How To Make Nut Milk from Almonds, Cashews, or Any Other Nut

Nut milks are nothing new. In fact, The Kitchn’s former editor Emma gave us the play-by-play on making our own almond milk at home a few years ago here. But as the variety of nut milks, nut milk blends, and hybrid almond-coconut-hemp milk creamers continue to fill the shelves, we wondered if we could make every kind of nut milk at home.

The answer is a resounding “Oh heck yes!” because not only can you make any nut milk at home, but it also tastes better, has fewer ingredients, and can be customized at least a hundred different ways. There are few steps to make any nut milk and these include soaking, draining, rinsing, blending, and straining nuts.

We will go through the process of making any nut milk at home using cashews for a creamy, dreamy non-dairy milk. Once you’ve mastered the steps, you can make any and every kind of nut milk at home.

Here’s the short and sweet on making nut milk at home.

• Buy raw nuts.
• Soak the nuts overnight.
• Drain and rinse the soaked nuts.
• Blend the nuts with fresh water.
• Strain the nut milk.
• Sweeten, if desired.
• Chill, drink, enjoy.
• Wash, rinse, repeat once a week for nut milk happiness.

The procedure is unchanged by the nuts of your choice, but here’s some helpful information on which nuts to use.

• Always choose raw nuts. Not only do they last longer, but they also take much better to soaking and grinding and impart a light, clean flavor.
• Make sure the nuts are fresh and the best quality you can afford. Rancid nuts make for rancid nut milk, and since nut milk involves very minimal processing and just two ingredients, buy the best quality you can afford.
• Avoid skins where possible. I’d never suggest that you should peel almonds or pecans, but when making peanut or hazelnut milk, you can remove their skins by soaking and rubbing them gently between clean kitchen towels. This makes for a less chalky texture and more flavor in the finished milk.

Soaking softens the nuts, making their creamy-dreamy flavors more readily available after blending. But soaking also removes the nuts’ phytic acid and enzyme inhibitors, making the nut milk reportedly easier to digest.

Soaking times will be impacted slightly by the size of your nuts. For example, peanuts require six hours, while large cashews really need at least 12 hours. But here’s something important to note: You cannot over-soak the nuts. Really! Soaking nuts for as long as 48 hours makes for tastier, more silky milk. So set your nuts to soak on Friday night and blend them whenever you have time on Saturday or Sunday.

Post-soaking, drain and rinse your soaked nuts. Then add them to a blender with fresh water for blending. The blender really is the best tool for this job, but a food processor works too. Nut milk from a blender is just a bit creamier and sweeter.

After blending, I suggest straining for the most milk-like, drinkable nut milk. Some folks prefer to leave their nut milk unstrained, especially those with high-powered blenders, but note that unstrained milk will separate more in the fridge and will need to be mixed again before serving.

The short answer is no. Nut milk bags are popular among nut-milk making fans, but they aren’t required for straining. You can use a fine-mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth as an easy alternative. You can also use a clean tea towel (something thin with a loose weave like linen works best). A reader even suggested that a clean pair of pantyhose works well in a pinch.

Making nut milk at home leaves you with a unique (and useful and tasty) byproduct: the nut’s strained pulp. Whatever you do, don’t throw this away! You can freeze it — either in a zip-top bag or in ice trays — and pop it out to toss into smoothies.

You can fold the nut pulp into quick-bread batters or pancakes, or add it to warm oatmeal. My favorite use? Folding the nut pulp into granola before baking — it makes the clumpiest, crunchiest granola ever!

You can also spread it out on a baking sheet and bake it in a low oven until completely dry (two to three hours). This dry nut meal can be kept frozen for several months and used in baked goods.

You can use homemade nut milk anywhere you’d use commercial nut milk or dairy milk — in cereal, in coffee, pancake batter, milkshakes, etc. I’d like to add this, though: Homemade nut milk has a special quality that commercial nut milks don’t — maybe it’s simply because you made it yourself — and I think it’s best enjoyed by itself, cold from the fridge.