Nut milk: it's all the rage. Whether you'recutting downon your dairy intake or just trying to keep up with the trends, nut milk is crucial—it works as a substitute incooking,baking, bowls ofcerealand cups ofcoffee. The downside is that store-bought nut milk can be pricey, and it's often loaded withweird stabilizersandsweeteners.
The solution to your nut milk woes? Learn how to make nut milk yourself, naturally. Hit the bulk bins at your grocery store,stock up on raw nuts and seeds, and get to it—the only other ingredient you need is water.
1. Soak raw nuts or seeds
To extract the maximum amount from your nuts or seeds, you'll want to soak them before blending them. Place 1 cup of raw nuts or seeds in a large bowl, and cover with 2 inches of water. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let them soak at room temperature for at least 12 hours (or up to 2 days). If you're in a super-emergency rush, you can soak the nuts in the same amount ofboilingwater for 30 minutes.
2. Drain and rinse
Toss the soaked nuts into a colander or a fine-mesh strainer and rinse them thoroughly.
3. Blend with fresh water
Add soaked and rinsed nuts into ahigh-powered blender like a Vitamixor a food processor. For 1 cup of nuts, add 4 cups of fresh hot water—using super-hot water yields the creamiest results. Blend until very smooth, about 2 minutes.
4. Strain
Pour the blended mixture through afine-mesh strainerinto a medium bowl. Oh, and don't toss that pulp! You can use it to add fiber and texture tobaked goods,smoothies,granola, etc.
5. Add flavor
If you're looking for a sweeter or specially flavored milk, this is the time to add in layers of complexity. We like to add a pinch of salt and blend in some agave syrup—this mimics the sweet-salty notes of dairy milk—but feel free to add incocoa powderfor chocolate milk, or cinnamon for ahorchata-inspired kick. And if your nut milk is too thick for your tastes, feel free to stir in a bit of water.
And that, friends, is how you make nut milk. Here's the basic recipe, for reference:
