Thursday, April 14, 2011

Happy Thursday :)
  
Yesterday I talked a little about making hemp milk as a creamy base for chia seed pudding or even a delicious drink in itself. You can use both nuts and seeds to make nice healthy milks They are unbelievably easy to make~ it only takes minutes! I love making my own milk ~ it's one of life's simple little pleasures that make me oh so happy :)

Today I want to focus on nut milk. Easy ~  Nutritious ~ Delicious!
Nut milk is an excellent healthy alternative to cow's milk.
It provides numerous health benefits and is packed with nutrients. 
 Nut milk is a great alternative for people who have allergies to dairy or gluten! It doesn't contain lactose and is also gluten-free.

You can use any type of nut!
almond ~ brazil ~ pecan ~ cashew ~ walnut ~ hazelnut you name it!
My favorites are almond or brazil nut milks.

It's best to soak the nuts overnight and then rinse until the water runs clear. This makes the nuts softer so their easier to blend. It also neutralizes the enzyme inhibitors, making them easier to digest.

You can make nut milk in a kitchen blender as well as a vitamix you just have to blend a little longer, until you no longer hear the nuts rattling around.

Here's all you need
Nuts of your choice 
blender
water
something to strain them in...you can use a nut bag that you can buy on Amazon or at many health food stores ~ or you can use cheesecloth.

The ratio of nuts & water I use is 4/1 ratio. 1 cup of nuts to 4 cups of water.
You can always use less water if you prefer a thicker milk.

Recipe

 1 cup of your favorite nuts
 4 cups of water 
 blend them in a blender
 Then strain this through the nut milk bag or cheesecloth
squeeze the bag to get out as much milk as possible
save the nut meat ~ you can add them to all sorts of recipes

You can store this in the fridge 3-4 days. 
be sure to stir or shake up the nut milk before using it because it becomes separated. 

** I love to add a little vanilla, pitted dates & cinnamon to spice it up!! Super delicious!!

ENJOY :)

Making almond milk ~ soak 1 cup raw almonds overnight ~ rinse well after soaked
Put the rinsed almonds in the blender with 4 cups of water
add 2 pitted dates and 1 tsp of vanilla
Blend about 1 minute in a high speed blender ~ about 3 minutes in kitchen blender or until smooth
Here I used a piece of cheesecloth to strain the nut milk. Secure it over a container with a rubber band. Pour the nut milk from the blender through the cheesecloth slowly. Let as much filter through as possible then take off the cheesecloth and squeeze the rest of the milk out.....
Voila

One of life's simple pleasures :)


4 comments:

  1. I use a metal sieve for the first filter, then I run the filtered milk through a fine metal coffee filter (used only for making almond milk). This results in no pulp and the creamiest, smoothest, silky milk!

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sounds like a great idea! I'll have to try that...

    Thanks :)

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  3. Also, save the ground nut meal... I let it dry and then put it in the freezer. When I want fresh almond/nut flour, all I have to do is grind it up! :-)

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  4. I've been putting mine in the freezer but wasn't quite sure how I was going to use it yet. I knew there had to be something I could make with it! thanks Pam :)

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