Nut / Seed Vegan Milk
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Dairy free nut and seed milks usually come in tetrapak containers and although they are recyclable they’re not the easiest to recycle due to the many components so we prefer to avoid the packaging and make our own as and when we need it.
You can make milk from any nut or seed, here are some of our favourites:
Hemp Seed - a great quick vegan milk, no pre-soaking or straining needed. Simply blend and you are good to go! (Not good for heating as separates, so for an alternative quick recipe see Oat milk!)
Cashew Nut - a lovely creamy milk. Best to soak for 4-6hrs before blending. We find straining not always necessary with cashew as usually blends well but for use as milk in drinks best to strain.
Walnut - A delicious nut milk. Best to soak 6hrs/overnight and will need straining after blending.
To make your own vegan milk you’ll need a good blender, a muslin cloth, sieve and bottle for storing milk.
As a general rule seeds will need to be soaked for around 4hrs and nuts for 6hrs.
Use a 1 to 3 ratio, mixing 1 part seed or nut to 3 parts water, for example for a small bottle of milk, measure 100g of your chosen nut or seed (pre-soaking weight) and blend with 300ml water.
To strain use muslin cloth placed over sieve and slowly pour milk through and squeeze cloth - you’ll be left with nut/seed meal and your milk!
Pour milk into bottle and refrigerate, tends to last 3-5 days. Milk will separate as you store so give it a good shake before use.
If you like a sweeter milk you can try adding a little honey, maple syrup or a couple of medjool dates to the blender with the nuts and water. Or if more savoury add a little salt.
Zero Waste Tips
Don’t waste your nut / seed pulp - use in porridge, pancakes, nut roasts, spreads, baking and granola.
If you’re feeling lazy and using the milk for cereals, pancakes, baking etc you can skip the sieving stage and just use the blended milk as is and get all nutrients from the seeds/nuts!