Raw Food Alchemy by Amie Sue
It has been interesting to watch the craze out in the market regarding milk substitutes. Even quick stores are carrying nut, rice, and soy milks. They are pasteurized of course but none the less everyone is becoming more aware of milk intolerance. Making your own nut milks, well shoot, there just isn’t anything out on the market that comes close in flavor. The beauty in making your own is that you can control the sweetness (if even desired) or the consistency. For instance my husband likes his nut milk a take creamier than milk, almost like a 1/2 & 1/2 consistency. We like to slightly sweeten ours as well but you don’t have to.
A friend of ours is spending the next few days with us who is gluten intolerant. So this morning I offered him a bowl of gluten-free cereal with some fresh made nut milk. He immediately said yes but as I was gathering up the dishes, etc, he politely asked if we had regular milk. My husband said yes but asked if he would like to try a swig of the nut milk just to try it. He agreed and said, “Oh man, I will have that!”
When you make your nut milks, remember to never throw away the pulp. The pulp is wonderful for making raw crackers.
This is wonderful to use in cereals, shakes, smoothies…all sorts of things!
NUT PULP – Keep the pulp left over!!! This is amazing stuff to make crackers, croutons, and breads out of! If you can’t use it right away (stays good for about 3 days in the fridge) measure and freeze until it’s needed.
Get creative!
Brazil nuts are a great source of selenium. They have about 2500 times the amount of selenium than any other nut. Selenium is a powerful antioxidant that helps protect against disease. Selenium also slows down the aging process and boosts the immune system!
Pecans are a good source of fiber and contain iron, calcium, vitamins A, B, and C, potassium, and phosphorous.
Macadamia nuts are high in fiber, taste great, and have no cholesterol. They also have a very high proportion of monounsaturated fats (which are the good fats!).
I followed the link for coconut milk from your Lemon Vanilla Frosting recipe, but I don’t see it here. I would love to try it! You have a wonderful website.
Good afternoon Jafdeh,
I went and fixed the broken link. Technology?! :) It should work just fine now. If you run into any more snags just let me know. I appreciate you letting me know. Have a blessed day, amie sue
[...] 2 cups almond pulp [...]
Hi,
also followed the coconut link – and still got this page even though you did tell someone in a post above that it is fixed ;-)
Juicy hugs
Rikke
Hmm, are you referring to the post below? I went to the Lemon Frosting recipe page and clicked on the link for coconut milk and it took me to the coconut milk page, not the nut milk. What am I missing here? :)
How much of the almond do you really use? I wonder how to determinethe nutritional content of homemade nut milk as opposed to Almond Breeze.
Morning Chris,
That is a great question. I have looked myself but the truth is that you won’t get a clear answer because there are to many variables. How dry to squeeze your nut pulp verses someone else? How thick to like you milk? You control all those factors.
I really like your mention on consistency here. In making my nut-milks, that’s what I found the most daunting. In following previous examples of other “milk makers” they said use 1 cup almonds to three cups of water. Another one said use 1/2 cups of almonds to 5 cups of water (yikes!!!).
The consistency that works for me and my husband is close to yours: 1 cup of almonds to 2 cups of water ( I know you use 1 1/2 cups). He likes the sweetened vanilla milk as opposed to the straight plain.
Additionally, I used to throw away the pulp until I knew better.
Hello T,
I too have found a vast array of ratios of nuts to water when it comes to making nut milks. It just all depends on the likes of others. I prefer my nut milks to be more on the creamy side. I am also like you husband, I prefer mine sweetened a bit. :)
Thank you for stopping by. Have a great evening. :)
HELLO AMIE SUE-JUST FOUND YOUR WEBSITE-JUST LOVELY! ESP LIKE YOUR ‘RAW TECHNIQUES’ SECTION…SUPER HELPFUL, AND GREAT PHOTOS.
QUESTION: DO YOU FREEZE YOUR NUTMILKS? ONE OF YOUR PHOTOS LOOKS LIKE IT…
THANKS AND KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!
LAURA
Welcome Laura and thank you :) I am quite passionate about healthy eating and this is a wonderful outlet for me. :) Regarding your question as if I freeze my nut milks. Not on a regular basis. I have a few times and it works just fine but as a habit, it’s best to consume fresh. Have a wonderful day! amie sue
do you have a recipe on how to make rice milk?
