If you're like me, you've already stopped drinking cow's milk and you've switched to almond milk, but even unsweetened almond milk purchased from the store has a lot of preservatives and unnecessary ingredients. Making your own almond milk is easy, healthy, and is much more flavorful than anything from the store.
The main ingredient you'll need for almond milk is raw almonds. Most people assume that the almonds they buy from their local stores are raw, but those are actually pasteurized. The reason most almonds are pasteurized is due to multiple Salmonella outbreaks from farms in California in the early 2000s.
If you are over 30, you may remember eating an almond in your youth that had an odd taste to it - especially when compared with almonds that are available today. That odd taste was a natural enzyme inhibitor coating raw almonds that helps keep them dormant during the Winter until the rains of Spring come and soak and sprout the almond. These enzyme inhibitors make it difficult for your body to digest the almond.
My favorite place to buy raw almonds (and amazing dried cranberries) is Wilderness Poets in Oregon. I buy them in a 10 pound bag and freeze the bag - removing only what I need to use at any given time. This keeps the almonds from going rancid in the cupboard or pantry. By processing only one cup at a time, it also keeps the almond milk from spoiling because it should be consumed in a week or less.
A frozen, raw almond and a soaked, sprouted almond
When you're ready to make fresh almond milk, soak one cup of raw, unsalted almonds in a few cups of water for 12 hours. If you want to protect your blender and if you plan to use the resulting almond meal, check the nuts carefully for any pieces of almond shells before soaking the almonds.
Drain and rinse the almonds. For added nutrition and flavor, soak the almonds again for another 12 hours and repeat the draining and rinsing process 12 hours at a time for 48 hours OR until you can start to see a tiny sprout forming at the tip of the almonds. By doing this, you are waking up the almonds and nurturing their life-giving nutrients. This process makes the almonds easy to digest and it makes the nutrients much more bio-available for your body.
Soaking almonds
After the almonds have been soaked and rinsed for a minimum of 12 hours (and a maximum of 48 hours), put the almonds in the blender with two to four cups of fresh water (I use spring water). Two cups of water results in thicker almond milk. Four cups of water results in almond milk that's comparable to the almond milk from the grocery store.
Blend the water and soaked almonds for a few minutes until smooth and creamy.
Once the mixture is smooth, cover a medium or large bowl with a thin, clean dish towel or something similar and secure it with a large elastic. Pour half of the mixture in the middle of the bowl on top of the cloth. Allow the liquid to drain and when there is more space, pour the remaining mixture onto the cloth.
Eventually, you'll no longer hear liquid dripping into the bowl. At this point, remove the elastic and squeeze the remaining liquid into the bowl.
Once all the liquid is drained, what remains in the cloth is almond meal. Almond meal can be used to make other healthy foods and even cookies!
Put the almond meal (aka: almond flour) on a plate and allow it to dry before using it or storing it in the freezer. Depending on how clumpy it dries, you may want to put it in a food processor or use a rolling pin to break up any chunks before using it in another recipe.
If you want sweetened almond milk, rinse the blender and pour the almond milk back into the blender. Add pitted dates one at a time and blend and taste it until it is sweet enough for you. I don't sweeten my almond milk because I don't drink it straight from a glass - I add it to protein shakes (which are already sweetened) and use it in many (but not all) recipes that call for cow's milk.
Pour the almond milk in a pitcher or jar and store it in the fridge. There are no preservatives in this milk, so make sure to use it regularly so it doesn't spoil.
Now you have fresh, bio-available almond milk (and almond flour) made from unpasteurized almonds. Cheers to your health!
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