Easiest Homemade Almond Milk Recipe
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This Homemade Almond Milk Recipe is going to rock your world, because it's literally the easiest recipe out there. No fuss and no mess, just easy almond milk. You'll see what I mean!
Making processed food substitutes can help you save a ton of money on your whole foods budget. And it doesn't have to take a bunch of time either.
I'm all about easy.
I make my own Homemade Chocolate Chips, Cream of Rice Cereal, Pumpkin Spice Creamer, and Homemade Ketchup.
All of those taste great, and are very simple to make.
But today I'm sharing with you the Easiest Almond Milk Recipe Ever. Seriously.
Why Is Almond Milk Popular?
- Dairy allergies are on the increase.
- Lactose intolerance is on the increase.
- People living a vegan lifestyle want alternatives to dairy for cooking, baking and drinking.
Why Make Your Own Homemade Almond Milk?
- The obvious – save money.
- Save time and money by not running out the store because you've run out of milk (or a dairy-free alternative). Every trip you don't make is money saved on gas, time saved, and less wear and tear on your car.
- Life a more sustainable lifestyle with less packaging and less waste. Even if they ever figure out a way to recycle those aseptic cartons, you can bet that it will be a super labor intensive.
Ever since my oldest was diagnosed with a life-threatening allergy to dairy (at 3 months of age), I've had to find ways to make allergy-free substitutes for drinking and for baking. But this method makes it super easy.
To be fair, this method won't match the super-creamy store-bought, aseptic packed almond milk you are used to. But it gets the job done lickety split. And it's pretty good.
Just yesterday both of my sons asked for some. They said it's not quite as good as my Homemade Coconut Milk, but good nonetheless.
How Much Can You Save?
Just so you can feel super good about yourself and your new frugal tip to help with your budget, here are the real numbers: Of course, this all depends upon where you buy it and your cost for almonds.
Almond Milk bought in bulk, buying 4 32 oz containers at Amazon, costs $2.43 for 4 cups.
Homemade Almond Milk (using a price of $4 per pound for almonds) costs $1.27 for 4 cups (plus your water cost, of course.) Savings: 48% That's not as amazing of a savings amount compared to my Homemade Coconut Milk, or Homemade Rice Milk, but saving almost 50% is nothing to sneeze at.
So there you have it – motivated to save time and money (and be environmentally conscious at the same time)? I hope so!
How to Store
Store this homemade almond milk in the fridge. It should keep for up to 3 or 4 days.
You could alternatively freeze it in cubes to use in your beverages or for making frozen treats in a high speed blender.
What to Do With Leftover Pulp
If you do choose to strain your almond milk, why waste all of that solid almond pulp goodess?
Good thing is, you don't have to!
You can dehydrate it in a dehydrator or an oven on low. Then pulse in food processor (or blender) to make into a finer powder.
The resulting almond meal can be tossed on cereals, put in smoothies or shakes, or used in most any recipe that calls for almond flour.
Recipes for Leftover Almond Pulp Turned to Almond Meal
Here are some great recipes to use your leftover pulp/meal in.
- Edible Cookie Dough – called “dangerously addictive” by a taste tester
- Healthy Green Bean Casserole – so much better than typical recipes
- Sugar-free Twix Bars – your childhood favorite made healthier
- Grain-free Meatballs – no bread or breadcrumbs needed!
- Eggnog Cookies – so tasty, they're absolutely not just for the Holidays
Recipe Notes
- Appearance: This recipe uses whole almonds. If you want your almond milk to be more uniform in appearance, you can use blanched almonds. Otherwise, you will have specks of the almond skins in the resulting milk.
- Stir and Serve: If you don't strain the milk (the way I typically don't), you can either stir the solids into the mix as you wish or use the solids for another purpose.
- Soak First: Some people make almond milk from soaked almonds, but I don't do that. I know it might sound counter-intuitive to dry the almonds before making milk, but I soak and dry a lot of nuts at a time. Then I store them and keep them on hand for snacking, making almond butter, or making this almond milk, or almond meal…you get the picture. This way I always have soaked nuts at the ready for making milk instead of having to time my soaking and milk making together.
- If you are doing a food plan like Trim Healthy Mama, a more acceptable proportion is 1/2 cup almonds per 4 cups of water. You can thicken the resultant milk with glucomannan if desired. This recipe is an “S” for THM.
- Notes about stevia: Stevia is very very sweet. You can read here for more information on how to use it. You can omit the sweetener or use another one as desired.
- Other milks: You can use this method for making other nut-based milk as well – I personally haven't made these (mainly since my son is allergic to all nuts except almond and macadamia, and macadamias are super pricey), but you could definitely try walnut, pecan, hazelnuts, or cashew milk.
- Sweetener options: You can substitute any other healthy sweetener for stevia. If using stevia, see How to Use Stevia.
- Flavoring options: For flavorings, chocolate or carob, as well as cinnamon, are great options, but the sky's the limit!
More Quick and Easy Pantry Staples
If you like saving money and easy recipes, you will love these other options.
- Powdered Sugar – works with any type of sweetener
- Powdered Egg Replacer – works in almost any recipe
- Homemade Vegetable Broth – doubles as an amazing all-purpose seasoning
- Homemade Coconut Butter – great for so many recipes and saves tons of money
Easiest Homemade Almond Milk Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup almonds
- 4 cups water
- 1/32 – 1/16 teaspoon stevia optional: see Recipe Notes for sweetener info.
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla optional; to taste
- dash salt
- other flavorings optional
Instructions
- Place all ingredients in a blender.
- Blend until smooth. In my Vitamix, I blend for approximately 2-3 minutes.
- Strain milk through cheesecloth or a natural unbleached coffee filter, if desired.
