ISO project #1: Making your own milk.

This morning we ran out of milk and to be honest no one felt like going to the shops to get more. We’ve been doing a shop once a week and this has suited us fine.

After about ten minutes I realised that we have almonds, dates and a high speed blender - all you need to make almond milk. So the project begins.

For those that have never made it, home made almond milk is delicious - much better than store bought almond milk. It’s creamy and easy to make. Making your own milk also means you are cutting down on packaging waste. Almond milk is much better for the environment than dairy milk, although not perfect on the environmental scale; almond production is still very water intensive.

What you’ll need

• high speed blender

• 1 cup almonds

• 4-8 dates (depending on how sweet you like milk)

• pinch of salt

• 5 cups of filtered water

• funnel and a bottle to store the milk (we reused our soy milk container)

• nut bag, thin tea towel or cheesecloth

Preparation:

Soak the almonds overnight in cold water, or for 2-4 hours in boiling water. I just went ahead and made them raw and un-soaked, poor blender. I’ll be more organised next time.

Recipe

Put the pre-soaked almonds, filtered water, salt and dates in your high speed blender and blend for about 1 minute or until there are no lumps in the milk. Place your cloth over a bowl, secure with an elastic band and pour your milk through. Take the cloth off the bowl, be careful not to drop any of the nut residue. Bunch and squeeze the cloth over the bowl until all remaining milk comes out. Ladle the milk into your bottle using a funnel and store for up to 4 days in the fridge.

And there you have it - your own milk. Enjoy

Low waste tip

Buy bulk almonds from a bulk food dispenser to avoid plastic packaging

Use up the ground almond in cakes or slices

What have you been making in iso? Get in contact with your iso project in the comments below or at veg@mrsg.org.au