In the Kitchen: Raw Almond Milk

It is unbelievably easy to make delicious nut milks. I never knew, but it also never occurred to me to make my own because I've always enjoyed my store bought brands. That is until I moved to Rio. I love unsweetened soy and nut milks and they have a lovely subtle sweetness that I'm used to, but searching for unsweetened non-dairy milk has been an expedition without success. Most grocery stores offer soy milk, but ALL are sweetened with either sugar or an artificial sweetener like cellulose. Fake sugars are really unhealthy, so I try to avoid them as much as possible.

Ooh and don't get me started on the almond milk. So far I've found one brand of nut milk, Mandorlat almond milk, but it's so unnatural it's scary. It's made from water and almond SYRUP and then a bunch of additives. I mean...what? I found rice milk at my local organic shop and I swear I didn't see any sweeteners in the list of ingredients. But when I tried it, it was sooo sickly sweet it had to have had sugar. Tasted great in my coffee though.

Fortunately this experience has encouraged me to try something new and one of my favorite things to make is homemade raw almond milk. And it's crazy easy, the steps are soak, blend, and strain.

Ingredients 

• 300 grams of plain raw almonds
• 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1. Soak

Put your almonds in container and completely submerge them in water with a few extra inches above. You can soak your almonds overnight or up to 48hrs and the longer you soak, the creamier the milk. 

2. Blend

Once you're done soaking, strain the almonds and rinse them in clean water. Put them into your blender and fill with 3 1/2 cups of fresh water. Add the vanilla extract and cinnamon then blend baby blend. The milk tastes great on it's own, but I love adding cinnamon and vanilla for a bit natural sweetness.

 

3. Strain

Now you want to strain the almond meal from the milk and there are multiple ways of doing this. The easiest/quickest method is to filter the milk through a cheese cloth. I don't have one so I use a spoon and a fine strainer and that works perfectly, just takes longer. Regardless of the method, make sure to squeeze as much of the liquid out of the almond meal.

BOOM! Almond milk done and it's sweet, creamy and natural goodness. There's also delish almond meal leftover that you can bake with, snack on or throw back into milk shakes for protein and good fat. The milk will last in the fridge for about 3-4 days and it's natural for a little separation to occur, just give it a stir before consuming. I love making breakfast shakes with it and a diabetic nutritionist told me that my morning staple was a healthy and balanced breakfast. Here's my favorite recipe:

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1/2 banana
• 2 tablespoons of natural peanut butter
• 1 tablespoon of linseeds (chia or flaxseed are excellent too)

Great Reads for this post:
Health benefits of almond milk
7 Good reasons to say bye bye to cow's milk

In the Kitchen Dairy-free Tzatziki

I thought going dairy-free would be a challenge, but it's actually been okay. I've also been learning a lot about dairy and it's gotten me rethinking my love of cheese. Studies carried out in The China Study show that the dominant protein casein found in cow's milk promotes cancer growth and has the power to TURN-ON cancer cells in our bodies. Also there's this idea that milk is high in calcium and can prevent osteoporosis. However, dairy is acidic in the body and our body draws calcium from our bones in order to neutralize the acidity of our extra cheese, cheese pizza. This leads to the "brittle bone" disease and countries that consume the most diary and animal products, have the highest rates of osteoporosis and hip fractures. Yikes!

Being on a vegan detox can be tough when eating out in Rio. We went out to a boteco and I saw palm heart soup in a spiced coconut broth on the menu and thought yum. I asked our waiter if it had milk of any kind in the soup and he assured me their was no milk. When the soup arrived, it was filled with melting cheese! Very few restaurants get creative with vegetarian food, so we've mostly been eating in.

The other night I was craving tzatziki, but Greek yogurt is a no-no on my detox. I started thinking about alternatives for yogurt and coconut milk with avocado came to mind. I thought coconut milk would make a great base and the avocado would provide some weight and a creamy texture. Also the avocado would mellow out the coconut flavor in the milk. This was so easy to make, just blend everything together in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Serves 2

• 1 cup of canned coconut milk (full fat is best, but light works too)
• 1/2 of ripe avocado
• 2-3 sprigs of fresh dill
• 1 whole garlic clove
• 2 tsp of olive oil
• sea salt & pepper
• 1/2 large cucumber peeled, seeded and chopped

And thank God it turned out well. It was actually wonderful and Hub loved it. Almost like the real thing and it went well with this amazing babaganoush recipe too. I think it's all about the dill and it brought me back to that wonderful Mykonos trip.

Giving up dairy is a going to be tough if I do decide to commit. I can't say for sure that next time I'm in France I'm going to pass on a beautiful display of fresh cheeses with a glass of Sauternes in my hand; but I don't feel the need to have cheese in my sandwich or in a fried pastry like they love so much here.

Here's some interesting posts from the net if you want to read more:
Does dairy cause cancer?

Debunking the milk myth