Guide to Nut Milks

I am turning into one of those super annoying people that reads food labels. Literally, checking everything. I am ‘eating clean’ and basically can’t have anything that has more than 5 ingredients (and nothing that you can’t pronounce).

I haven’t been using cow’s milk for a while now, for several reasons really, but one is that you just don’t know what the cow has been eating or what has been pumped into them. So I thought I’d just use nut milks, particularly liking almond milk. I just thought it would be so much better for me.

Wrong.

Kind of.

If you buy nut milks, they are still loaded with crap! Of course some brands are slightly better than others, but I noticed on one brand in particular (starts with A, ends in lpro), that the nut content was 2%!! How ridiculous is that?! How can they even call it almond milk or hazelnut milk when there is 2% almonds or hazelnuts in there?

So, I always make my own nut milk now. I know what you’re thinking, what a loser, who has time to make your own milk? Don’t worry, I use to think that about people too. But it literally is the quickest thing ever and only uses two ingredients. You know exactly what is going into it and it tastes pretty darn good.

• WHAT DO I NEED – your chosen nuts and water.
  • Literally that is it. Plus, a blender.
• HOW MUCH WILL I NEED – to make about 1.5 litres of milk you need around 150g nuts and then 1.5 litres of water.
  • You can use more or less water depending on the consistency of the milk that you like.
• WHAT DO I DO – soak the nuts in a bowl of water, preferably overnight but for at least 6 hours, and then drain and rinse. Then put the nuts in a blender with the amount of water that you would like and blend until smooth.
• STRAINING – depending on which nut you use, the milk may or may not need straining. I have really taken to making cashew nut milk as there is no waste, it all blends up beautifully to make a lovely creamy milk.
  • If you use almonds or hazelnuts, you will need a muslin cloth or cheesecloth to strain the milk through. Once this is done you are left with essentially ground almonds and I have then used this in baking. You could just chuck it though!
• STORAGE – you will need bottles or bags to store it all in (I think bottles are best as you often need to give the milk a shake before you serve it). Nut milks freeze really well so take 10 minutes to make a huge batch. Freeze some and then you’ll always have some ready. In a fridge, the nut milk is best used within a week.

You do need to be organised to make sure you’re ready with the soaking of the nuts etc but it had just become part of my weekly routine now. Have you ever made your own nut milk? Do you think you’ll try it out?

Rebecca x

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