How To Make Nut Milk
HOW TO WASH YOUR BAG when you first get it and each time you use it video. :-)
How to make nut milk and keep your bags lasting a long long time. :-)
How to make nut milk or seed milk
Soak some nuts or seeds overnight. (Put a cup or two of nuts or seeds in a bowl and cover with water so that there is an inch of water over the nuts/seeds.) In the morning, rinse through a colander or strainer under the tap. There is no need to save the soak water so discard it. Now you're ready to make milk!
NOTE: if you have soaked a large amount of nuts and don’t intend to make milk with it all, you have 2 options: 1) put remaining nuts that you don’t intend to use back in the bowl and cover with water and then keep it in the fridge for up to 1 week – make sure you change the water daily; 2) put rinsed nuts in a freezer baggie and store in the freezer for future use.
Types of nuts/seeds to make nut milk with: sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, almonds, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, brazil nuts, hemp seeds, cashews, walnuts, pecans.
Basic nut/seed milk recipe:
- 1 cup soaked nuts/seeds
- 3-4 cups filtered water
- 1/2 vanilla bean scraped or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tsp sweetener of your choice (local raw honey, raw agave, 1-2 dates, a few drops of liquid Stevia…)
Add the water and nuts to the blender. 3 cups of water makes a creamy milk – 4 cups is also quite good. Scroll down to see more instructions.
Here I am looking so very serious while adding vanilla – I tend to “guesstimate” the teaspoon…
I think I’ll add some dates to sweeten this time. 2 dates will do…
Make sure you have your hand on top of the VitaMix blender before you blend! (The new lids are much better designed but it’s still a good habit.) Blend for 30 seconds…
OK, now it’s time to use your handy-dandy nut milk bag…
Line a pitcher or big bowl or pot with the bag and pour the contents of the VitaMix pitcher into the bag. The milk will start to drain out of the bottom…
OK, now here is the important part: Make sure you have the top of the bag pinched tightly together with one hand. Then, with your other hand, start SQUEEZING from the center, sqeeze the bottom, squeeze the top. Repeat. People tend to get crazy and figure they are milking a huge cow or something and begin pulling with great force which isn’t necessary. Please just squeeze in the beginning. There’s no need to pull right now. (Do you see in this picture how the milk starts to go UP as well as out of the bag? Well, this is why we squeeze gentle-style. We don’t want that milk to come out the top of the bag, do we?)SQUEEZE GENTLY…
TIP: Please make sure you really hold the top of the hemp bag tightly – it’s thicker material than the nylon bag with a tighter weave so the milk might come out of the top more easily. Both the nylon and hemp bags are built to be sturdy and strong for years of use.
After you have squeezed the majority of the milk out of the bag, now you can start to gently pull and squeeze at the same time…
This whole process of squeezing the milk out takes just a couple minutes. The nylon bag is faster because it is a thinner material. The hemp bag takes a little longer since it is a heavier material…
Now it’s time to drink and enjoy. YUM!
TIP: Nut milks can be made without any sweetener. Unsweetened milk lasts for 5 days in the fridge. Sweetened nut milk lasts about 3 days before it starts to ferment in the fridge. But the milk never lasts that long because it’s so delicious. Make 4 cups of milk every day or every other day to enjoy on your own or with your family. Feel free to add other spices to your nut/seed milks – things like cinnamon, cacao powder, cacao nibs, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger, and superfood powders like VitaMineral Green, Maca, Mesquite, Lucuma, Hemp Protein, etc.
What to do with the leftover nut mash
Wait! Before you compost that nut/seed pulp from your bag, here’s a recipe that you can use to make something FABULOUS with it!
Linda’s Truffles!
- 1 cup nut milk mash (pulp)
- 1/2 cup raw tahini
- 1/4 cup raw carob or cacao powder
- 1/4 cup raw agave to sweeten
- 2 T coconut butter (optional)
- pinch celtic sea salt (optional)
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- water if needed
- extra raw carob or cacao powder in a shallow dish
Put first 7 ingredients in a bowl and mix together. Add a little water if the consistency is too dry. Be careful if you do use some water – you want the mix to be somewhat dry so you can roll them out easily. Roll into balls and then roll into carob or cacao powder to cover. Serve on beautiful plate as truffles!
