Nut Milk

As a big family, we go through a lot of milk. We use it every morning for porridge and then throughout the day in milky drinks, baking and cooking. We used to buy almond milk, but then it dawned on me that it only contained about 2% almonds, so it suddenly seemed like a waste of money. From that point on, we started to make our own, and we've never looked back. Every morning, either my husband or I will create a fresh batch and keep it in a jug in the fridge.

It's actually super simple to make and, once you're in the habit of whipping it up, it doesn't seem like any hassle at all.

It's important to use raw, unsalted nuts and, ideally, it's best to soak them for 12 hours first. This helps to ensure that the milk is as smooth as possible, with less pulp, and it also activates the enzymes, making the milk more nutritious. Its not strictly essential, however, so don't worry if you forget.

Simply put the following ingredients in your vitamix/food processor:

1 cup almonds

½ cup cashews

⅛ cup agave syrup (or a few pitted dates for a healthier choice)

¼ tsp sea salt

6 cups water

Then blend until the nuts have totally disintegrated and the liquid is white.

Almonds offer a massive amount of nutrients in themselves and are ideal for making milk, but we add cashews too because they give the perfect level of creaminess to this milk.

We use the milk just as it is. It does contain fine nut pulp, but we don't mind the texture. However, if you'd prefer to have less pulp, you can simply pour the milk through a mesh sieve. You can then keep the pulp and use it in your baking dishes, for an extra fibre boost. Alternatively, you can put the pulp in the oven on a low temperature, to dehydrate it, and use it as gluten-free bread crumbs.

To make the milk totally pulp-less, you can strain it through a muslin cloth so that the liquid is completely smooth. We sometimes do this when we want to use the milk in hot drinks.

I often blend the milk with fresh strawberries or cacao powder to make milkshakes for the kids and sometimes I'll make delicious banana-caramel protein shakes for everyone by blending the following ingredients in the vitamix:

1 cup of homemade nut milk

3 pitted dates

2 bananas

1 scoop of protein powder

This is the protein powder I use; it's perfect for this recipe:

So there you go! Why not try it out and see how good it is?!