Nut Milks

Creamy, sweet, life-changing nut milk! Full of protein and healthy fats and amazingly diverse vitamins (depending on which nut you choose); nut (or seed) milks are the healthier alternatives to soy, which seems to be the only non-dairy milk baristas have ever heard of. Of course, you can buy nut milk at your local supermarket, but they are usually chock-full with all sorts of weird things, from sugars to preservatives to stabilisers. A lot of health food shops stock some really great wholefood nut milks which are totally delicious, but generally pretty expensive. But once you’ve seen how easy, yummy, and inexpensive your own nut and seed milks are, you’ll never drink store-bought again.

This is one little kitchen routine that will totally change your shopping list forever. And as always, experimenting with flavour will take it to the next level. Here we suggest three (ridiculously yummy) flavours, each with their added health benefits – cashew caramel, macadamia vanilla, and almond-spiced turmeric. Once you have the basics down, you can mix and match with any nuts you feel like.

I personally quit dairy when I started investigating the horrific realities of the industry. I was so upset by what I read – not just for the little cows, but for my poor old self, for whom dairy was a major staple. But, I just couldn’t bear the thought of contributing to the systematic abuse of billions of mothers and their babies. Plus, the more I thought about the consumption of dairy, the more weird out I felt. We the only species on the planet that drinks milk beyond infancy, and the only species to drink the milk of another species. I had never really thought about it before, but suddenly it hit me – I wouldn’t drink milk from my own mother’s breasts, so why on earth was I drinking it from a cow’s? It was milk that a mama had made for her own baby to grow big and strong, and I suddenly felt I didn’t have a right to it.

Lots of things happened in my body when I left dairy behind – I lost weight, my sinuses cleared, I slept better. I’ve never really bad acne or period pain, but the little I did have completely disappeared. But the best thing that happened to me was that my eczema disappeared. I’ve had it my whole life; non-stop, almost everywhere. I’d tried everything – steroid creams, medications, tea baths, banana peels, tar, acupuncture – NOTHING worked. If I had known back then that all I had to do was cut dairy out, I would have been on it like I shot. I just don’t get it anymore – not anywhere. The second I have some dairy though – even accidentally – it’s back, and takes weeks to go away.

So, if you have eczema or a similar condition, I really highly recommend you try cutting dairy out for a few months, and see what happens! Arm yourself with some homemade nut milks and it will be a cake-walk!

Caramel Cashew Milk

1 cup soaked cashews

7 soaked medjool dates

1 tsp salt

4 cups water

1 tbsp maca

Drain the cashews and dates, then add all ingredients to a blender. Blend on high for a couple of minutes. Leave pulp for a thick milk or strain through a nut bag.

Macadamia Vanilla Milk

1/3 cup soaked walnuts

2/3 cup soaked almonds

2 tsp vanilla essence

1 tbsp maple syrup

4 cups water

Drain the walnuts and almonds, then add all ingredients to a blender. Blend on high for a couple of minutes. Strain through a nut bag and keep in an airtight container for up to 4 days.

Spiced Almond Turmeric Milk

1 cup almonds

1 tbsp turmeric

1 tsp ginger powder

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp cinnamon powder

½ tsp cardamom powder

a pinch ground pepper

1 tbsp maple syrup

4 cups water

Drain the almonds and add all ingredients to a blender. Blend on high for a couple of minutes. Strain through a nut bag and keep in an air tight container for up to 4 days.