If you are dairy intolerant or just prefer plant based milks you should test out making your own! It’s so easy and only takes a few minutes! It is also fresh, and you can control the ingredients.
Here are recipes for making your own almond milk and oat milk. To read more on why our family loves and makes our own plant based milks scroll down below the recipes.
Simple and delicious oat milk.
Oat milk is our new favourite. As long as I have oats in the cupboard and water in the tap we will never run out! It works out to be only 15-20c a litre! Oat milk is creamy and since it has a heavier creamier consistency than other plant based milks it is great even in coffee. I have it on my home made muesli in the morning. It is 80% water so the carb content is not too terrible, and you can skip carbs at lunch and/or dinner to keep carb intake low.
Oats have so much insoluable fibre which is (prebiotic) good for your gut flora. Google oats and gut health and you will be surprised. Oatmilk won’t work on a Keto or Paleo diet but if you are dairy/nut/soy intolerant, or vegan, it is a great choice. Oatmilk stays nice in the fridge for days, and if it thickens up I just add a bit more water.
Oat milk : ingredients
1 cup whole oats
4 or 5 cups water (depends on your preference)
Optional: A dash of honey or a date or two, which gives it a nice flavour.
Oat milk : method
1. Place oats, water and honey into a blender/nutribullet/thermo. Use the ratio 1:4 or 1:5 oats:water.
2. Blend until smooth (e.g. 40 seconds)
3. Strain once with a sieve to take out the heaviest fibre content. Just one strain is fine. If you don;’t do this you end up with oat mud at the bottom of the bottle. You can. save/freeze the fibre meal for baking.
4. Store in a clean bottle in the fridge. Remember, if it thickens up just add more water.
5. Shake before use. Enjoy for several days.
Simple and delicious almond Milk
Almond milk is made exactly the same way as oat milk. It is a bit more costly and may not have as long fridge life as oat milk but it is lovely, and nutritious. It is also lower carb than oat milk.
Almond milk : ingredients.
1 cup raw almonds, complete with skin is fine.
4 or 5 cups water
Optional: A dash of honey or a date or two, which gives it a nice flavour.
Almond milk : method.
1. Place almonds, water and dash of honey into blender. Blend until smooth.
2. Strain once through a sieve to remove the heaviest fibre (almond skin)..
3. Optional: Store the fibre (almond meal) in freezer in bags and add to baking if you bake bread or biscuits.
3. Store in a clean bottle in the fridge.
4. Shake before use. Use within 3 days.
Why we make our own non-dairy milk.
In our family two people are dairy intolerant and we have tried all the ready-made dairy free milks. We will continue to use them at times for convenience. However; for freshness, cost and ingredient control I love to make home-made in my blender. Plus I never have to go to the shops just to get milk! If I have oats in the cupboard I am fine!
We like to eat and cook with whole foods. That means one-ingredient foods like vegetables, fruit, legumes, beans, eegs, meat, fish, etc. We don’t buy much processed food at all, but if we do, we tend to get things that only have 3 or 4 ingredients, like plain corn chips for example. We avoid preservatives, colours and flavours. So the idea of making our own non-dairy milk with just 3 ingredients really appeals to me!
If we want our digestive tract to recognise, digest, and get nutrients from food we should give it food it can easily recognise! Whole foods are best therefore – that is food that is as close as possible to the state it grew in. not food that has been processed in a factory with a bunch of other modified ingredients and blended to the point our body maybe can’t recognise it. Just some thoughts on that topic.
However. I have to confess the absolute truth, and that is that although I am a health food nerd, I do occasionally break out and get fast food. Just for fun. I am not a perfectionist.
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Have fun blending up your own plant based milk!
Siobhan
Into the clearing 