This recipe is inspired by Oh She Glows, the first vegan cook book I ever bought. I have two of her cook books now and I am absolutely in love with everything that she creates. Her recipes are so creative and opened my eyes to an entirely new way of cooking. Through her I explored vegan cooking, baking, and homemade kitchen staples. One of those homemade staples being – almond milk. I am not vegan, however I always have almond milk in my house and use it most regularly. So when I saw a recipe to create my own almond milk I was so excited! Nothing compares to homemade almond milk. It has so much more flavour and really tastes like a luxury. It can be a little time consuming, but it is so worth it in the end.
Since trying Oh She Glows recipe I have played around with different ingredients and ratios. Sometimes I will add walnuts, pumpkin seeds, or even roast my almonds first. In this specific recipe I used mainly almonds, but added a small addition of roasted sunflower seeds for some extra flavour. This addition is completely optional or can be replaced with any of your other favourite nuts or seeds. Since I was going off of a sweetened version of the recipe, I added in vanilla, cinnamon and dates. If you are looking to replicate a classic, unsweetened version of almond milk you can simply omit the vanilla, cinnamon and dates.
This recipe is quite simple and there is a lot of room for creativity to play around with your favourite flavours.
Ingredients
1 cup of almonds
2 tablespoons roasted sunflower seeds
3.5 cups filtered water
2-4 dates, pitted**
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of sea salt
*Note – you will also need a nut milk bag to strain the milk. If you don’t have one you can also use a very refined strainer, although you may have some residue that comes through. A nut milk bag is the most ideal as it is made specifically for this purpose. A nut milk bag can also be used to make cheese and yogurt! You can find an all-natural 100% unbleached nut milk bag here: Nut Milk Bags, All Natural Cheesecloth Bags, 12″x12″, 2 Pack, 100% Unbleached Cotton Cloth Bags for Cheese/Tea/Yogurt/Juice/Wine/Soup/Herbs, Durable Washable Reusable Almond Milk Strainer(Weave 65×52)
**Note – ensure you remove the pits from the dates before adding them into your blender.. I have made the mistake of forgetting this step.. they don’t break down very easily and are very hard on the blades of your blender!
Directions
Place the almonds and sunflower seeds in a small bowl and cover with water, with an additional 1 inch of water over top of the almonds, and soak overnight. The additional water will allow for any absorption into the nuts.
After soaking, drain the water in a small strainer and add the nuts to a high speed blender. Add all of the remaining ingredients to the blender. Blend on high for 1 minute until smooth and frothy. Place the nut milk bag* inside a large bowl and pour the contents from the blender into the nut milk bag. Ensure that the bag is secure and you are holding it, otherwise it can flop over and the contents will pour out and mix with the strained milk. Gently squeeze the contents to release the milk from the bag and into your bowl. This is the most time consuming and tedious part of the recipe, but trust me it will be worth it in the end!! Once all of the milk is strained, you should be left with about 3/4 -1 cup of pulp. There should be very little moisture left inside the bag. At this time you can dispose of the pulp and you are left with a bowl of fresh almond milk. Pour into your favourite glass milk bottle.
Since this almond milk doesn’t contain any preservatives, it is best to be consumed within 2 to 3 days.