Homemade Almond Milk

I love almond milk, I use it in my cereal, in smoothies and basically every recipe that calls for milk.  All my life, I have had an intolerance to dairy, and I avoid cow’s milk whenever possible.  However, for some reason, I can’t stop eating cheese and ice cream (I just need to have tiny servings).  There are a lot of tasty varieties of almond milk at the grocery store, but I worry about added sugars and what preservatives they put in the almond milk to extend its shelf life. So over the years, I learned how to make my own almond milk.  To my surprise, when I learned how to make almond milk, I found that it is one of the easiest things that you can make at home in your own kitchen.

Here is the recipe that I use to make my almond milk.

Ingredients:

1 cup almonds

1 date

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

4 cups of filtered water

1.  Place your almonds in a bowl or jar and fill the jar with water so that it covers the almonds and has about an additional inch of water above the almonds.  I like to use a mason jar for this.
2. Let the almonds soak at least 12 hours in the water.  I soak mine overnight and make this fresh in the morning.
3. Drain the water from the almonds and place the almonds in a high-speed blender, add the 4 cups of filtered water, the date, and vanilla.  Blend on high speed for about 2 minutes until the liquid becomes a creamy white color.
4. Using a nut milk bag strain the almond mixture through the nut milk bag into a large bowl or mixing cup, gently squeezing out all the liquid.  You can now transfer into a storage container, mason jar, or milk jug.  I put mine in an old glass milk jug.  Don’t discard the leftover almond meal.  The almond meal can be dried out and used as a topping on yogurt, used in homemade granola, or ground to make almond flour.