I will be the first to say that almond milk is my jam. Or any dairy-free milk honestly. I use it almost everyday, whether it is in my daily smoothie or my mid-day matcha latte. It's one of my fridge 'essentials' you could say. However, there are a lot of brands on the market that have added gums or fillers in their almond milks, so I have recently started to make mine fresh! It's SO easy to do!
Making homemade almond milk requires only two ingredients total (3-4 if desiring a sweeter taste). Here is what you need:
INGREDIENTS
1 cup raw almonds (not salted or roasted!)
3-4 cups of filtered water
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (optional, for a sweeter taste)
1 tablespoon of maple syrup, honey, or 1-2 soaked dates (optional, for a sweeter taste)
pinch of salt (optional)
DIRECTIONS
Add the 1 cup of raw almonds to 4 cups of filtered water in a large bowl.
Let the almonds soak overnight or at least up to 6 hours (**I recommend soaking almonds overnight in cold water, but you could get away with a minimum of 4 hours. Alternatively, you could soak almonds for 1-2 hours in very hot water as well to speed up the process).
Once fully soaked, drain and rinse them.
Add the almonds to a high-powered blender along with 4 cups of fresh, cold water. If you’d like, you can add a splash of vanilla extract, a pinch of salt and a sweetener of your choice, like maple syrup, honey or 1-2 soaked dates. Or you can keep it unsweetened.
Turn the blender on high for 2 minutes and blend until it’s creamy and smooth.
Use a nut-milk bag (I use Ellie's nut milk bag!) or a cheesecloth to strain the almond milk into a bowl.
Then pour the almond milk into an air-tight container and store it in the fridge.
Some common questions asked:
1. How long does fresh almond milk last? Homemade almond milk will last for up to 3 days in the fridge, though it’s best fresh. I don’t really recommend making a large batch or more than you’ll think you’ll use in a couple of days. And it’s so easy to make when needed, there’s really no need to make extra!
2. What can you do with the leftover almond pulp? Place the almond pulp (also known as almond meal) on a baking tray and bake at 200F for 2-3 hours until it's dry. Use it as a topping for granola, chia pudding or yogurt!
Cheers to homemade almond milk!!
Enjoy!!!
xoxo,
Kell