Almond Milk

About

This recipe is from Harvey and Marilyn Diamond’s book Fit for Life, (#ad) . . . one of the first books I read about nutrition. It is written for use with a basic blender. Almonds may be soaked overnight for more ease in blending. The soaking water can then be used as all or part of the blending water.

If you are using a Vitamix or Blentec blender, there will likely be specific instructions for almond milk in your manual. For best results consult your manual.

Ingredients

Directions

1. To blanch almonds, simply place them in boiling water for 30 seconds and then cool. The skins will loosen, and can be easily popped off by squeezing one end of the almonds.
2. Place blanched almonds and water in a blender and blend on high speed for several minutes. When the mixture is smooth and white and the pulp is very fine (you can tell this by looking at the pulp as it hits the sides of the blender), the milk is ready to strain through cheesecloth.
3. When most of the milk has seeped through, gather the ends of the cheesecloth encasing the contents into a pouch. Squeeze the pouch to remove as much of the remaining liquid as you can. Reserve the pulp for cookies, if desired (if using a Vitamix or Blentec blender you probably won’t have enough pulp leftover for cookies).
4. Sweetener such as maple syrup, honey or stevia may be added if desired, but I like this milk plain. A teaspoon or more of almond or vanilla extract can be added to create a more pronounced flavour.
5. The almond milk will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator. It will separate so shake or mix well before using.

Almond Milk / Robin R. photo