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!
Does Almond Milk freeze well?
I freeze mine all the time in 1 or 2 cup increments in mason jars. I like to make several batches at one time and then I freeze what I don’t need to use that day. I cook and bake with it all the time. You just need to remember to give it some time to defrost before use. Defrosting in the fridge can take a very long time. So I place the jar in a bowl of cool water from the tap. You really need to use it that day if you defrost it.
Great discussions! I also use the “whey” that is strained out of the almond milk. I save it in a TupperWare container in the frig and add a spoonful to my daily healthy shake. I hope it is adding a bit of healthy protein and improving the consistency of the shake. Doesn’t seem to have much taste.
Hey Katie 🙂 I’ve been following your site for well over a year and I LOVE IT! Thank you so much for always sharing such great ideas! I was just wondering if you have ever made hemp milk? After experimenting with homemade nut and seed milks (I’ve tried just about everything, just for fun.) The creaminess is amazing, I even like it better than cashew milk 🙂 I do a ratio of 1C seeds/3.5C water, and it’s addicting! I love the hemp seeds for all of their nutrients and healthy fats, but also because they do not require any soaking and they blend so well that most people don’t even strain it. I do not have a fancy blender, so I still use my trusty nut milk bag. I also add a pinch of pink crystal salt, a pinch of raw vanilla powder (sunfood.com if you haven’t tried it….so good.) And I soak about six small dates and add them with their soak water towards the amount of water in the recipe. I know that’s more sugar than some want, but the minerals in the dates make it a free pass for me! I like to drink a big glass over ice with some good, fresh organic cinnamon mixed in. I’ll have it for breakfast some days and even for dessert!! It’s THAT good 🙂 Just wanted to share my favorite milk recipe since you have shared so many wonderful things with me! Thanks again, and keep up the good work, so many of us really do appreciate it!
Hi Katie, do you know what is the nutritional info of home-made almond milk? Filtering removes the pulp, which I believe removes most of the protein, fat, and fiber. Commercial almond milks are useless (and taste weird, not like almonds) as they have just 2.5 grams fat, 1 gram carbs, and 1 gram protein per 8 oz serving, which as I said, is useless. I am guessing home-made has definitely a lot more nutrients than that, but still far from dairy milk. When I have made it before a few times a very long time ago, I did not filter it. Instead, I stirred it just before every sip. In this way, I was getting everything from the almonds in to my body.
Blanched almonds (no skin) complete nutritional data:
1 cup has:
Protein 31.8 grams
Calcium 313 mg
Magnesium 399 mg
They also provide data for vitamin profile, fat profile, etc.
Assuming you make almond milk (3 cups water + 1 cup almonds and don’t filter out the pulp), then divide the values by 4 to get the nutrient data per cup of almond milk.
hi Katie, I purchased some sprouted almonds at whole foods- I was wondering if they still have to be soaked overnight to make almond milk with them. Thanks! 🙂
You still can… It should still help
If have made almond milk in a food processor which works but there was quite a bit pulp left over. Is there a difference between making almond milk with a high speed blend instead of a food procesor.
Hi, Ilse! I’d say you definitely get a lot of leftover pulp with a food processor. I hear a regular blender takes 4-5 minutes to make nut milk. After much research, I bought the Breville super high speed blender – The Boss – which does the job beautifully. It does cost a pretty penny, but two minutes at the highest speed is all it takes and cleaning is a breeze.
I would like to know why you need to dry out the almonds before adding water to them to make almond milk. It seems like you would not need to dry the out, just to add them to water to make the milk. I am REALLY new to this.
Katie, have you tried buying from Just Almonds? They do great discounts on bulk orders so I think it would save you a fortune. I was tipped off about them by an article which explains that many almonds for sale in the USA are sprayed with a toxic chemical call PPO- yum yum!
Made it for the first time today having soaked the almonds more than 12 hrs..
Slipped the skins off and followed the recipe………it is delicious…..and has a nice
creamy texture………am drying the remains for flour…….
I have tried making almond milk about 3 times now and for some reason every time it has had a “skunky” flavour that has made it undrikable. I am so frustrated. I have soaked the nuts, I haven’t soaked them. I have used homemade vanilla in it and artificial. I don’t know what is going wrong. On the plus side, I my coconut milk turns out great. I just want a variety for my kids.
Has anyone else ever had this problem?
Hi Tasha,
I blanch the almonds before soaking them because in every ½ cup of almonds I usually find anywhere from 1 to 3 almonds that are green and mouldy under their skin. And since I don’t like the idea of mouldy almonds soaking with the good ones and perhaps infecting them, I prefer blanching *before* soaking. Perhaps mouldy almonds are the reason you’re getting that “skunky” taste.
Hi Maureen,
How do you blanch the almonds before soaking them?
Thanks
Do you know what other nuts are/are not goitrogenic.
Hi,
I found your website a few months ago and absolutely love it! I have been looking for alternative milk products without having to spend a lot of money.
Do you buy nuts that have already been soaked and then soak them again before making the milk, or do you just buy nuts that are not pre-soaked? I hope that makes sense, as I want to lower the amount of phytic acid as much as possible.
Thanks, Wellness Mama! 🙂
Do you blend the almonds with the skin on after they soak or did you peel them first?
You could also make almond butter and keep in airtight glass jar. Use 2 tbsp. almond butter, 4 cups filtered water, 4 dates, natural vanilla extract (1 tbsp.), and pinch of salt to make almond milk. This skips the whole straining almond process, right?
At what age did you start giving this to your children? My baby doesn’t LOVE formula, she is 9.5 months, and I’m wondering if I can add a little bit of almond milk to it.
Hi Lauren! Did u end up,giving it to your little one? My first thrived on homemade almond milk. I’m about to start giving it to my 11 month old.
I would like to try this using dates to sweeten, but have never worked with dates. How many do you use? I see you said to soak. Is there anything else that should be done?
i used 4 dates for the recipe……soaked only 20min. or so in hot water…..
1-2 dates/L of milk. 1L=4cups (250mL)
Thank you so much for this simple and delicious recipe! I just made it this morning in minutes and am now enjoying it over organic oats, sunflower seeds, and honey. I feel so much better about the pure simplicity of this milk over the store-bought. Thank you for your inspiration and contribution!
So this got me really thinking…. What about a combo of almonds, walnuts for EFAs and sesame seeds for extra calcium as a dairy alternative for young children?
I recently read ground up egg shells are an eggcelent source of calcium. Maybe they can be added to the milk?
I’ve been using different nut milks, but have been recently avoiding them because of concern that I was getting too many omega 6s that way. Any cautions about this? My doctor was very proactive in balancing omega 3s/6s in his celiac patients especially, and he is against ALL nuts for this reason, although macadamias apparently have a more favorable ratio than any of the others.
That is one concern with nuts. You could make homemade coconut milk instead…
I love making almond milk. And I’m glad you mentioned that I can safe the pulp, thank you! Seriously I was like, but it’s so wasteful to put it in my compost. Now I know I can keep it, so thanks.