Making Almond Milk

By Rachel Davies

There’s a whole raw food world out there.

When I trained at Le Cordon Bleu, and was taught to nourish sauces with just a little bit more butter than I thought possible, somehow they failed to mention health food.

Since then, I’m happier throwing in a little sugar, butter, and chocolate. I really believe that eating everything in moderation, along with lots and fruit and vegetables, is fine.

However, a friend shared a TED talk recently of Sarah Britton, whose blog, My New Roots, is all about whole foods and healthy eating.

Her talk was extraordinary. She beamed, telling her story of how she became interested in nutrition, from a childhood of fast food via time spent on an organic farm, to a trained nutritionist. Her enthusiasm shone while she asked everyone to make one small healthier choice every day. (You can watch the TED talk here)

Sarah made nut milk on stage, and having watched her make some, I reached for a packet of almonds in the supermarket and made my own.

While I was blitzing it up, I kept hearing her excited voice saying ‘Look, it’s nut milk, isn’t that amazing?”

Well, it’s certainly new to me. Of course, if you don’t eat dairy you’ll be familiar with milk alternatives, but I’m impressed with this and am encouraged to keep trying.

Today this almond milk will become part of a date and banana smoothie. I’m going to take two ripe bananas, one pitted date, a good splash of almond milk to cover the fruit, and a tiny drizzle of vanilla paste. I’ll blend it up and pour it into two glasses with ice. Can you think of a better way to start the day?

You can also use almond milk to make non-dairy sweet and savoury dishes such as ice cream and ice lollies, or mashed potatoes and creamed spinach, and I read that it can lower your cholesterol too. Really? I have no evidence, but see how you go with this one, and maybe it will.

Sarah also has recipes to use the chopped almonds, like this nut hummus which I’m going to try. Not bad, eh?

Almond Milk

Makes about 1 litre

Ingredients

1 cup/140g almonds

 Method

• Put the almonds in a bowl, cover generously with water and leave to soak overnight, or for 8-12 hours.
• Drain the nuts and rinse them well. Sarah peels the almonds, but I tried a few, and decided that life’s too short to peel almonds. I’ll leave that part up to you.
• Put the almonds in a blender with 4 cups (950ml) of water. Blend for about a minute, or until the liquid is milky and the almonds are finely chopped.
• Line a jug with muslin, pour over the mixture and squeeze the liquid gently out of the chopped nuts. You could also use a clean tea towel or a fine mesh strainer to strain the liquid.
• Keep your almond milk in the fridge and use as a milk substitute in cereal, tea, savoury dishes, or in the smoothie above. It will keep for about 3 days.

Looking for more healthy recipes?

Why not try this full of greens Summer Minestrone with Pesto 

Or my favourite Carrot and Miso Soup

If you’re looking for inspiration, come along to our Vegetarian Class to learn how to make Asian inspired delicious dishes. Details of all our upcoming classes are here.