How to Make Nut Milks & Other Life Skills

I'm not a fan of cows milk, for a variety of reasons...

There is the ethical side where I question how kind it is to force cows to have calf after calf just so that they can make milk.
Then there is the 'Nutritiony' side, where we often notice digestive difficulties when drinking milk, whether that be bloating or nausea or runny noses or poor immune function.
And then, of course, there is the 'that's weird' side, where, when you take a step back and look at it, humans drink the 'breast' milk of another lactating animal that mother nature made for little calves and calves only to drink to get really big and fat really quickly. Imagine for a moment, if you will, a human expressing milk all year round and feeding it to her dog. Weird.

In saying that I know that most of us have grown up with cows milk as a part of our diets. If you enjoy food and like trying new things, why not experiment with oat, rice or soy milks or better yet, why not try making your own nut milk?

Stop rolling your eyes. You do not have to be a pot smoking, non-working hippy with only commune life to tend to to make nut milk.

This Almond milk will literally take 10 minutes to make. Add to that the fact that making a litre of organic almond milk will set you back about $2.50 versus $6.50 and you can see what I'm saying...it's a good idea.

Almond Milk
Makes 1litre

1c Almonds
4c Water

Equipment
Blender
Old clean pillow case cut on the diagonal to make a triangle shape like this ...

Place almonds in a bowl and cover well with water. Place in fridge for at least 4 hours, but I find doing it the night before you want to make the milk works well.

In the morning drain the water off the almonds and discard it. Place the soaked almonds and 4 cups of fresh water into a blender. Put the lid on and blend for about 4 or 5 minutes. Use any bowl that will hold 1 litre and place your pillow case in it like so ...

Pour all of the liquid in the blender into the pillowcase. Bring all the edges together and squeeze all of the milk out of the pillow case. This might take a minute or two to get all of the liquid out.

Hey presto you have fresh almond milk ready to be stored in the fridge.

The solid meal left in the pillow case is almond meal, which can be stored in the fridge for a few days and used to make cookies, energy balls, cakes etc.

This couldn't really get any easier and the idea can be extended to cashews, hazelnuts, whatever you like, really. Use in smoothies, on cereal or just drink it plain.

Happy drinking guys!