I have taught my eight year old daughter how to make almond milk so I think it’s time I teach all of you. It’s a lot easier than you think. With just two ingredients, almonds and water, you can create fresh almond milk. No added preservatives, “gums” or questionable ingredients. Just straight up homemade almond milk. It’s a normal part of our routine in the kitchen and we make it usually 3-4 times per week.
Why am I using almond milk anyways? Dairy is often very hard for us to digest, and is a cause for issues like constipation, IBS, the runs, skin breakouts, and more. Eliminating dairy is a great way to help improve your health. Conventional dairy is so full of junk it’s no wonder it causes digestive upset. But even quality, organic milk does the same thing. Depending on your ethnicity, you have a 25 to 97 percent chance of not being able to digest lactose, a sugar found in dairy products.(source)
Almond milk can be used as milk in your baking recipes, your morning coffee or tea, or in some homemade granola. I love to use it for making elixirs, like turmeric lattes, or homemade hot cocoa for the kids. Do my children drink almond milk at dinner? No, instead we look for grass-fed, organic full fat milk. I offer it sparingly as dairy for children can often be the root cause of their ongoing bouts of the sniffles. Raw, unpasteurized grass fed milk is the very best, but very difficult to obtain. It’s still illegal in some states, but I see this beginning to change. To look for raw milk in your area, check out the Real Milk site.
A quick note about soaking your almonds. Soak the almonds in clean water for at least 6 hours to remove phytic acid. Often I will soak them overnight and process in the morning. You can see in the picture below what the water will look like after soaking is complete. Rinse away the phytic acid that has been drawn out. The acid is what makes nuts hard to digest. Now you have washed it away and are left with the good parts of the almond.
TWO KEY TOOLS YOU NEED TO MAKE ALMOND MILK.
- Nut milk bag
- High speed blender
I find the smaller size nut milk bag much easier to manage. This is one I recommend off Amazon, but you can also find them at Whole Foods or your local health food store. For blenders, the high speed ones include the Vitamix, or the Blendtec which I use. (I’ve have a refurbished one it’s going on 4 years.) I can’t speak to other blenders, like KitchenAid’s new one, but if you have it and it works for you, let me know! If only these blenders were quieter I would be delighted.
HOW TO MAKE ALMOND MILK
Phytic acid is considered an “anti-nutrient,” making it harder for your body to absorb vitamins and minerals available from food.
Soaking
- Measure 1 cup of raw almonds and place in a medium bowl.
- Cover with filtered water until the almonds submerged, and covered by an additional 3″ of water.
- Let this bowl sit on your countertop for 6 hours, or overnight.
Blending
- Using a fine mesh strainer, drain and rinse your almonds. Dispose of the old water.
- In a high speed blender, measure 4 cups filtered water.
- Add almonds and blend on high for 1 minute.
Straining
- Holding a nut milk bag over a large bowl, pour the almond milk mixture into the bag.
- Squeeze all the milk you can out of the nut bag.
Storage
- Transfer almond milk to glass containers and store in the refrigerator. It will last at least one week. (although mine is gone before then!) These caps are awesome for pouring almond milk.
- Toss the almond pulp, or store in glass container to use later.
You can use the almond pulp for almond coconut macaroon cookies or almond pulp truffles. Here’s a great round up from my CNE program here of how to use leftover almond pulp. A fellow CNE grad Jessica Grosman also created this Chocolate Mousse recipe with leftover pulp.
Let me know if you try to make your own almond milk. Don’t let this happen to you…our kids all love having a turn squeezing the milk out. Turns out it’s best to just let one kid at a time be a helper. We ended up with milk and almond pulp everyone after this picture was taken for my homework assignment this fall. What a mess! After restraining it all was not lost. Let me know if you have any hiccups with making your own almond milk. I may have already gone through it before!
I actually learned how to make almond milk when I first looked into The Academy of Culinary Nutrition. When I saw the teacher make the milk in a video and I realized how easy it is. I promise you this is one of the easiest recipes you can master and test out in your kitchen.
