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?
Hi Adrienne,
I love your recipes and how you give so many options on things!
Have you ever tried making this with slivered or sliced almonds? I bought a huge bag of sliced almonds at Costco and thought of making my own almond milk or flour. Do you think soaking and dehydrating would be beneficial with either of these?
On a separate note, I help open minded people clear their allergies for good, whether they are food, airborne, or seasonal allergies. I won’t list my website here as I wouldn’t want to seem promotional. I just love helping people live allergy free lives! 🙂
Hello there. Yes, that would work but if there is no skin I don’t see how the soaking would help.
Feel free to email me about the success you have had with the things that you do. Thank you. adrienne {at} wholenewmom {dot} com.
Even easier: No need to soak the almonds! For a richer consistency, 1 cup raw nuts to 3 cups water. Nutribullet works just as well as VitaMix for this. Even a regular blender will work. For a sweet “whipped cream” style:: 20 dates, 1 cup raw nuts (cashew and macadamia give smoother result than almonds) and 1 1/2 – 2 C water depending on size and dryness of dates. Vanilla Extract optional. Fresh nutmeg creates a “nog” flavor. I would leave out the salt.
You’re right. But the soaking does take care of the phytates. Love the whipped cream idea!!!
I’m happy to consume the phytates after viewing the related videos on NutritionFacts.org. But for the smoothest possible, creamiest consistency, soaking does make a difference. Thanks for the nice blog!
Oh interesting. What are you referring to re: the videos? Thanks for the kind words!
where do you get almonds for $4 a pound? The cheapest I can find is $10
Prices have increased since that post but you can shop at the place I recommend in this post and get 10% off – they’re less than $10 / lb. https://wholenewmom.com/reaching-out/almonds-health-salmonella-food-pasteurizatio/
You say: “I don’t use organic almonds b/c I think they are low down on the totem pole of contamination, but I hear your concern.” Is that a fact or your opinion? If it’s a fact, where did you get your information? I’ve been researching for months and I can’t find out if I should buy organic nuts and seeds and if not then where can I find ones that have the least amount of pesticides? I’m really only trying to find out about almonds, pecans, sunflower kernels and black walnuts. I can’t find any sunflower kernels grown in the United States and the others I don’t know what the best growing conditions should be.
I’m also interested in finding an organic fair trade coffee and I can’t even find a place to start my research. The one site that I’ve found has a list of about 50 different brands of organic fair trade coffee, but I don’t know how to start narrowing that list down because I’ve never bought fair trade coffee.
Hi there. It’s my opinion. I buy the “dirty dozen” in organic form as much as possible and I don’t bother w/ organic nuts typically.
Check out EWG’s site and that’s where I get some of my information. I don’t know how to research what would have the least or the most pesticides.
Maybe I should look more :).
As for organic fair trade coffee, I don’t drink coffee anymore due to adrenal issues (though I do drink decaf occasionally). What are you hoping to figure out? I have seen it available all over the place so I would think that you should be able to find a good option fairly easily.
Does that help?
If organic is about 1.5 times conventional I might buy it.
I’ve been to the EWG site, the only thing they cover is fruits and vegetables.
With the coffee, the site I found with the big list (it’s at least 50 different ones, probably closer to 100), the price range is sooo far apart and it doesn’t say (of course) in the name of the coffee if they carry “middle of the road” coffee, which is what I want. I’m relying on coffee for my antioxidants and I just want a medium roast, no bells and whistles. I thought, (after I searched and searched) that I would just go to amazon and get some ideas there with the reviews but amazon has a slim slim selection of fair trade organic coffees.
I’m sorry – I forgot about that. I don’t know how to evaluate coffee–maybe ask your friends or call a few companies and go w/ the one you feel the best about?
Deans Beans!!! Best Organic Coffee and best for the people and planet. Reasonable prices for the best quality on the planet.
I have always heard that the skins of the almonds are not good because of the lectins. (Lectins are what plants use to protect themselves from predators. Lectins in plants can cause some people major problems). I drop my almonds in boiling water for just a few seconds and the skins pop right off. Does this affect the almond? What is your opinion about the skins?
Here is some info on that: https://wholenewmom.com/health-concerns/soaking-nuts-seeds/
Your almonds wouldn’t be raw, however, so you would lose some beneficial enzymes.
I may have missed this in glancing over the comments, but how long does this keep in the refrigerator?
I can’t really make shelf life claims but I would think about 4 days at least – similar to store bought milks.
Hi…love your blog. Thank you so much for all the info you give us. Have you ever bought the broken & whole almonds from “Just Almonds?” They are considerably cheaper…doesn’t say what type they are. If I’m adding a sweetener to my milk, almond butter, etc. the sweeter almonds might not be needed. What do you think? I haven’t checked with GPDB yet. We are moving towards dairy free, & buy Silk milk now, but I don’t like the extra thickeners in it. I want to try the almond butter way of making the milk.Thanks for your help.
Thanks! I haven’t but that’s a good idea. Are they the non pareil variety for better taste?
I would think JA would be cheaper than GPDB but you can check. GPDB only has small containers of nuts.
Where do you get almonds at $4/pound?
I just got a discounted price but they have skyrocketed this month due to the drought.
Ah, was so excited to place an order and use my coupon code, but then the SHIPPING PRICES were out of this world. Oh well. So much for saving.
I am sorry you feel that way. I bought a larger amount to make it even out – maybe try that? Price are apparently going to skyrocket soon so it’s a good time to stock up.
An even easier almond milk – just the almonds and water! I like to use almond milk in smoothies anyway, so I don’t need to add flavoring. Another cool thing I have done when not pressed for time – I pour the almond milk through a fine mesh bag (sometimes sold as nut milk bags or as re-usable produce shopping bags) and let the solids just hang for a day or so over a drip bowl (I wrap the string around an upper cabinet knob to keep it in place. Others wrap a chunk of the bag around a wooden spoon that is long enough to rest on two sides of the drip bowl). The resulting, lightly fermented product is a lot like cream cheese!
I’ve heard about that as well!
I love homemade almond milk! I haven’t decided on the perfect sweetener, bc maple and agave are just so delicious and easy and I hate the stevia taste… But I want to try dates at some point, but do they change the consistency?
Unfortunately bc of the cost of organic almonds its much more cost effective to get whole foods organic almond milk, but I still love doing a batch of my own now and again.
I soak mine overnight, drain out the water (using it to water our plants), blend them with 3 cups of water (in my ninja bullet which works fantastically for this and was way cheaper than the vitamix which was well outside my budget!), strain, mix the pulp with another cup or two of water, strain again, sweeten, and then try not to drink it all at once! I’ve also tried pistachios and oh my gosh was that delicious too! I froze the pulp and when I have enough ill turn it into almond flour which is WAY expensive to buy in the store!
Can’t wait to make it again now, and try out some of your other recipes too!
I think you would use so few dates that the consistency change would be minimal.
I don’t use organic almonds b/c I think they are low down on the totem pole of contamination, but I hear your concern.
Pistachio milk–yum!!!!!
I have an almond flour idea coming up soon as well – stay tuned :).
You are vague on the “flavoring”. What do you use for chocolate flavoring? Actual cocoa powder? Something else?
Whatever you like :). I would lean towards plain cocoa or cacao.
Hi!
This sounds so simple and great!
I only have one question: where do you buy almonds $4/lbs????
Check out http://www.justalmonds.com and use my coupon code – WNM to get 10% off :).