DIY Almond Milk

Embracing a plant-based lifestyle, we have evolved from being avid cow's milk enthusiasts to enthusiastic proponents of homemade alternatives. Our journey towards reducing our reliance on Tetra Packs and plastics in the kitchen led us to discover the wonders of creating our own almond milk. Now, we find ourselves pondering the delightful process of crafting DIY almond milk right in our own homes. If you're curious about how to make almond milk at home, join us on this flavorful and sustainable adventure.

At first, we couldn't get to make the almond milk as creamy as we liked the store-bought one, but as soon as we perfectioned it, it arrived to stay.

We like that this recipe is super adjustable. You can make it creamier, sweeter, or flavor infused. You can also make it plain if you need it to make a vegan bechamel sauce, vegan mashed sweet potatoes, or vegan cheese.

It is cheaper than store-bought and super easy to make. It requires 2 ingredients, 5 minutes, and a blender.

We also use this almond milk to make our breakfast banana oatmeal smoothie to make it perfectly creamy!

Jump to:

• 🤔 Why should you do your own?
• 🧾 Ingredients
• 🔪 Instructions
• 💧 Soaking your Almonds
• 💡 How to make almond milk creamer
• 🧐 Can you cook with almond milk
• 📚 What to Do with Almond Pulp
• 👨🏻‍🍳 What to do with almond milk
• ⏲️ how long does homemade almond milk last
• 👨🏻‍🍳 How to Use it
• 🥛 how to make buttermilk with almond milk
• ❓ FAQ
• 📋 Recipe
• 🌡️ Food safety
• 💬 Reviews and Comments

🤔 Why should you do your own?

Health

If you look into the ingredients list of most commercial Almond milk, it's full of strange ingredients such as guar gum, lecithin, and the list gets longer.

The only reason they do it is to preserve it for longer, thicken it, and stabilize the mixture, resembling more cow's milk.

Almond milk, once stored, will inevitably separate, but you have to shake it before consuming it.  Do we need to add all of these ingredients just because we can't shake our milk before drinking it? We think most of us don't mind; we just need to have the information.

This dairy-free milk is perfect for your Superfood Green Detox Smoothie, also on this site, to complement your weekly breakfast meal plan.

Convenience

This DIY almond milk is effortless to make; it only takes us 5 minutes.

You can make only the quantity you need.

It's fully adjustable on flavor, thickness, and sweetness.

Economy

Being an Engineer by profession, I decided to crunch the numbers during my time living in Northern Italy, where expenses tend to be on the higher side for items like milk and almonds. To my surprise, I discovered that making almond milk at home was actually 15% more cost-effective.

It's important to note that when comparing the cost, we are specifically referring to almond milk and not cow's milk. This distinction is crucial because dairy products, including cow's milk, are often subsidized globally, making them a different category altogether.

150 Tetra Packs saved per year: 3 per week!

That's not a lot, but this number gets better when you consider that I use the remaining pulp to replace the nuts that I use for my smoothies and replace half of the nuts I used for my homemade granola bars.

Read on: Recipes using almond pulp and how to make almond meal »

Also, we use a lot of nut milk regularly, so the number piles up rapidly.

🧾 Ingredients

The Almond milk ingredients list is as short as one ingredient: almonds, plus water, and optionally a sweetener.

• Raw almonds
• Water
• Optional: natural sweetener (like dates or maple syrup)

Note: keep your almond milk unsweetened if you plan to make vegan buttermilk with it. See our post explaining the details and the best combinations to make the best vegan buttermilk, easily made with soy milk, this almond milk, or even oat milk.

🔪 Instructions

So, how do you get milk from almonds?

The first thing you need to do is put your almonds to soak overnight in water.

You need to drain the almonds and add them to the blender for 1 to 2 minutes along with water.

You can optionally add a pinch of salt and your preferred sweetener or flavoring flavor enhancers.

Suggested sweeteners: dates, date paste, raisins, agave syrup, or maple syrup.

Then you need to strain through a nut milk bag or fine-mesh sieve lined with cheesecloth, squeezing out as much liquid as possible.

Add in ideas: cocoa powder (see how to make almond chocolate milk), vanilla extract, coffee, strawberry, or hazelnuts.

💧 Soaking your Almonds

• Soak the almonds at room temperature or in the fridge.
• If a day has passed and you forgot or didn't get to make the almond milk, they are at room temperature, change the water, and put the soaking almonds in the fridge.
• If you need to make the almond milk the same day, pour boiling water into the almonds to accelerate the process and leave them soaking for one hour.

💡 How to make almond milk creamer

How to thicken almond milk?

If you want thicker almond milk, increase the almonds from 1 cup to 1 ¼ or 1 ½ or reduce the water from 5 cups to 4 cups.

We find the perfect thickness for our taste is 1 cup of almonds / 5 cups of water.

Suggested thick almond milk options:

• 1 cup of almonds / 4 cups of water, if you don't mind sacrificing the final volume.
• 1 ½ cups almonds / 5 cups of water, if you want the same volume.

If you want thinner almond milk, reduce the number of almonds to ¾ cup or increase water by one cup.

🧐 Can you cook with almond milk

Yes, you can cook almond milk! In fact, many people love to cook with almond milk because it has a rich and creamy taste that enhances many recipes. While you can purchase almond milk at most grocery stores, many people prefer to make their own almond milk at home.

📚 What to Do with Almond Pulp

We add the remaining almond pulp to our Post-work Out Protein Shake, replacing the nuts component with pulp.

Also, we like to replace half of the required number of nuts for pulp in our Granola Bars.

If you are using non-organic almonds and prefer avoiding the residual pesticides that almonds skins might have, you may choose not to use the pulp.

👨🏻‍🍳 What to do with almond milk

Below are some recipes where you could use your almond milk:

• Vegan mashed potatoes
• Vegan Bechamel Sauce
• Post-Work Out Smoothie
• Easy Strawberry Banana Smoothie
• Vegan Cauliflower Wings
• Creamy Vegan Sauce for Everything

Read on: How to make homemade cashew milk »

⏲️ how long does homemade almond milk last

How long homemade almond milk last depends on whether you sterilize your equipment and how fresh your ingredients are. In general, we have found it lasts about 3-4 days.

We often use almond milk for our morning smoothies and coffee, so one batch only makes it to the third day. If you are like us, you don't need to sterilize your ingredients as it reaches the 3^rd day without any problem.

If you find that it goes off before expected, easily sterilize your bottles either:

1. Pouring boiling water inside, ensuring the jars are not cold so that they won't break.
2. Then, put them in the dishwasher.

If you have unexpectedly left home or didn't use your milk soon enough and want to prevent it from going off, you can freeze it in ice cube trays and save them to add to your morning smoothies.

👨🏻‍🍳 How to Use it

You can use it the same way you would use regular milk: in your coffee, in smoothies, in your morning granola, pumpkin maple granola, or breakfast fruit bowl, bechamel sauce, pumpkin overnight oats, blueberry overnight oats, baking, and even making vegan cheese.

You can also make vegan chocolate milk using this recipe as a base.

🥛 how to make buttermilk with almond milk

Make buttermilk with almond milk, adding one tablespoon of apple cider vinegar, white vinegar, or lemon juice to a cup of almond milk. See full details.

❓ FAQ

⭐ If you try this recipe, let us know! 💬 Leave a comment, rate it, and don't forget to tag us @ourplantbasedworld on Instagram. Cheers!

📋 Recipe