Almond Milk - Homemade

Making Homemade Almond Milk is fun and easy

You will be amazed! It's delicious. 

Healthy benefits
Almond milk is high in a number of vitamins and minerals, including vitamin E, manganese, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, selenium, iron, fiber, zinc and calcium. Almond milk is lactose, gluten, casein and cholesterol free.

This homemade version is very low in sodium and low in sugar. It has 5.1 grams of protein per serving as opposed to a store bought versions that only has 1 -1.5 grams of protein.

Ingredients: (3 servings – 138 calories per serving)
1 cup raw almonds soaked in water for at least 4 hours
3.5 cups water
2 large pitted Medjool dates
1 vanilla pod (bean) 
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Place almonds in a bowl and cover with water. It’s preferred to soak them overnight (for 8-12 hours) in the water, but you can get away with soaking for 1-2 hours in a pinch.

Almonds get plump after soaking.

Prepare Vanilla Bean

Slice lengthwise and scrape out the caviar with the back of a wide-tip knife. Cut the bean into 1/4" pieces. Place caviar and pieces in the blender. 

Slice vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the caviar

- Drain the almonds and place into a blender along with water, pitted dates, chopped vanilla bean.
- Blend on highest speed for about one minute.
- Pour through a mesh strainer if you like some pulp (I do) or use cheese cloth over the mesh strainer if you want no pulp. Use the backside of spoon to move the almond milk through the pulp.
- Rinse out blender and pour the milk back in. Add the cinnamon and blend on low to combine.
- Pour into a glass jar to store in the fridge. It keeps for up to 3-5 days. Shake jar well before using as the mixture separates when sitting. 

Note to vegan chef
If you don't have a vanilla bean, you could use 1 tsp of vanilla extract, but beware it contains alcohol. (since the alcohol is not being cooked off, the alcohol will remain in the milk). 

You can use the almond pulp for foods like oatmeal, hummus, homemade granola, smoothies, cookie or muffin batter, crackers, or you can even dehydrate it and then blend it up to make almond meal. It freezes too. 

The three common types of vanilla beans are: Bourbon-Madagascar, Mexican and Tahitian. Bourbon-Madagascar beans are rich, sweet and the thinnest of the three beans. Mexican vanilla beans have a smooth rich flavor. Tahitian vanilla beans are the thickest and darkest, and although aromatic they are not as flavorful as the other two types. I like the Madagascar beans. I buy 1/2 pound online from Beanilla.

Nutrition (per 8 oz. serving)

Reference: Vanilla Beans, The Healthier Choice: Almond Milk vs Milk, Calorie Count