10 Quick Tips for Making Plant Milks
Plant milks are growing in popularity – from almond to macadamia to cashew milk - there is bound to be a plant-based milk to suit your taste. Whilst they are convenient to buy, making your own is quite straight forward. Plus, you get to know exactly what’s in them - and that can mean a lot more nuts in your milk. Any left over pulp can be saved and dried to use as a nut flour - or you can use it wet in a cake like this.
1. Soak your nuts or seeds before making the milk. This makes them easier to digest and softens them for blending.
2. The harder the nut, the longer you need to soak it for. Almonds need about 8 hours whereas cashews, only 2 hours.
3. Store pre-soaked nuts/seeds in the freezer so you can defrost them and rustle up a quick milk in a flash.
4. Think of the ratio 1:3 . When making nut or seed milk use 1 part nuts or seeds to 3 parts water.
5. Use any measuring vessel (like a teacup) but use the same size cup for measuring both the nuts/seeds and the water.
6. After blending, strain your plant milk using a nut milk bag or jelly strainer. You can use a sieve lined with a clean tea towel to strain it instead, but make sure your tea towel isn’t laundered in fragranced washing powder.
7. No strainer? No problem, choose cashews for your milk as they don’t require straining. As a bonus it will produce a richer milk.
8. Sweeten your plant milk when you need it – this means that stored milk can be used for either sweet or savoury dishes.
9. Want to use your plant milk in hot tea or coffee? Blend in a teaspoon of sunflower lecithin to stop it curdling in a hot drink.
10. Store your plant milk in the coldest part of the fridge – which is generally the bottom as warm air rises. The refrigerator door may be easier to access but it is exposed to warm air more frequently so if you store it there, your milk won’t stay fresh as long.