World Vegan Day

[silverfire]

Ingredients:

1 cup of raw almonds (less or more depending on how creamy or how watery you want the milk to be) Don't use roasted as this doesn't really work.

Pinch of salt

Sweetener (either 2 soaked dates or 2 table spoons of agave nectar, or you can use whatever sweetener you like)

Water (around 800mls but you can make it as diluted as you like)


Method:

Soak almonds in water overnight, or for at least four hours (I put them in a bowl of water the night before I want to make the recipe).

Rinse tannins from almonds (dark stuff in the water) by rinsing several times in fresh water. Don't bother taking the almonds skins off, the milk still comes out creamy white.

Place soaked rinsed almonds into a blender and cover with just enough fresh water to almost cover the top of the almonds.

Blend the heck outta them!

Stop blender, place pinch of salt and sweetener in with the blended almonds.

Blend heck out of them again.

Pour the rest of the water into the mixture and blend again.

Get a large piece of cotton sheet, or a pillow slip and wet it, place it into a large jug and pour the mixture through it. Lift up the cloth and gently squeeze the milk from the mixture, it'll come out creamy and frothy!.

Keep the jug in the fridge, it will last approximately three days. You can use it in smoothies and milkshakes, over cereal, or on it's own as a milky drink.

Creamy yumminess!

[Chickpea]

YUM thanks you so much Meg. I'll have to wait until the weekend when the groceries are picked up for me but I am so excited to try this and make smoothies!!! It sounds like it won't be too hard for me to make. Do you think I can freeze it in batches and then thaw it to use it within three days of thawing? I love almonds and snack on them everyday so do you think I will need a sweetener in this? If I have to maybe I could add a strawberry?!!

[Pete :-)]

I have been making this every few days for a couple of weeks since Meg did a demonstration at wvd. After fiddling around with quantities I am making it slightly different. Soaking the almonds for two days instead on one/overnight and adding more water. After straining through the cloth it makes one liter from one cup of almonds.

Haven't tried the dates, currently using agave nectar, but will give it a shot and see how it turns out.

Another big for Meg.

[silverfire]

Hi guys,

I'm glad you like the recipe! Sorry for not getting back to your facebook message Chick, but I've been so busy!

As Pete has demonstrated, this recipe is definitely one you want to tinker with to suit your own tastes. So if you don't want to have sweetener in it, you don't have to. I simply like to make it taste closer to cow's milk, which contains natural sugar in the form of lactose. Cow's milk also contains salt, and the salt actually complements the sugar (as it does in many food combinations).

So try it without sugar, or if it doesn't suit, simply add something like strawberries as you suggested, another is bananas and pretty much any kinds of sweetener.

You could even leave the sweetening till the smoothie stage and just go with what you naturally add to smoothies to make them sweet.

It's up to you.

BTW, this recipe is very healthy, soaked nuts are a great source of nutrients and are enzimatically active, not like their unsoaked counterparts.

[Avene-72]

Ahh, a pillowslip case? That's great! I always thought it had to be some special type of cloth, which is why I never tried it. But if a simple sheet of cotton fabric will do the job, I might have to give this a try. Thanks

[silverfire]

Yeah, people will try and sell you those expensive nut milk bags, you so don't need one (though they are useful for other things like fermenting nut cheeze).

Cotton is the best sort of material, also gauze, and muslin as well. But any old pillowslip will do!

It's like milking your very own plant cow!

[veggiebek]

and good old chux (unused of course) makes a great muslin substitute!!!

[Kitteh]

Some ppl on Raw Pl. have suggested stockings too.

I can't wait to get a food processor so I can make nut milk

[silverfire]

I've tried stockings but if they have that thicker bit at the toe then it's a lost cause! Maybe if the stockings don't have that bit then it would be ok.

And chick, I don't think you can freeze nut milks successfully, I think I've tried though I can't be sure, I seem to remember that they separate out irreversibly.

But hey, that's what experimenting is for eh?

[Fonty]

I've also been drinking almond milk for many years, but not from soaked just from raw almonds. I make it in a blender, though the blender needs to be fairly sturdy to keep this up regularly I've found.

1/2 cup raw almonds
2 cups water

grind almonds to a fine meal first, then add 1 cup of water. Mix thoroughly, about a minute depending on the power of the blender, then slowly add the other half of the water.

Instead of cloth I use two strainers, the first a largish one, and the second a teacup sized strainer. Pour through the large strainer first, then the small one while tapping them against the container or scraping aside almond scrub as you pour with a spoon. It takes a bit of practice to strain them through without the smaller strainer especially overflowing as you go. What you are left with is very white almond milk which I usually add bananas and strawberries to.

The scrub left over can be used for cleaning the skin if you don't mind the mess in the shower or bath.

Andrew.

[Kitteh]

I made this on Saturday, I used a strainer so it was still "bitty" but next time I will use some cotton material. I also added 3 dates for sweetness.

Today I blended 2 ripe narnas with the left over milk and it was delish!

[Fonty]

The trick with the strainer is to use two, a larger one for a quick strain then a small tea-strainer to remove the rest of the scrub. It does take a bit of practice though, I remember having put up with gritty smoothies for a while when I first started making it.

[Kitteh]

I used a stocking the second time and it worked a lot better than one strainer (I only have one!)

[earthfriend]

This is the best milk! I often use a teatowel.

Question: what do you do with the dry meal? I often mix it in my breakfast cereal, or use it to make an almond cake.

[Fonty]

You can also use it as a scrub to wash yourself. It goes off within a day or two though so needs to be kept in the fridge- and it's messy!