Almond milk is a healthy and inexpensive alternative to conventional dairy that you can easily make at home! Statistics show that many people are choosing dairy-free milks and other products due to allergies, concerns about sourcing, or just taste preference.
Why Make Almond Milk?
Like virtually every other food or drink, almond milk is both less expensive and healthier when you make it yourself. While there are decent store bought brands available now, many brands contain additives like carrageenan to remain shelf stable and a keep a consistent texture.
Almond milk is a low glycemic alternative to rice milk, and doesn’t cause problems with hormone levels like soy milk does. It can be used in place of regular milk in recipes and baking. It is easy to make and has a light taste.
We used almond milk when we were working on reversing our son’s dairy intolerance and I still often use it (or homemade coconut milk) in recipes, coffee, or to drink simply because it is so inexpensive and easy to make.
If you are dairy free, making your own almond milk is a great way to save money and avoid additives. As a bonus, you can use the leftover almond pulp to make almond flour for use in recipes! If you are nut free as well, coconut milk is another good alternative.
If you go through a lot of almond milk in your home, I have found that it is much faster to use the Nutr Machine. While it can be pricey (use code WELLNESSMAMA10 for a discount), it can pay for itself very quickly if you use it often enough!
How to Store Homemade Almond Milk
This recipe lasts approximately 4 days in the refrigerator. Our family easily consumes this much almond milk in a few days, but if you won’t use this, it is best to reduce the recipe and make less to use as you need it.
Homemade Almond Milk Recipe
Servings
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw almonds
- 4 cups filtered water (plus more for soaking)
- 1 pinch sea salt
- ½ tsp vanilla extract (or ½ vanilla bean, scraped, optional)
- sweetener (such as 2 dates, 2 TBSP maple syrup, or a few drops of stevia, optional)
Instructions
- If desired, soak almonds for at least 12 hours in pure water with 1/2 tsp sea salt. This is an important step as it breaks down the phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors and cultures beneficial enzymes in the almonds. The longer the almonds soak, the creamier the finished milk will be. (Side note: soaking nuts should be done before eating them as well. Soak nuts in salt water for 12 hours, rinse them, and dry in oven on lowest heat. See tutorial here.)
- Drain the soaking water and rinse the almonds well. Do not keep this water to re-use as it contains phytic acid and is best to discard it.
- In blender or Vitamix combine almonds and pure water along with vanilla, sweeteners, or any other optional ingredients. See the notes below for some flavor suggestions.
- Blend 2-3 minutes until smooth and creamy. Mixture will expand some, so make sure your blender is not full before starting it.
- Strain mixture into a large bowl through a sprout bag, cheesecloth, or thin kitchen towel.
- Pour into glass jar or pitcher and store in refrigerator for up to four days.
Nutrition
Notes
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Do you eat almonds? Ever used almond or coconut milk in place of regular milk? Tell me below!
Amazing recipe!
Everyone in my family loved it. I drank one whole bottle in a day!
What are your thoughts on oat milk? If it were soaked in the same way you’d soak it for oatmeal would that be sufficient in removing the physic acid and still getting good milk?
I found two almond milk-based drink recipes that were wonderful — except that I used store-bought almond milk that contained sugar and other no-nos.
Immediately I bought organic almonds and made my own almond milk using WM’s recipe. What a difference!
Sometimes I make two changes:
* For a thinner milk, I change the proportion of water to almonds (3/4 cup almonds instead of a full cup); and
* For sweeting, I blend with jaggery powder (which is delish!) and three small diced figs.
Cow milk contains blood and puss from the over-excessive use of machines to extract the milk from the cows’ sensitive udders. This is puss free.
Thank you! I was looking for how to make almond milk to use in a fiction book set in Tudor times and I think I’ll give it a go. I guess the almond flour from the pulp can be used to make marchpane [marzipan] as well?
Hi Katie!
Thank you for the recipe, I’ve made it several times and I love it!
Do you soak your almonds at room temperature or in the fridge? How long do you estimate the milk will last with each method?
Needed to switch to almond milk due to allergies and I have a question. Can you make the milk from almond flour and not whole almonds? Thanks for the post.
Thank you for this informative article. I have an old recipe from many years back on making almond milk. It says to boil the almonds, slip the skins off and then process in blender. Strain and drink. Is there any added benefit to doing it your way? Also, do you remove the skins after soaking?
Using heat of 117 degrees and above destroys the healthy enzymes in food. I make our almond and coconut milks without any heat and they come out delicious and healthier.
Love your articles! Question about which kind of water is preferable for maligning almond milk? I’ve tried both spring water (with naturally occurring minerals) and RO (without minerals) and there seems to be a difference in the outcome.
I add a tablespoon of coconut oil and blend in after it’s strained and it makes it creamy like milk
MY Wegman’s sells bulk sprouted organic almonds. Can I use them for milk ? Do I have to soak them since they are already sprouted or just skip to the blender part of the recipe? Thanx
Hi there,
Thanks for the post. I used milk for my smoothies. Is it possible to use the almond milk without filtering it through the cheesecloth or there are side effects? Basically to keep pulp and milk together in the smoothie.
Also, is it necessary to add salt in the soaking process?
Thanks,
Cristiano