I bought a 16 oz. bag of raw cashews for $7.99 at Whole Foods.
They didn’t have any bulk raw cashews at the time - they might have been cheaper and of course would have avoided the plastic packaging. But I digress…
I was hoping to be able to use this same $7.99 bag of raw cashews to make a decent amount of cashew milk and a decent amount of cashew butter for the week. I almost pulled it off perfectly. Nut butter and milk can be costly. It’s also hard where I live (Philadelphia, PA) to find a nut milk that doesn’t have gross stuff I can’t pronounce in it.
I really like making milk out of cashews because after soaking them overnight, they become super soft and make a really creamy and smooth milk. If you have a high speed blender, you won’t even need to strain it, which is awesome because then you get all of the benefits of the whole nut when you drink the milk. As opposed to almond milk, which you need to strain if you want a smooth milk.
Here’s the recipe I used to make the milk in the video. Next time, I will use 1 cup of soaked cashews, reserving the rest of the bag of cashews for the nut butter. I will do this for two reasons: 1) I made more milk than I needed this week, and 2) the nut butter process would have benefited from another half cup of cashews to help it blend better in the Vitamix.
- 1.5 cups soaked cashews (I like to use raw and soak them in water overnight)
- 4 cups water (this might depend on how creamy and thick you like your milk)
- 2-3 dates (for sweetening if desired)
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract (if desired)
- a pinch of salt
- cinnamon to taste (if desired)
I like to make a sweeter milk to be used in tea, oatmeal, and generally sweet dishes. If you want to use your milk for savory dishes, I would omit the dates, vanilla, and cinnamon.
1.) Blend your soaked and rinsed cashews with 3 cups of water for a couple of minutes, gradually increasing the speed of the blender.
2.) Add more water until you get the consistency you like. I added one more cup, making it 4 cups of water total. Also add the rests of the ingredients and blend again until smooth.
3.) If your milk is not as smooth as you'd like, go ahead and use a nut milk bag, really thin mesh strainer, or cheese cloth to strain the mixture to remove the “pulp”. You can use the pulp for baking!
4.) Transfer to your favorite container, refrigerate, and enjoy!
Do you make your own milk?