Lee.org

I can (and do!) make excellent almond milk at home. Compared with hauling boxes home from the store, mine looks and tastes about the same, is nutritionally the same, costs 1/10 as much,  takes literally 30 seconds of effort, has far less container waste, and I get buckets of foodie cred every time I mention “my home made almond milk”.

Now pay attention because it’s really hard to make home made almond milk. Ready?

1. Put 1 teaspoon of creamy almond butter in your blender
2. Put 1 cup of water in your blender
3. Push the button for 15 seconds. Let go
4. DONE!  You now have nose ticklingly frothy, nutty, slightly gritty, home style almond milk!

Want store-like almond milk? Proceed!

1. Let it sit for 5 minutes
2. Pour it into a glass, easily leaving any foam and sediment behind
3. DONE and DONE!

Seriously. That’s all.

If you want more notes, read on

• Yes, you can double the recipe and stick it in the fridge. Cold milk tastes even more store-bought.
• Organic almond butter begets organic almond milk!
• Does super-premium roasted almond butter taste better? You decide, it’s crazy inexpensive!
• Does it need salt? Add salt!
• Like vanilla almond milk? Add a splash of vanilla!

One cup of store bought almond milk costs $0.62 ($2.50 for a box with 4 cups milk)
One cup of home made almond milk costs $0.06 ($8 for 138 1 tsp servings).

How I arrived at this recipe: I compared the nutrition facts on a carton of Almond Breeze unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk with a jar of Mara Natha Almond Butter. I noticed that a 30 calorie, 1 cup serving of almond milk had almost exactly the same nutritional content as a 1 teaspoon serving of almond butter for calories, fat, carbs, fiber & protein (I used simple algebra and a spreadsheet, you can do it too). I saw all kinds of recipes online for almond milk that involved meticulous soaking of dried almonds and long blend times and figured, “almond butter is easier and I’ve got it. Let’s try blending it!” And darn if it didn’t come out great.

I did a blind taste test with my fiancee and her comments were:

• Color was roughly the same
• Taste was similar except one was more vanilla-y (that would be the vanilla flavored almond milk)
• The purchased almond milk was a tiny bit creamier. She didn’t think it was better or worse. It’s no wonder she noticed, Almond Breeze adds calcium carbonate, tapioca starch, carrageenan, and sunflower lecithin explicitly to improve the mouth feel
• I noticed that the home-made smelled pleasantly nuttier when it was at room temperature

Almond Breeze Original Unsweetened Almond Milk has 12 ingredients: (from their site) ALMONDMILK (FILTERED WATER, ALMONDS), CALCIUM CARBONATE, TAPIOCA STARCH, SEA SALT, POTASSIUM CITRATE, CARRAGEENAN, SUNFLOWER LECITHIN, NATURAL FLAVOR, VITAMIN A PALMITATE, VITAMIN D2 AND D-ALPHA-TOCOPHEROL (NATURAL VITAMIN E).

My home made almond milk has 2 ingredients: almonds and water