Home made nut milks are easy to make if you have a blender and are generally richer in nutrients than shop bought as these contain a low percentage of actual nuts and can be filled with thickeners and gums to make up for the shortfall in nuts!
As a rule of thumb, I use around four parts water to one part nuts or seeds. I have successfully made nut and seed milks from pumpkins seeds, sunflower seeds, cashew nuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts and coconut. This is not an exhaustive list, just my personal experience! You can also use oats for oat milk successfully without soaking them first.
Ingredients
200g nuts or seeds
800ml filtered water
2 Medjool dates (optional)
Pinch of sea salt
Method
- Put the almonds in a large bowl and cover with water. Cover the bowl and leave to soak overnight or for at least 4 hrs. The Medjool dates are for sweetness, but are optional.
- The next day, drain and rinse the almonds, then add to a blender with 800ml cold water. Blend until smooth.
- Pour the mixture into a muslin-lined sieve over a jug and allow it to drip through. Stir the mixture gently with a spoon to speed up the process.
- When most of the liquid has gone through into the jug, gather the sides of the muslin together and squeeze tightly with both hands to extract the last of the milk.
It is not necessary to strain the milk and you can leave the nut pieces in and shake before using. I prefer to do this when I am making a smoothie to make it more nutritious.
Otherwise you can dry out the contents of the nut milk bag and add the ground nuts to other recipes.
