There have been plenty of cold-pressed juice places popping up all over the place this past year and our neighborhood is no exception. We have a Juice Crafters within walking distance from our place and they have slowly converted us into juice drinkers. Considering how pricey each of those drinks are, we finally broke down and bought a juicer to make our own.
I'm not going to lie, we ♥ our juicer.
I think we pretty much make some sort of juice (usually green) every day now. I'm not sure if we would ever be able to do a hardcore juice cleanse or anything like that - we love solid food a little too much for that, but it does feel good to add another source of fresh fruits and veggies into our diet.
We usually make a green juice in the mornings (I will definitely post this sometime), but I wanted to try making almond milk. And though it does require some prep work, I thought that the resulting drink was super fresh and delicious and well worth the effort.
There are many ways to make almond milk, but since we had a juicer, we used this method.
After soaking the almonds overnight, I don't know how necessary it was to actually peel the almonds but it was much easier to do than I expected. Cy and I together finished this process in about 5min. The skin literally pops out...kind of fun ;)
{Honey & Vanilla Almond Milk}
Ingredients:
1cup Almonds
3cups water
2 pitted dates
1tsp vanilla extract
1tbsp honey
Directions:
1. Soak almonds in the water overnight or at least 8hrs.
2. Drain the almonds, reserving the liquid.
3. Add just enough boiling water over the almonds and leave for a few minutes.
4. Drain the hot water and rub the almonds in between fingers (the skin should pop off).
5. Add the almonds and reserved water into your juicer along with the pitted dates.
6. Strain the milk through a cheesecloth.
7. Add vanilla and honey to your resulting milk, mix well and enjoy :)
*You may be able to get away with skipping steps 3&4 if you are pressed for time.
* If you don't mind a little bit (and I mean really little) of fine almond granules in the milk you can skip step 6 also. (We actually did not bother to strain it).
*You can adjust the amount of water and honey to make the milk "creamier" or sweeter according to your own taste.
This is the pulp I was left with...I may have to try using it as "almond flour" though I guess most of the nutrients would be gone? I'm not certain. If anyone has any good ideas what to do with the pulp aside from composting, please feel free to suggest!