No I don’t lana..sorry
hello,
i make rice milk all the time, and it’s just as simple as making almond milk. in the evening i put half a cup whole rice to soak in 4 cups water (if you want it cremier you put more rice). in the morning i put it in the mixer, drain and drink (you can add dates or palm sugar or stevia). if i’m not in a 100% raw fase, i use the “rice pulp” to make burgers: adding some chopped veggies and just a little bit of buckweat flour or chickpeas flour.
hope you enjoy
rosi
Hi rosi,
I haven’t made rice milk before, thank you for putting that out there for others who might be interested. :) Merry Christmas! amie sue
Hi Amie Sue,
I just made a gallon of almond nut milk. First batch with 6 dates, and made the second batch without the dates but added a dash of pink salt.
We LOVE the taste of fresh nut milk! I don’t know why I haven’t tried this earlier.
When you use the nut pulp in your baking recipes, do you dehydrate them first or do you use the wet pulp?
Gina
Oh by the way, i pulled out the maple pumpkin kale chips from the dehydrator this morning, and it is delicious! I bagged them in vacummed sealed ziploc bag so that i can mail them to my mother-in-law tomorrow :-)
Well you have been busy Gina :) As far as the nut pulp goes… I use it wet and dehydrated, just depends on the recipe and what I have to deal with. If I have the time, I will dehydrate it, throw it in the food processor to make a finer flour then store it in a jar in the freezer. If I don’t have time to dehydrate right away, I measure it out and put it in a Ziplock bag, write the measurement and date on the bag and throw it in the freezer.
Vacum sealed the kale chips? Tell me more! I would love to mail kale chips but worry about them showing up in crumbs. Have a great night, amie sue
Amie-Sue,
Thanks for the great tips on the nut pulp usage and storage.
I took out the kale chips from the dehydrator when it was a bit chewy so when they were vacuumed sealed, they would not get crumbly and become powder when the kale chip bag gets to it’s destination. I will tell my mother-in- law to put the kale chips in her oven a little bit if she wants crispier kale chips. I put the kale chip bag in the freezer until I am ready to send it in the mail. Luckily, she lives only 2 hrs away so she will receive it the next day I send it to her.
It’s been a long weekend of cleaning the kitchen when all the raw snack goodies were finally done. Having a brand new dish washer helps :-)
Have a good Monday!
Gina
Thanks Gina… good tips yourself :) You will have to let me know what she thinks! You too have a great day, amie sue
You showed a web site to order a press (I believe it was a cheese press) to make nut milk. I looked under nut milk and can not seem to find where you put it. Your site is exceptional! Talk about motivation to try everything. Raw has never been so delicious and your pics are perfect. Better than any cookbook. Thank you so much!
Good afternoon Connie. Thank you so much. :) It is my passion to motivate, inspire and support you!
I was hiding the cheese press from you. hehe Just kidding. It is listed under “Raw Techniques” Here is the link. http://nouveauraw.com/raw-techniques/nut-milk-a-new-technique/
Have a wonderful day. amie sue
Just made a batch and I like it much better than the commercial stuff for adding to my tea. The commercial stuff is “slippery” and not very good for tea and coffee, just for cereal.
I used a cheese cloth and burst it trying to squeeze the liquid out, so I am going to invest in an actual nut milk bag.
The almond meal will be used up in the near future too :)
Thanks again!
Oh I agree Robyn, the fresh nut milk is miles better than the watery stuff in the stores. And the by-product (almond meal) is amazing for so many recipes. I so love that! Many blessings Robyn and thank you for commenting. amie sue
I don’t understand how to get almond pulp? I wanted to try your cranberry pupkin bread it looks so good, just not sure about the pulp.
Thanks
Lucie, Nut pulp is the by-product that is left over from making nut milk. As you follow the directions listed above to make nut milk… you pour the blended nut milk through a nut bag to strain it. The product left in the bag is called nut pulp. I hope that helps. amie sue
This might sound like a stupid question, lol, but do you use the water you soaked the nuts in to make the milk?
Not stupid at all :) You drain the water. I added that step to the preparation instructions to avoid further confusion on this. :)
Thank you!
Actually, lol, I made nut milk the other day and I did drain the water and use fresh for the blending process but then when I put more nuts in soak tonight, I wondered if I should have used the water and hence my question. Thanks for clearing that up.