Basic Chocolate Cake Recipe
- 4 cups nut mash (2 cups almonds, 2 cups hazelnuts)
- 1/2 – 3/4 cup coconut oil
- 2 rounded Tbsp cacao powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of celtic sea salt
Put all ingredients in a food processor or mixer and blend until well mixed. If the mix is too dry, add a little bit of nut milk. It will have a smoothy and creamy texture to it. The coconut oil will help to solidify it, however, if you want an even fudgier mixture, feel free to add 1/4 – 1/2 cup raw nut butter to the mix and hand mix it together. It will be too thick for the food processor but a mixer would work. This is a basic cake mixture to use with your favorite icing recipes.
Other things to make with the nut mash pulp:
- raw cookies
- raw brownies
- raw fudge
- if left unsweetened, many nut cheezes can be made
How to make juice with a nut milk bag
A Juicing Dream
So, you don’t have a big, heavy, expensive and many-parts-to-clean juicer? No problem! You can use this bag in a similar way that you made nut milk to make juices!
Just blend your fruit/veggies in the vitamix with water. Pour through the juicing bag into a pitcher or container. Squeeze the pulp until all the juice comes out. It’s super easy! Rinse and clean as usual.
TIP: When traveling, you can use this handy bag with your personal blender/food processor for fresh fruit and veggie juices! Yippy-Skippy!
Deliciously Detoxifying Drink*:
This is technically a juice that you can make without needing an expensive and hard-to-clean juicer.
* 1-2 cups purple grapes
* 1 cup Italian flat parsley
* 1 cup filtered water
* 1 scoop VitaMineral green (optional)*
Put grapes and parsley in pitcher and add water.
Blend and strain through a nut milk bag. Put juice back in the blender and add some vitamineral green to boost up the green goodness.
Juicing Pulp Recipe
And hold on a second! Before you compost that veggie pulp here’s a recipe that I use to make crackers after making juices. I’m big into using everything so that there is little waste.
Linda’s Basic Veggie Pulp Crackers Recipe
- 2 cups flax seeds
- 1 cup pulp from making fresh juice
- 1 tsp dry ginger or 1 inch fresh ginger
- 1 tsp garlic powder or 2 cloves fresh garlic*
- 1 tsp celtic sea salt or 2 T nama shoyu
- water as needed
- drizzle of honey/agave if you’d like a sweet/savory taste to your crackers (not necessary)
Blend flax seeds in the VitaMix – making sure the pitcher and the seeds are DRY when you blend them! Blend until they turn into flax meal and pour into a bowl. Put remaining ingredients in VitaMix, add water if needed to process ingredients until smooth. Pour into flax meal and mix with spoon. Spread flat onto teflex sheet or parchment paper on the dehydrator tray. Dehydrate for 4-6 hours at 105º and flip. Dehydrate until desired crispiness is achieved. *if using sweet fruit pulp, you might not want to add garlic but experiment and see what turns out to be your favorite.
How to sprout using a nut milk bag
I can SPROUT with these things, too?
Yes, you can! Here’s how:
Fill the bag about a quarter of the way with the grain or seed. Let it soak overnight in a jar or bowl (still in the bag.) In the morning, lift the bag out of the water and rinse. Let it hang on a hook – my friend had the great idea of putting a bar with hooks over her sink to let the sprout bag drain right into the sink. If you don’t have the nifty hooks over your sink, then hang the bag on a cupboard pull with a bowl underneath to catch the water that drips. Rinse your sprouts 2 or 3 times per day & then eat when ready. Sprouting times vary for whatever grain, legume or seed you are sprouting.
These bags provide good air circulation which is what those little sprouts love. With several bags in use, you can have a full sprouting operation going! You can make several types of sprouts for several uses: rejuvelac, salads, pates, porridges, etc. Sprouts truly are living food and living food heals & regenerates a living body!
OK, I sprouted some seeds and legumes, now what do I do?
Linda’s Favorite Sprout Recipe!
- 1 cup parsnips
- 1 cup sunflower sprouts*
- 1/2 cup sprouted lentils
- 1 cup broccoli floweretts
- 3 green onions, chopped
Process the parsnips in the food processor and transfer to bowl. Toss remaining ingredients and then set aside. *Sprout the sunflower seeds until they have tails about 3/4 of an inch long – at this point they are not green but they resemble a thick “rice” – they are sweet and delicious. The processed parsnips resemble a rice as well.
Marinade:
- 3/4 cup water
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 T flax oil
- 2 T agave
- 1/2 cup pineapple
- 3 cloves garlic
- pinch of cayenne
Blend and pour over ingredients above. Stir and let sit for 1-2 hours. Makes about 5 cups. Serving size is 1 cup. These flavors are amazing together!