HOMEMADE Cashew Milk by watereverysunday
Have you tried cashew milk? You can certainly pick one up at your local grocery stores, but this recipe is really easy to make at home and has an unexpectedly yummy taste. So yummy that you wouldn't believe why you haven't had this before....sort of... The store bought ones have that standard taste, but not as yummy as this one.
This homemade recipe is not a straight forwardly made with cashews only and has some other ingredients in it, which makes it more of a tasteful drink than just a nut milk. In fact, it took me a couple of times to perfect it but after all, it was well worth it.
The recipe is a DIY remake of the original blueprint cashew vanilla cinnamon agave milk. Number 6 juice in their cleanse series, but they no longer make this juice/milk and now it is replaced by a new nuts formula.
*We are not affiliated/paid for any products/brands/companies/websites featured in this blog post.
Image: Blueprint Juice
I was first introduced to this milk during my blueprint juice cleanse about 5 years ago when those juice cleanses were super popular and they are still around. I tried 3 and 5 days cleanses on sale. Wow they were interesting.. I felt quite cleansed and really enjoyed the experience!! I went yoga sessions during these cleanse and I have to say I was not at all hungry, but feeling kinda healthy high. The first 2 days were the hardest because I was constantly hungry from not having meals and only allowed to have these juices. I drank a bottle every 3-5 hours throughout the days according to the instructions and numbered juices by the order. But when 3rd day came, I felt like I could fly (in mind). This cashew milk bottle was served at the end of the day for a couple of days during the cleanse, and the first time I have this milk?, OMG, not sure maybe because I was so hungry but it was so so ~~~ good. I could still remember the taste. It is rich and does taste like milk but more of creamy taste and so good with vanilla, cinnamon and agave.
When I finished the cleanse, I went to look for this cashew milk at the markets but these are quite expensive for a juice/milk, priced at $10-11 per bottle while other juices are cheaper because of having less ingredients.
A lot of people online certainly found this milk so tasty that many posted their own DIY recipes. The ingredients are pretty obvious to identify from the bottle. Since these are freshly made juices and to be consumed within 3-5 days while refrigerated, the company is very transparent on their ingredients labeling. Thanks to that.
So I made it at home and I was able to replicate the taste. It took me a couple times to perfect it but after that, it is an easy-breezy recipe.
If you are a vegan or lactose intolerant, or don't drink milk for whatever reason, cashew milk is a great alternative non-dairy milk. You can also try to make almond milk in the same way, but I kind of like the store bought almond milk better.
WHAT'S IN THE CASHEWS?
Cashews have a good amount of healthy fat and protein and also rich in magnesium, iron, potassium and others. Wanna know more about cashew's health benefits? Here is a good article to read.
Cashew Tree - Image: wikipedia
Never knew how cashew trees look like.. did you? These pear shaped cashew fruits are called cashew apples, with the curved edible cashew seeds coming out from its end, which are the cashew nuts that we eat. That said, there are nothing nuts about this tree and cashews aren't really 'nuts', but seeds! Only they taste like nuts.....are you sad? I'm not.
Image: bulkpowders.co.uk
Now, the recipe....
R E C I P E
INGREDIENTS:
Serves 2-3 servings or yields
About 499 calories per 16 oz serving.
1 cup (8 oz) raw cashews
4 cups filtered water
2 Tablespoons of agave nectar or honey
2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon power
1 vanilla beans or 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract
A pinch of salt (don't forget this, this makes difference)
HOW TO:
1. Soak the cashews in water overnight & drain. I tried 4- 6 hours soaking but you need to soak them longer. These are pretty tough nuts... Once soaked and soft, try to use as soon as possible. Soaked nuts do go bad. Imagine it like with beans.
2. Rinse the cashews until the water runs clean. The water runs milky and even feels oily.
3. Blend cashews with 1 cup of water until smooth. Use high quality blender for finer blending. It makes a huge difference. If your blender is not strong enough, blend longer until at least smoothies like quality.
