and cheese, has been put on a dairy-free diet for at least 30 days. 😦
And maybe you’ve found yourself in the same predicament… where most of your go-to recipes have some sort of cheese or dairy component, right?? It’s a way for us vegetarians to get some protein, no???
Nuts, and particular, ALMONDS are a great way to get some protein in you… and you usually think of adding nuts to your diet in a salad or as a garnish for a main dish or a dessert. But what about making milk out of it??? You see alternative dairy products in all major supermarkets now. But have u ever attempted to make it on your own???
It’s easier than you think…
ALMOND MILK FROM SCRATCH
About 1 cup of almonds
Water
Yep… that’s all you need. And some tools you already have in your kitchen anyways.
Start by soaking the almonds in some filtered water. I like to soak the almonds for about 1 hour to take off the skin. This is certainly not necessary, but I like my almond milk to be WHITE, just like regular cow’s milk is. After I peel the skins, I re-soak again in more filtered water. This can be from 3-4 hours to overnight. But if you will not do it in 3-4 hours, I recommend placing the soaking almonds in the fridge to prevent fermentation.
Gather all your equipment, just as if you were making a sesame seed horchata – a large pot with a fine sieve, a bowl to collect the ground almonds after they’ve been blended once.
- Place some of the almonds in the large container of your Magic Bullet or blender. Fill almost to the top with filtered water. Here I show you how much water I use.
- Process for a few minutes in 30 second intervals to puree the seeds as much as possible.
- Drain the milky almond pureed water over the sieve. Use a large spoon to move the slush around, but you don’t need to press extremely hard to release all the liquid. If you do, you’ll only push a lot of sediment into the finished “milk”. So there’s no need to use extra muscle for this. Allow gravity and a slight firm hand to do its job.
- Save the leftover almond slush in a bowl for re-processing. Repeat with all the never-processed almonds in the same way as before. I usually divide the original almonds into 3. After processing all the almonds once, reprocess in the exact same way, diving it into batches, but this time after passing it through the sieve, just discard the leftover almond meal.
- Transfer to a bottle where you can serve the almond milk from.
- Chill before serving.
The almond milk will separate when standing in the fridge… but just mix well before serving.
If you want to drink the almond milk by itself… I would add about ½ cup of honey and would strain it again thru the finest sieve you can find. Almond meal is way finer than sesame seeds and there’s much more sediment than when making an horchata. Use a clean fine cotton cloth or even a coffee filter we call “media” to strain as much sediment as possible.
This is an excellent source of calcium and is great to drink by itself, in oatmeals, other hot cereals and smoothies.
Tags: almond, food, milk, vegetarian
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