Recipe: Almond Peach Pit Milk

When you’re knee-deep in peaches this summer and you’ve got their sticky juice running down to your elbows, make this recipe. It actually doesn’t call for the sweet, fleshy fruit at all — it calls for the pits, those nubby, hard-as-rock things that usually get thrown into the trash or compost pile. They might not look like much, but they hold a whole lot of flavor inside. Here, when steeped in almond milk, they transform a seemingly simple-looking glass of the non-dairy stuff into one with serious character: It’s deeper in almond flavor and just ever-so-slightly reminiscent of peaches. Drink it straight; pour it over granola, museli, and oatmeal; or use it to make a peach smoothie even peachier.

But you may have heard they are poisonous, perhaps? While they do contain a very small amount of toxic substance, cooking destroys it and makes them 100% safe. And cooking them gives way to something beautiful — a nutty, almond-like flavor that has the most delicate hint of peach to it. Steeping them in liquid is the easiest way to obtain this flavor, a tip I discovered from Stella Parks of Brave Tart and Serious Eats. Here they bring out more almond flavor in almond milk, but they can be steeped in any kind of milk (or any kind of liquid, for that matter) so feel free to use this recipe as a jumping-off point.