4. Add the rest of ingredients - remaining 3 cups of water, agave nectar or honey, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. I like agave nectar since it is the original recipe ingredient. Blend at high speed until well liquified. You can certainly add less or more agave to your preference.
5. If you like clean and pulp free milk, strain the liquid through cheese clothes or mesh strainer. If your blender is strong enough, you might not need filtering. But filtering makes a huge difference. Try to drink unfiltered and filtered ones, the taste is like night and day.
6. Enjoy the yummy milk! Store the remaining milk in the refrigerator and consume within 3-4 days. I like to store it in retro glass milk bottle. The milk does go bad like other fresh food. Shake before serving. The pulp/powder does settle.
*If you filter the milk, don't just throw away the leftover nut pulp. You can simply reuse them by adding your morning cereals, which is certainly a good source of fiber, or bake something out of it. But just remember to use them quickly.
For cost-wise, 16 oz bag of organic cashews makes about 80+ oz of milk. So you do the math. It is yummy, healthy & money worthy!
Thrive Organic Raw Cashews 16 oz, $12-18 thrivemarket.com
Libbey Glass Milk Bottle 33.5 oz $10.08, amazon.com
HOPE YOU ENJOY THE RECIPE!!
Now a mini story to add.....
MY DETOX FASTING STORY
I am currently doing some intermittent fasting for a spring body cleanse and detoxing. I am NOT doing it for a weight loss but to feel good. 5 days of normal eating and 2 days of fasting with one meal under 500 calories per day (600 calories for men) while fasting, and this cashew milk (approx 500 calories per serving) is a perfect meal replacement during the fasting. However this time, I had coconut oil fried tofu salad with kale, carrot and onion and peanut sauce, which has about 500 calories. I'm not a vegetarian but this buddhist and spa meal like serving was quite delightful.
Along with this, I also used food grade diatomaceous earth powder mixed in water to detox and for other benefits. I have been taking this powder for time to time whenever needed. It has many other uses, and I did use it for other purposes, and they worked every time. You have to use food grade DE which is for human/animal use. Industrial grade is to clean pools and others almost like cement grout. When using, you need to be careful not to inhale the powder, especially not into your lungs. Once wet it is pretty safe and it makes a great scrubs for your face, teeth and your body. But do not get them into your eyes.
Image: diatomaceousearth.com
Food grade diatomaceousearth(DE) 1 Ib, $15.97 amazon.com
When ingested, mixed with water (people take it with juices and even coffee), it goes down your stomach and micro scrub your gut linings and add silica to your bone health. I'd actually first used this to get rid of bird mites, which infested my air conditioner casing after some birds nested there and left. Then after reading the benefits of DE online, I started to take it internally. It is basically a silica dirt/earth so to speak, but its micro sharp edges physically cut off greases, kill microscopic organism by cutting their outer coatings and dehydrating them to die. Since it is full of silica and other traceable minerals, it also provides benefits to our bone, teeth, nail and others.
Read here - benefit of diatomaceous earth powder.
As far as my fasting goes, I felt great from the first day. I don't know why but I have been feeling like over-eating at every meals and grossed out. So I decided to do fasting. You should try, too. It is about time for spring cleaning and so why not for your body?
For taking DE for detox, mix a half tablespoon of DE in 8 oz water per day and drink in empty stomach. Then increase DE to a heaping tablespoonful. More than that will turn your drink muddy and make it harder to drink. In the morning right out of bed is the best time to take. Try not to take before bed which might disturb your sleep. No need to take everyday. Time to time intake to help detoxing, and it certainly helps during your fasting since it will physically scrub your inside at the microscopic level.
During fasting, drink plenty of water throughout the day. One cup amount at a time since too much water can make you feel sick. Water with lemon is great. Coffee is allowed with maybe a dash of milk but refrain from using sugar. Teas are totally great.
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Thanks For Reading!
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