Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Homemade Almond Milk, Fun!

I love almond milk. I’m an enthusiastic cow’s milk drinker, but I love trying new things and enjoy vanilla almond milk on my cereal. I was intrigued when I saw that Roni of Roni’s Weigh and Green Lite Bites had made her own almond milk. It sounded easy. So here we go!


Ingredients:

1 cup raw almonds
3 cups water
Splash vanilla
Squeeze agave nectar

Soak the almonds overnight in some water.




Mine got almost 24 hours because I wasn’t thinking and put them to soak last night. Since I thought I didn’t have time before work to make the milk I left them until the next evening. But it was so quick and easy, I could have made them in the morning before work, no problem!

Drain and rinse your soaked almonds, then put them in the blender with the three cups of water. Blend for about a minute.



Lay a tea towel over a bowl and slowly pour the contents of the mixer into it. Give it some time to drain.




Or if you’re impatient like me, gather the towel up and squeeze the milk out. By the way, I love that blue bowl so much! I found it in a thrift store when I was in college and every time I look at it, it makes me happy.



You will end up with about 16 ounces of almond milk and plenty of almond meal.




I put the almond meal in the fridge to make something with later, and added enough water to the almond milk to make a quart. J and I both tried it. He’s a trooper; I experiment alot in the kitchen and I like getting a second opinion on my creations.

I think I put too much water in it; I should have tried it first. I made it a little too watery. But it was good. It had a subtle almond taste. I added a splash of vanilla and a squeeze of agave nectar. Even better. J said it tasted like melted ice cream. I decided to give it the final test, in a bowl of cereal.



Fabulous! The almond taste came through more than I expected and married so nicely with the bran cereal and blueberries. I can tell you right now I will make this again and again and again! It was so easy to make and I like being in control of the ingredients.

I will update you when I use the leftover almond meal for something. I was thinking maybe I’d use it in a crust for baked chicken breasts stuffed with broccoli and Laughing Cow cheese. We’ll see. Stay tuned!

10 comments:

JourneyBeyondSurvival said...

That is incredibly interesting! I may have to forward this recipe to my vegetarian sister and her vegan husband. Thank you for passing it on.

liz said...

i just had some in my coffee and it was awesome! and so easy.

liz said...

ok, putting some kind of milk in your coffee is easy, i meant to say making the almond milk is easy :) silly me, typing too fast!

Cammy@TippyToeDiet said...

Thank you for the recipe! I'll definitely be trying this one. Do you know how long it keeps in the fridge?

liz said...

cammy, i can't find any info on how long it keeps, sorry :( i'm guessing mine won't last long enough to give us that info, either!

Agnes said...

I have to try this!

The Chubby Girl Diaries said...

Wow! That's pretty awesome! I have never seen the steps to homemade almond milk before. The end result looked delicious!

~Kellie

Anonymous Fat Girl said...

I'm totally going to try this. I've never had almond milk before but I know a lot of people that swear by it! :) Thanks for the detailed pics.

liz said...

thanks guys! seriously, you HAVE to try making it yourself, SO FREAKIN' EASY! and good,too.

liz said...

i was just at hyvee and bought maybe just under half a pound of raw almonds for under $4. i think they're $8.49 a lb in the bulk section. i priced cartons of almond breeze; i forgot to check the size but i think they were 32 oz. they were $2.29. but they also added a few things for preservation and retaining viscosity. nothing bad i'm sure, but still. anyhoo, i can probably get almost 2 batches of almond milk out of what i bought today, so almost 32 oz. it's a little more expensive than the prepared stuff at the store but i think it tastes better, i know exactly what's in it, and did i mention it's fun?! plus the almond meal byproduct is a bonus, i get to experiment with it.
@cammy: i accidently froze some and thawed it out when i realized. it's just fine! another plus.