It’s easy and quick to make dairy free alternatives with these 7 easy plant milk recipes. They all taste great and are good for you as they are loaded with vitamins and minerals.
Plant milk is more than just soy and all of these recipes are either for nut milk or seed milk. Dairy free milk has been part of many cultures for thousands of years and is not a new invention.
Sunflower Seed Milk
Sunflower seed milk is my favourite plant based milk as its cheap, quick to make and has a creamy taste. As sunflower seeds are almost always raw, unlike many nuts, the seeds can be soaked and sprouted making a healthy milk that is easy to digest.
The vanilla is totallyoptional in this dairy free milk. Some like the natural sunflowerseed taste on its own and others like a hint of vanilla.
Pumpkin Carrot Milk
I’m not going to lie I don’t love pumpkin seeds however I do love them in my pumpkin seed and carrot milk! The sweet carrots and dates give this ridiculously healthy plant milk a sweet dessert taste. This is like a carrot cake in a milkshake! I love this milk after a long day when I don’t want something too heavy, as some foods take hours to digest so affect your sleep. This milk is the perfect something with protein and sweetness to curb hunger pangs.
Pumpkin seeds are a great healthy choice as they contain iron, selenium, zinc, magnesium,calciumand b vitamins in significantamounts. They are also beneficial for heart health and diabetes.
Hemp Chocolate Milk
This is a great plant milk to make if you are short of time as no nut milk bag or straining is needed. Hulled hemp seeds are also known as hemp hearts and these are very high in protein with 32g per 100g! Hemp is a great product as it grows in most places without any fertilizers.
One thing to be careful with hulled hemp seeds is to store them correctly as they go rancid quickly. The best place to store them is in an airtight container in the freezer. Hemp is a great food on a vegan diet due to thehigh quality protein and they are a staple food in many societies.
Sesame Milk
My sesame milk I always think of as halva in a glass with all the taste without any refined sugar or honey. Sesame seed also contains calcium, although you would have to have 100g to get the RDA for an adult. However a glass of this sesame milk still gets you half of your RDA.
Almond Milk and Pulp Cheese
One of the most popular plant kinds of milk is almond as it has a naturally sweet and creamy taste. It’s easy to make your own without adding any emulsifiers or stabilisers that shop bought almond milk contains.
This almond milk recipe is great as it contains a nut cheese recipe using the pulp from the almonds. You can make cheese out of the pulp from all of these recipes. I’ve got several vegan cheese recipes if you want to make dairy free cheese.
Peanut Milk
Peanut is a legume and not actually a nut but that isn’t important as it still creates a nutty and healthy plant milk.
You can either use soaked sprouted peanuts for a raw earthy peanut milk or roasted for a peanut butter style milk.
Instant Plant Milk
Although all of these recipes are easy they are a bit messy and time consuming during a busy morning.
To make instant plant milk just blend together 1 tbsp of nut or seed butter with 1 cup of fresh water and that’s it! All nut butters like peanut, almond and cashew work great in this just as all seed butters do. It isn’t the smoothest plantmilkbut its still pretty great.
If you want raw instant milk then Irecommend makingraw sprouted almond butter or raw cashew butter.
Horchata and Tiger Nut Milk
Horchatais a plant milk that has been around since at least 1000CE. It was made from soaking and grinding tiger nuts. It’s a tasty vegan milk but tiger nuts are still difficult to source. They have been listed as the newest health trend for the last few years but have never taken off.
To make tiger nut milk soak 2 cups of tiger nuts in water with a pinch of salt overnight. Rince then add to a blender with 2 cups of fresh water then blend until smooth. Strain and add any flavouring you like! The same tiger nut pulp can be blended a couple of times with fresh water to create more tiger milk.
Why You Should Make Your Own Plant Milk
I always recommendfor people to make their own plant milk as it’s far better for you and the planet.
It’s better for you as you can soak your nuts or seeds making them more digestibleand eliminates many of the inhibitors and antinutrients. Many shop bought plant milks are very low in their namesake with most almond milk contains 1-2% almonds and have additives to bulk out the product. Also they are often in plastic lined containers that may leach harmful chemicals. Plus it’s much cheaper to make your own plant milk.
Shop bought milk is very bad for the planet as its wasteful to package and transport something heavy that is 98% water.
Almond milk isn’t as unstainable as the dairy industrywould like you to believebut do try making your own almond milk for a healthier, tastier and fresher drink.
Always discard the water you soak your nuts or seeds in or use it to water plants as it’s an excellent fertiliser. You don’t want to drink it as it contains the acid and antinutrients from the nuts but plants love it.