Hi Amie Sue
I have a question for you. When I soak the almonds to make almond milk, it says drain and rinse but do I use the liquid I soaked the almond in to make the milk in the blender ? or do I use fresh water to make the milk with in the blender ? Thank you .
I recieved my commercial dehydrator on Saturday, I haven’t taken it out of the box yet. It has 24 racks I can’t wait to try your recipes.
Happy and Healthy New Year to you and your family .
Thank you for your awesome recipes. I so can’t wait to make fruit leathers . Carol :0)
Hello Carol…
After soaking any nut or seeds, always discard the soak water. So when making the nut milk, be sure to be adding fresh water. All the impurities are in that water. Wash that stuff down the drain or feed your plants with it.. that is if they don’t have nut allergies. hahaha Oh, I crack myself up. Sorry. :) A 24 rack dehydrator? I would have died and gone to heaven. What kind is it, may I ask? Many blessings! amie sue
Sure you can ask. My husband found it for me for Christmas, I wanted the smaller one and he said “go big or go home ” and he got me the big one. It was out of stock so I didn’t get it until a few days ago .
It was purchased at Cabelas , it is a commercial dehydrator.
The item # is IK515819. If anyone should have this item it should be you with all the dehydrating that you do . Thank you for your help with the almond milk. I’ll be sure to let you know how it comes out. Carol :0)
Oh nice. I have seen their machines but haven’t tried one, I would love to hear how it works. So, when and if you think about it, keep me posted. Your hubby gets a gold star. hehe
Amie Sue
I just tried punching the item # in for the dehydrator and you can’t see a picture of it , only the small one. The best thing to do is punch in commercial dehydrator in the search bar . You will then see a small dehydrator, click on it then you can click on either picture of the bog one or the small one . It was on sale when we ordered it , we got it for
$379.00. Have a great day :0) Carol
Thank you Carol, I will do some research. amie sue :)
Hi Amie Sue
My batch of almond milk was Fantastic. The mush/pulp was very good too. I tasted it before putting it in the freezer but it was tempting to just eat it right then and there with a spoon.
I poured myself a glass over ice and told my son he had to taste it, that it was the best almond milk he had ever had, well he tasted it and tasted it a second time and asked “was this glass for me?” The sad part was I only made 4 cups. Thank you so much for sharing your treasures with everyone . Carol :0)
Hello Carol… I can that nut milk would go quickly in a household with a child. hehe If nothing else due to demand, you will always have plenty if nut pulp. I never have enough pulp and I can’t use up the milk quick enough since it isn’t a daily thing we drink. But, thank you for sharing that, that is awesome! Have a wonderful weekend. amie sue
I’m ready to try nut milk….dehydrater, the whole nine yards, my daughter is VEGAN and has turned me on to amazing food alternatives.
Thanks
Awesome Lorraine… I am getting ready to make a large batch of nut milk for my girlfriend. :) She loves the stuff. Good luck! amie sue
Aime: I made your almond milk yesterday and it is wonderful. I’ll never buy pre-made organic again. I used 2 cups of water, 1 tsp. of liquid vanilla, and 1 date. Oh, it is heavily rich and thick. I found myself getting up in the middle of the night just to have a bit more. Do you ever use the dry vanilla as I have tons of it right now? If you don’t use it in the almond milk what is your suggestion?
Hello Marlys!
Oh I love vanilla.. in all forms! Pure ground vanilla is much more potent than vanilla extract, I would use about half the amount of extract called for in recipes. I would use it in any recipe truthfully… just use less and taste test as you go. Yum!!
Is it possible to make the almond nut milk after you have already soaked and dehydrated the almonds?
Absolutely Sharon… if it were me though, since you went through all the work of soaking and dehydrating them… I would save them for other recipes and get more almonds and just soak them. But if you don’t have that option or want to use stock on hand, it is just fine. :) Have a great weekend. amie sue
Can you use wet almond meal flour for the almond pulp in your recipes if you don’t have the raw almonds for the milk process. Thank you Pat
Hi Pat,
There is no yes or no answer to this question. The textures are very different from nut pulp to ground wet nuts. It all depends on the recipe and what the end texture is suppose to be. In most cases, most likely, but it will make the recipe denser, etc. If you run past a specific recipe, you can ask me and I can let you know yes or no and why so that way you can learn how/why the different ingredients are being used. Have a blessed weekend, amie sue