Nut milks are the easiest thing to make. I guarantee that once you make your first batch, you will be wondering why on earth you were buying milk anyway!

There are only two ingredients to this: Nuts and water. That’s it! Now, compare those ingredients with the ones you get at the store, and you will see a plethora of chemical-based/preservative ingredients, particularly in almond milk. Ingredients such as carrageenan, potassium citrate, calcium carbonate and D-Alpha-Tocopherol, not to mention anywhere from 12 to 15 ingredients for something that actually only takes two.

Ingredients in the popular Almond Breeze brand of almond milk

Ingredients in Silk brand almond milk

Now that we’ve seen some examples of milk with 12 ingredients when there should only be 2, let’s go make real almond milk now!

You will need:

• 1 cup organic almonds
• 8 cups filtered water

Step 1:

The night before making your milk, put your almonds in a bowl with four cups of the water and let them soak overnight.

Step 2:

The next day, pour out the water and rinse out your almonds with filtered water. Put your soaked almonds into your high-powered blender along with the 4 remaining cups of filtered water.

Blend on high a couple minutes, making sure the nuts are completely pulverized. Once the nuts and water are blended, you have two options:

1) Put your milk in jars, and store them in the fridge. Or,

2) Take a cheesecloth, nut milk bag, any large piece of straining cloth or a fine mesh strainer. Pour the milk through the strainer or bag, separating the almond pulp from the rest of the milk. This makes the milk smooth, clean and without any texture.

I personally don’t mind the texture, so I skip the straining part, pour the milk into my jars and I’m done! Separation is natural, and the milk will separate even if it is strained. No problem at all, just shake up the jars well and you will have lovely milk again!

See the natural separation of milk in the photo above

There are also a couple of variations you do with your milk. With your almonds and water in the blender, you can add one or all of the below:

– 1 tsp cinnamon

– 4 pitted dates (to sweeten)

– 1 tbsp raw honey

– Another AMAZING variation is to blend your almonds with 4 cups of coconut water instead of regular water. This is by far my favorite way, as the coconut water in itself is sweet, so you don’t have to add any additional flavorings or sweetners.

Enjoy! Let’s go make a frozen berry smoothie with our almond milk now!