Rice Milk
a dairy-free, nut-free, soya-free vegan milk
Rice milk is a refreshing plant-based alternative to nut, seed and soya based dairy free milks. It is a useful addition to your culinary armory if you are seeking to avoid dairy, nuts and soya. I’ve sweetened this version, but you could omit the yakon syrup and vanilla for a more neutral flavoured milk for use in savoury dishes.
Yakon syrup is made from the sweet tuber root of a particular type of daisy. It looks and tastes a little bit like molasses. I like to use it as a sweetener since it contains inulin - a prebiotic which feeds organisms in the gut microbiome. Yakon syrup contains fructooligosaccharides which tastes sweet but cannot be digested by humans, therefore is said to aid weightloss. It has a very low GI. If you don’t want to use yakon syrup, you could use agave syrup, maple syrup or another liquid sweetener of your choice.
I use toasted brown rice to make this milk as I find that the toasting brings out a nutty flavour in the rice. However, you could also use white rice but omit stage 1 of the method below, the toasting stage.
INGREDIENTS
40g (1/4 cup) brown or white rice
500ml (2 cups) filtered water
250ml (1 cup) coconut milk (or filtered water)
2 teaspoons yakon syrup
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Pinch sea salt
METHOD
Toast the brown rice in a dry frying pan for 3 minutes until it has slightly discoloured. Watch it like a hawk to ensure that it doesn’t burn because a few seconds can make all the difference.
Soak the toasted rice in 1 cup of water and refrigerate overnight or for 8 hours. Drain the rice and rinse well under cold water. Add this to a saucepan with 500ml (2 cups) of water. Bring to the boil and simmer with a lid on for 20 minutes. Drain off the excess water and rinse the rice.
Place the boiled and drained rice into a blender with 500ml (2 cups) of filtered water. Blend until it forms a thick emulsion.
Place a nut milk bag over a large bowl and pour the mixture into the nut milk bag to collect the white rice milk in the bowl. Squeeze the bag gently to ensure you get all the milk from the sediment. Rinse the blender to remove any residue. Return the strained rice milk to the blender. Add the coconut milk, yakon syrup, vanilla and salt and blend again.
Keep the rice milk refrigerated until required. It will keep for up to 3 days in the fridge.