Healthy Kitchen Essentials, Recipes: Beverages
How to Make Deliciously Creamy, Decadent Almond & Other Nut or Seed Milks at Home
Almond milk is one of those kitchen staples that many of us rely on as an easy substitute for all things dairy. You can drink it, turn it into yogurt, make ice cream or ice pops, even turn it into mouth-watering cheese! Essentially anything you can do with cow’s milk, you can do with almond milk.
When it comes to nutrition, there are lots of excellent reasons to make your own homemade almond milk.
When you make it at home, you can:
- avoid additional sugar
- avoid questionable additives like carrageenan, which may or may not pose a problem for you
- ensure your almonds are high quality, raw and organic if that’s important to you
- avoid synthetic vitamins (and there are lots of good reasons to avoid these if we can, which I’ll discuss in a future post)
- flavour it any way you like!
What you may not know is how easy it is to make your own almond milk at home. For ingredients, you only need almonds, water and some sea salt.
You will need a blender (preferably a good one) and either a strainer and cheesecloth (or a nut/produce bag if you want to get fancy and already own one).
Optional ingredients include sweetener or flavourings if you want to make a custom flavour that you just can’t get anywhere else!
In today’s version, I’m using cinnamon and I’m not adding any extra sweetener. To me, cinnamon adds a slightly sweet note anyway so I don’t think it’s necessary.
This also keeps the recipe as nutritious and as versatile as possible.
The recipe as written makes a half-batch (about 2 cups), which is perfect for singles or small households. This doesn’t contain any preservatives so it won’t last more than 3 days at most in your fridge.
I prefer making smaller batches more frequently so we’re eating foods at their freshest.
Homemade Cinnamon Almond Milk (No Added Sugar)
Ingredients
- **Please note this makes a half-batch but you can easily double it.**
- 1/2 cup of almonds preferably organic and as “raw” as possible, soaked overnight in the fridge
- 2 cups of water
- Pinch of sea salt you can omit this but I happen to consider it essential for bringing out the almonds’ true flavour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon or other flavourings as desired: cocoa, vanilla, strawberry, cardamom, blueberry, even pumpkin… the options are endless
Allergic to almonds or just don’t like them? Let’s get creative!
- You can easily substitute the almonds in this recipe for any nut or seed of your choice. Sunflower seeds hemp seeds, hazelnuts, pecans, sesame seeds, etc. are all delicious and nutritious. You can also make flax milk or oat milk in a similar way.
Instructions
-
Strain and rinse the soaked almonds. Add them to a high-powered blender with the water. Blend on high until the almonds are thoroughly blended.
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Using a fine strainer, a strainer lined with cheesecloth or a nut bag, strain your almond milk. Don’t forget to reserve the leftover almond pulp for all kinds of other recipes.
-
Mix in the sea salt and other flavourings if desired. Drink up!
Like many of my favourite recipes, this is simple and great for every day use. For something special, there are loads of ways you can jazz up this basic almond milk.
Any of the flavourings or spices in my DIY flavoured coffee post would be terrific. Strawberries are awesome this time of year for a naturally flavoured strawberry milk. Chocolate, vanilla, cocoa, pumpkin, etc.
What’s your favourite way to enjoy homemade almond milk? Let me know below!
Life is a plate… eat up!
Ashleigh
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