- Pour and enjoy.
Notes
- Appearance: This recipe uses whole almonds. If you want your almond milk to be more uniform in appearance, you can use blanched almonds. Otherwise, you will have specks of the almond skins in the resulting milk.
- Stir and Serve: If you don't strain the milk (I typically don't), you can either stir the solids into the mix as you wish or use the solids for another purpose.
- Soak First: Some people make almond milk from soaked almonds, but I don't do that. I know it might sound counter-intuitive to dry the almonds before making milk, but I soak and dry a lot of nuts at a time. Then I store them and keep them on hand for snacking, making almond butter, or making this almond milk, or almond meal. This way I always have soaked nuts at the ready for making milk instead of having to time my soaking and milk making together.
- If you are doing a food plan like Trim Healthy Mama, a more acceptable proportion is 1/2 cup almonds per 4 cups of water. You can thicken the resultant milk with glucomannan if desired. This recipe is an “S” for THM.
- Sweeteners. Stevia is very very sweet but you can omit the sweetener or use another one as desired.
- Other Milks: You can use this method for making walnut, pecan, hazelnut, or cashew milk.
- Sweetener Options: You can substitute any other healthy sweetener for stevia. If using stevia, see How to Use Stevia.
- Flavoring Options: For flavorings, chocolate or carob, as well as cinnamon, are great options, but the sky's the limit!
- To Strain or Not to Strain: I typically don't bother and just deal with the milk not being perfect. But it is a lot smoother that way so do whatever you like!
Nutrition
Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy and is an estimate only. It may vary depending on ingredient brands, substitutions, and preparation methods. Optional ingredients are not included. Net carbs are typically calculated by subtracting fiber and sugar alcohols (such as erythritol) from total carbohydrates. This information should not be relied upon for medical or nutritional purposes.
What's your favorite way to use almond milk?
Do the almonds need to be dehydrated? I thought when you soak them you activate the enzymes. And when you dehydrate them they preserve the enzymes. Cant you just soak them and then blend them?
Yes, you could do that but they will have too much moisture in them. You’ll have more of the makings for a dairy free cheesecake like in my Chocolate Cheesecake Cupcakes.
Karen…the info that came with my Excalibur said it costs 3 cents per hour to run so you can figure that into your cost. Not too pricey.
You posted the savings Adrienne, did you figure in the cost of dehydrating those almonds in the Excalibur for several hours? That machine does not run for free in my house. : (
No, sorry. If not, you would have to buy the almonds soaked and dried and that is nearly impossible :).
Hi! I’m just curious… For almond milk, if I soak the almonds, is it necessary to dehydrate them first before blending them in water? What effect would it have if I didn’t dehydrate? Thanks!! (Also, how long does almond milk usually last in the fridge?)
No, it’s not. I do just because I dehydrate all of my nuts and seeds. I have read it keeps about 3 days and other places–about 4. Of course, it will keep for a shorter time in the door of the fridge.
Thank you! I hate to dehydrate if I don’t need to because it’s 12 hours in my gas oven on low with the door cracked open! Thanks a lot! =]
Hi!I am just enjoyng this homemade almond milk,delicious:)Thank you so much for all the recepies.Do you think it’s better if use organic almonds?For how long can I keep it in the fridge?
Thank you!
Yea! I think organic is almost always better, but I don’t buy organic almonds. Since they have a really thick shell I spend my organic $$s elsewhere. Like on veggies and meats and fats. :). I typically don’t have it around that long, but I’ve seen sites saying to use it w/in 3 days. I think it depends on the temp of your fridge, of course! You can always freeze extra in cubes and use it in tea and coffee, etc.
How is this compared to cows milk when used for cooking/baking?
You can sub 1:1, but it will have a slightly different taste / texture. I don’t think that much though. Rice milk seems to alter things more.
Great post! You are right making your own dairy free milks is super frugal and even better, you don’t get unnecessary additives, preservatives, carrageenan and other unwanted things.
I wish I could get almonds for $4 a pound. Everything has to be gluten-free, including processing plants so I guess that unfortunately drives the price higher.
I agree, coconut milk is my fave too!!!
We do a bulk almond buy each fall I am not sure but I might have extras if you want but they are 5.16 per pound and up. Did you check Just Almonds on my sidebar? I am not sure if they are GF or not. But they are great!
I think Just Almonds (in my sidebar…10% off w/ CODE WNM) is GF. But call and see!
Using a Vitamix I find that it’s not necessary to strain the almond milk. I blogged about about it.
and most recently I made a comparison to commercially-bought almond milk.
Why don’t you just use almond butter? So much easier than having to strain all that almond bulk out of the milk. 3 cups water, 2 tbsp almond butter, in your vitamix for 4 minutes on high, then you can strain it if you want, but it’s not necessary and it takes way less time if you do choose to strain it. also, i bet if you used a blanched almond butter it would be perfectly smooth even without straining. i make my own almond butter, because all you have to do is put almonds in a food processor, and 20-30 minutes later you have wonderfully smooth almond butter. my particular food processor has a blade that tends to lift and fly off (for everything), so i like to stay and push it down every once in a while while i’m cooking dinner, but if you don’t have that problem you could absolutely leave it and come back when it’s done.
I was actually thinking about this just last night b/c whenever I make seed or nut butter I just add water to my Vitamix and then blend a bunch of water w/ the remains of the butter to make almond milk – cleans out the blender and gets us more to eat. I have almond / nut / seed butter on my blog already :-).
So funny you left this comment the morning after I was thinking the same thing :).
Thank you for taking the time to post your almond milk recipe. I am using it my first effort at making a quinoa pudding for my lactose-intolerant family. Just wanted to note that one “pores” over a book or whatever, not “pours.”