Homemade nut milk

Making products from scratch in the comfort of your own home instead of purchasing them at the grocery store is one of the easiest steps towards a zero-waste lifestyle.

For us, the most obvious choice was nut milk since we use it daily. We just had to find an alternative to store bought boxes. After a little bit of research and a few trial and errors, we’ve found our own favorite recipes and we still wonder why we didn’t start doing this earlier!

Making homemade nut milk is an eco-friendly action because there is no packaging involved, you make it at home and you transfer it directly into containers. It’s also quite easy to play around with the recipe and get creative with your favorites. For example if you like vanilla, simply add vanilla extract, same goes for a chocolate flavor, simply add cocoa powder! It’s actually much quicker to make your own than to run to the store when you realize you don’t have any more milk for your morning coffee or for a recipe. And health wise, there’s no question on the control you have over what goes into your drink and make sure there are no unwanted additives. Once you’ve tasted homemade, it will be hard to go back to store bought, the taste is remarkably better.

Now if you look at the financial side of it, it won’t always be cheaper to do it at home. But all the above-mentioned points make it worth it, if only for a few dollars’ difference.

We buy all our nuts with the NousRire purchasing group because they can offer interesting prices, and we always keep the almond pulp to use in other recipes. See the article on our all-time favorite no-waste recipes here.

Without further ado, here are our two favorite recipes for almond milk as well as for cashew milk.

Almond milk

Ingredients

• 1 cup of almonds
• 3 cups of water
• 1 pinch of salt (optional)
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup (optional)
• 1 tbsp of vanilla extract (optional)

1. Let the almonds sit in water (filtered, ideally) for at least 8 hours. It’s much easier to simply let them sit in water overnight and then make it in the morning.
2. Rinse the almonds with water and add them to your blender with the water it was in along with the other ingredients. This is where you can get creative with your flavors for your almond milk!
3. Blend on high for 2 minutes.
4. Pour the blended mix into a nut milk bag or one of our bulk bags to filter out the pulp. This is where you separate the almond pulp from its milk.
5. Make sure you keep the pulp, it’s delicious in other recipes like muffins, crêpes, granola, crackers etc.
6. Pour your almond milk directly into your favorite container, and enjoy !

*This milk will keep in the fridge for 3 to 5 days. You can also freeze part of it to keep longer, but it should be noted that this will alter the color of it (making it yellowish).

Cashew milk

Ingrédients

• 1 cup of cashews
• 3 cups of water
• 1 pinch of salt (optional)
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup (optional)
• 1 tbsp of maple syrup (optional)

1. Let the cashews sit in water (filtered, ideally) for at least 8 hours. Again, it’s much easier to simply let them sit in water overnight and then make it in the morning.  
2. Rinse the cashews with water and add them to your blender with the water it was in along with the other ingredients.  
3. Blend on high for 2 minutes.
4. Pour your cashew milk directly into your favorite container, and enjoy !

*This milk will keep in the fridge for 3 to 5 days.

**Cashew milk will naturally separate, there will be a bit of deposit at the bottom of your container, simply shake before drinking.

If you don’t think you will be able to drink all the milk you make, make your own ice cubes with part of it, and add them to a smoothie or ice coffee later. It’s delicious and great to have on hand!

There are many variants to nut milk, it can be done with many other kinds of nuts. Either it be hazelnuts, pistachios, brazil nuts, the beauty of homemade products is the creativity behind it !

Flavor ideas

• Chocolate
• Chaï
• Matcha
• Cinnamon & Vanilla
• Strawberry
• Curcuma,cinnamon and honey

*It should be noted that homemade nut milk is not fortified like the ones sold in stores.