Well, I’ve officially jumped on the homemade almond milk/mylk train. I’ve been using it in my shakes, like this one below (see ingredients at the end), for the last few months.

You guys. It’s so easy. Seriously.

I decided to try my hand at it because I was going through carton after carton of store bought almond milk. Ingredients aside of store bought almond milk (which, you can definitely find great brands of), seeing those cartons pile up in the recycling bin was enough to make me want to give the homemade route a go.

It’s the EASIEST thing. You cannot screw it up. Plus, it tastes waaaaay better than store bought, carton varieties. Way more flavour and fresh, but not at all overpowering in that, “almond flavoured way”. Ya know what I mean?

Here’s what you’re gonna need: 

1 cup raw almonds (best quality you can find)

3 cups water (plus, extra water for soaking the almonds)

Nut mylk bag (about $5-6, can find at any health food store)

1L glass jar or 2-500ml mason jars

1 medium sized glass bowl

Optional, but highly recommended: 1 tsp vanilla

Optional, but highly recommended: 1-2 tsp raw honey, or 1-2 dates (or other sweetener of your choice)

Here’s what you’re gonna do: 

Tonight, rinse your 1 cup of almonds and then put them in a medium sized glass bowl. Cover the nuts with water. They’ll need to settle a bit before you can tell how much they’re actually covered with, but I go for about an inch of water above the nuts. Put a dash of sea salt in if you’d like. Let them soak overnight (or about 8-12 hours).

In the morning, give your almonds a quick rinse and then toss them in the blender (no Vitamix here, just a good old fashioned blender). Add in 3 cups of cool water and blend for about 2 minutes.

You’re going to strain the nuts through the nut milk bag into the glass bowl (that you’ve rinsed out). Gently squeeze the liquid out of the bag until you’re just left with almond pulp.

I transfer the almond milk back into the blender and add in the vanilla + honey and give it another blend up. Pour into a 1L glass jar or container and you’re done! You’ve just made homemade almond milk.

(I was using vanilla bean, so you can see the little flecks of it!)

The fresh stuff like this will only keep for about 3 days in the fridge, but you’ll have no problem using it up that quickly. Trust me. I use it in my shakes and smoothies, and in any recipe for a dairy milk sub. (Tip: do not test if it beyond the 3 day mark…!)

Like this shake right here: strawberries, cacao nibs, almond milk, banana. Mmmm!

Delish.

JMG