There’s nothing quite like creamy home made nut milk! It’s pretty easy to whip up, but I think it makes a perfect something for the weekend activity so that you can take your time and enjoy it. Making your own nut milk occasionally is a great idea as you get a milk that is free from added ingredients, is cheap to make and tastes richer and creamier than most store bought versions. Soaking the nuts breaks down enzyme inhibitors and phytic acid making them more digestible and the nutrients within them more easily assimilated in your body.
The process of making it really couldn’t be more simple, here’s how I tend to break it down:
- 1 cup of nuts soaked for 4 – 14 hours – think shorter times for creamier nuts like cashews and macadamias and a little longer for harder nuts like almonds and hazelnuts
- 3-4 cups of water
- Sweetener of choice – dates, agave, honey, rice syrup, stevia, xylitol, coconut sugar, coconut nectar
- Pinch of salt
- Add ins – go wild here! Think cocoa or cacao, cacao nibs, maca, lucuma, berry powder, cinnamon, ginger, chai spice, turmeric etc
Just soak the nuts, drain them, rinse them and add to a blender with the water, sweetener and salt. Blend well and then you can either strain the milk through a piece of muslin or cheese cloth or even a nut milk bag OR you can leave it thick and creamy.
I think how smooth and creamy your milk is depends on the quality of your blender, I’ve been using my Vitamix and because it breaks down the nuts so well I like to leave it thick and creamy. If you decide to strain it, you can use the leftover nut pulp in lots of different recipes such as my Almond Coconut Choc Chip Cookies.
I pour the nut milk into a big glass bottle or jar to keep in the fridge. It tends to keep well for 3-5 days, so is perfect for making at the weekend to see you through part of the week.
As I said you can really go wild with combinations of nuts and other ingredients. Last weekend I whipped up this delight!
- 1/2 cup hazelnuts
- 1/2 cup cashews
- 2 tbsp raw cacao powder or regular cocoa powder
- 1-2 tbsp cacao nibs
- 3 tbsp coconut sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp lucuma powder (optional)
- Soak the nuts for at least 6 hours. Drain them and rinse them then add to a blender with 3 - 4 cups of water. Blend for at least one minute before adding the cacao, coconut sugar and salt. Blend again and if you need to stain the milk, do so now. Add the strained milk back to the blender or continue with the thick unstrained version adding the cacao nibs and lucuma powder and pulsing to combine and break down the cacao nibs. Pour into a clean glass jar or bottle and refrigerate.
This tastes SO good! As well as enjoying straight up you can pour it over a healthy cereal, add some to a smoothie or mix with chia seeds to make a chia seed pudding. You could even blend it with some coffee for a creamy nut milk latte, or add some chai tea.
Have you tried making your own nut milk? What combination of nuts and add ins would you try? What something for the weekend activity do you have planned?
I LOVE nut milk – it so simple, saves me loads of money and literlly works with every seed and nut. I love pumpkin seed milk too and hemp milk – basically i am now convinced you can ‘milk’ anything!
Haha yes I think you pretty much can! I’d love to try brazil nut milk :-)
That looks amazing! Nut milk has been on my list of to-do’s for ages – I can also use it as an excuse to buy some cute bottles like that too ;)
Get to Ikea! I need to buy a couple more, good for kefir as well!
Ah it is so easy and delicious, I need to do it more often! That Recipe looks really good – I bet the pinch of salt gives it an amazing sweet and salty addition! I bet chai flavoured would be amazing too!
Thanks Lauren! I’ve tried one with chai from a juice company and it was fab, next on my list to make at home!
Sounds delicious. I imagine cashew nut milk would be delicious! Sadly I only have a very basic Kenwood blender…not sure it’d be up to the challenge :( Love the idea of the different add-ins for flavours as well.
It would probably be ok but you’d need to strain it though. So nice to get creative with flavours!
This is such a good idea! I have a bag of hazelnuts in the cupboard and a desire for chocolate hazelnut milk in my protein shakes next week. Thanks!
I saw you made some, enjoy!
I love homemade nut milk but have only made it a few times- I did soak nuts in preparation recently, but then forgot about them and had to throw them out. I made it totally plain though, with just nuts and water, but I love the idea of adding vanilla or some chai spices. Or maybe coconut?
I saw on oh She Glows some amazing looking hazelnut and almond milk. In the summer holidays I might get around to it! I save everything for then!
Mmm I think coconut would be really good! Yes I saw Oh She Glows not long after I’d written this post, sounds like a lovely combination.
Can you clarify for me please. Do you use the drained water back into the blender to blitz the washed nuts or fresh water after rinsing the nuts?
Fresh water, sorry I should have made that clear as it’s pretty important as you don’t want to use the soaking water as that contains some of the phytic acid you’ve been soaking them to remove x
No worries, it doesn’t take much to confuse me some days ;-)
Yum, nice combo. I love making nut milk, so easy and cheap to make and much better than the store bought ones which are full of rubbish.
Yeah I still get the store bought ones occasionally but never the sweetened ones, so much sugar!
Yum yumm. I cheated on my recipe this morning that i shared. lol :)
Where did you get your jar from? Would be so much easier as i spill my milk from my kilner jars!!
I got it from ikea, it’s awesome I need to get more!
This looks absolutely delicious Laura! Yet another recipe that convinced me I need to invest in a blender!
Oh blimey you definitely should get a blender :-)
I think I would quite like this. I imagine it to be very thick and filling. I really struggle to eat after runs, but am always craving a glass of nice, cold milk and this would be nice for a change.
Mmm that looks good I’m definitely going to try this. I thought I might try it with some ChocShot and dates. Drool!
Love the idea of “something for the weekend” I often look for something more adventurous to challenge myself with at the weekends. I’ll have to get my head around this one ASAP!
You can’t beat your own homemade nut milk. I really need to try making some cashew milk, as it is one of my favourite nuts. I am obsessed with cashew butter at the moment.