Don't you love when you do something for the first time and it's so mind-blowingly easy and wonderful you don't know how you ever lived without it?

That happened to me this weekend when, for the first time ever, I made almond milk!

I came across a recipe for homemade almond milk at the very sweet blog So Good and Tasty. It seemed so crazy-easy that I decided to give it a try.




All you have to do is soak one cup raw almonds in 4-6 cups of water overnight. (I prefer to use 4 cups, which yields a richer drink.)

Then, you blend the almonds and their water in a blender till liquefied. Pour the mixture through a strainer lined with cheesecloth, then squeeze out any remaining liquid from the pulp. (More on the pulp later.)

I made mine into chai by adding agave, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg, cardamom and ground ginger. (I sort of winged it with the spices - probably about 1/2 teaspoon each, and a couple tablespoons agave. I'd suggest starting with small amounts, tasting, and stirring in more if you think it needs it.)

This stuff is GOOD. I could easily drink the whole batch in no time, but I'm trying to practice self-restraint.



So, this is the pulp that's left over after you strain the milk. It's kind of a funny thing. As I was staring at it in my strainer, I was thinking that it was really just perfectly good ground-up almonds and that I couldn't possibly throw it away. So I googled "use leftover almond pulp" and found pages of people just like me, people who make almond milk and can't seem to ever find enough uses for the pulp by-product.

I made mine into granola by just mixing it in with the oats and whatever else you use in your granola. It worked just fine and added that nuttiness that granola needs. I don't think I consume granola at the same rate I could consume this milk though, so I'll have to look for other uses.

Another internet person used the pulp in a cookie recipe that called for ground almonds, and that seemed to work great for her too. I could totally imagine blending it in with any muffin or quick bread recipe that calls for nuts (like, banana nut bread! mmmm).

It seriously makes me wish I had a pet pig or something that I could feed the pulp to, so I could guzzle all the almond milk I wanted, with no pulp by-product worries. (If you have a pig, email me! I'll mail you my pulp.) This pulp is nutritious stuff, and it should go to good use!

Anyway, homemade almond milk is totally my new favorite thing, and I've read that you can apply the same concept to many types of nuts. Next up for me is chai cashew milk. I can barely wait.