Almond Milk Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1/3 C. Raw Organic Almonds
• 2 C. Water
• A pot
• A blender
• A mesh strainer

Directions:

Step 1 – Blanching The Almonds
Bring about 1 cup of water to a boil in your pot. Drop in your almonds. Let them boil for about 3 minutes and then pour everything through your metal mesh strainer so that the water pours out and you’re left with just the almonds. Pour the almonds out onto a plate and let them rest for a few minutes until they are cool enough to touch with your hands.

Once the almonds have cooled a bit, simply rub off their papery skins and discard the skins. That’s all there is to blanching and the end result is the lovely, creamy nut meats, ready to be turned into almond milk.

Step 2 – Making Almond Milk
Put the blanched nuts and 2 cups of fresh water into your electric blender. *Make sure you put the lid on. Blend them until you’ve crushed as many of the nuts as you can and the milk is creamy white and thick. You may have to stop and start the blender, picking it up off the base and shaking it from time to time, as the nuts can get stuck under the blades.

I want to note here that if you use more water/less water or more nuts/less nuts, you can control the exact creaminess of the milk. A higher proportion of water produces a thinner milk, and a higher proportion of nuts produces a thicker one. My proportions in this almond milk recipe results in a milk that I feel is just about right, but you can experiment.


Step 3 – Straining The Almond Milk
Holding your metal mesh strainer over a receptacle – a jar, a bowl or wide-mouthed container of some kind, simply pour the milk through the strainer. Set the pulverized nuts aside. You can strain the milk twice if you want to be sure you’ve gotten out all of the little particles of nuts, but I only strain once. There are fancy bags and other devices for straining nut milks, but we don’t have these around our house and any fine-gauge mesh strainer seems to do the job just fine.
And that’s it. You now have homemade almond milk! It could hardly be easier to make.

Notes:

source: Vegan Reader