How to Make Almond Milk at Home

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Want to reduce your dairy intake? Going vegan? Ice cream, smoothies, milkshakes, or even a latte, can be prepared with almond milk, an easy dairy-free milk substitute. With just two ingredients and an electric blender you can make your own dairy-free milk.

Advantages of Making Your Own Almond Milk

You can choose the ingredients: no added sweeteners, fillers or additives. You can also choose how many almonds to use in this recipe, depending on how creamy you like your almond milk.

One of the disadvantages of store-bought almond milk is that it usually has carrageenan. Carrageenan is a product derived from seaweed that is used to thicken and stabilize foods. Its consumption may also cause irritation and gastrointestinal problems. For people with digestive issues, it may be a good idea to avoid store-bought almond milk and make their own almond milk at home.

Almond milk is healthy and has high nutritional value, with up to 6 grams of protein per serving (around the same as 1 ounce of almonds). One cup of homemade almond milk may cover up to 8% of your calcium needs and 6% of your iron needs per day. Also, almond milk is dairy-free, so it has no lactose or casein, which usually cause digestive issues (over 75% of the world population is lactose intolerant to a certain degree.)

To make almond milk, blend almonds and filtered water until the almonds break down completely. A good ratio is 1:4 (1 cup of almonds every 4 cups of water). Then, using a nut milk bag or a mesh strainer, strain out the pulp. You’ll get a creamy almond-flavored white “milk” that blends perfectly into any recipe. Don’t throw away the pulp! You can use it to make cookies, crackers, or even hummus.

Note: If you don’t like almonds, you can use any other nut. This recipe applies for any nut milk. Of course, flavor will vary, but each different nut milk is delicious in its own right.

Recipe

Ingredients

-1 cup almonds, soaked overnight in filtered water

-4 cups fresh filtered water

Directions

1. Drain the almonds and discard the soaking water. Rinse well.
2. Blend almonds and filtered water (1:4 ratio) in a blender until the milk looks creamy.
3. Strain the almond milk with a nut milk bag, cheesecloth or mesh strainer. Make sure you save the almond pulp for cookies or other recipes.
4. Pour the almond milk in a container, seal and store in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze it for up to 3 months.