How to Make Almond Milk

Almond milk is such a staple in my kitchen. I use it in my morning matcha lattes, my smoothie bowls, and oatmeal. If you’ve followed my blog for a bit, you know that I LOVE smoothie bowls! However, I’ve noticed that store bought almond milks contain a ton of ingredients, including fillers and preservatives. I wanted to make my own almond milk. It’s something that I have been wanting to do for a while and it was seriously so easy! The craziest part? It actually tastes like almonds.

The most basic almond milk is made with only 2 ingredients- almonds and water. You can also add additional ingredients such as dates and cinnamon to sweeten and flavor the almond milk (see recipe for Date Sweetened Almond Milk), but in this post I will just include the most basic almond milk recipe.

To make almond milk, you will need a nut milk bag. I used Ellie’s Best Bigger Better Nut Milk Bag that I was gifted by Ellie’s Best. If you’d like to try Ellie’s Best nut milk bags, check out the Discount Codes section of my blog for 10% off Ellie’s Best. This is the only bag that I have ever used to make almond milk and it worked great! Fresh almond milk lasts about 4-5 days in the refrigerator. For someone like me who uses almond milk everyday, this was no problem at all.

Before I share how to make homemade almond milk, I wanted to share what I believe are some benefits to making your own almond milk instead of buying it.

Benefits of Making Your Own Almond Milk:

First off, I’m all about eating real, natural foods. There is no shortage of diet plans out there- keto, vegan, paleo, pegan, etc. I don’t follow a specific “diet.” My general food philosophy is Eat Real Food. In my opinion, eating real food is #1 and whatever healthy diet plan you follow should come second. I think its important to eat real, natural, wholesome ingredients versus the processed foods that inundate the grocery store shelves today.  Homemade almond milk is completely natural and avoids the introduction of any nasty fillers, preservatives, etc. that are in the almond milks on store shelves. Plus, its easy to make, so why not?

Second, homemade almond milk supports nontoxic living. Homemade almond milk avoids the use of disposable containers that the almond milk is sold in! When I make homemade almond milk, I place it in a large mason jar. This avoids the almond milk’s interaction with plastic or other disposable containers and it also generates no waste!

Last, when you make your own almond milk, you can re-purpose the almond pulp to make yummy recipes! I have an entire tab on my blog devoted to nut pulp recipes linked here. I love making spirulina almond pulp bars or gooey nut pulp brownies. It is very easy to re-purpose nut pulp for future recipes!

What You’ll Need:

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 5 cups filtered water
• Nut Milk Bag

How To Make Almond Milk:

1. Soak almonds in 1 cup of water in the refrigerator overnight.
2. Remove the soaked almonds from the fridge and strain. Rinse the almonds.
3. In a high speed/powered blender, add almonds and 4 cups of filtered water. 4 cups is the starting point, you can add more or less water depending on how watery or creamy you want the almond milk, but 4 cups in my general starting point.
4. Blend the almonds and water for a few minutes until the water turns white (the color of almond milk) and the almonds are fully grinded.
5. Place nut milk bag over a large bowl. Pour the contents of the blender into the nut milk bag. The almond milk will filter through into the bowl and the almond pulp will remain the nut milk bag. Squeeze and twist the nut milk bag repeatedly to remove all of the almond milk.
6. Using a funnel, pour the almond milk into storage container of your choice- I used a large mason jar. Store in the fridge and use within 4-5 days.