© 2009 Mothering Magazine
Creamy Dreamy Hemp Milk
submitted by
By Kristen Suzanne of KristensRaw.com [1]
Raw vegan milk, made with raw nuts or seeds, is easy, healthy, and wonderful. It's cholesterol free, full of nutrients, and it's much gentler on the planet. Raw vegan milk is a great addition to smoothies, is yummy poured over raw granola (or any cereal!), or is perfect on its own,
When I make a nut or seed milk I usually make it with hemp seeds, because they're packed with nutrition and I love their flavor. Hemp seeds' amino acid profile dominates with the eight essential amino acids (ten if you're a child or your are elderly), making it an excellent vegetarian source of complete protein.
But you can make Raw vegan milk out of a variety of nuts/seeds. Here are some things to keep in mind. Always try to get raw, organic nuts and seeds if you can. If you use cashews, hemp seeds, macadamia, or Brazil nuts, you basically don't have to soak them beforehand. Just put them in the blender with the following ingredients in the recipe below, and blend. Based on the consistency that you (and your family) would like, you can simply increase or decrease the amount of water and sweetness. If you don't have a high-powered blender you might want to briefly chop the cashews, macadamia nuts, and/or Brazil nuts before blending to make it easier.
If you're using pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almonds, walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, then you should soak them for six to eight hours (or overnight) before you blend them. Simply put them in a bowl on your counter, with enough water to cover by about an inch. After six to eight hours, drain and rinse. Then, you're ready to use them in your raw vegan milk recipe.
Raw vegan milk will stay fresh in your refrigerator for up to five days. It'll separate when it's been sitting in your refrigerator so simply shake it up before serving. It also freezes pretty well (you might want to make a couple of batches at once and freeze them in glass mason jars).
Ingredients:
2½ cups water, more if desired
1½ cups hemp seeds
11–2 tablespoons raw agave nectar or 2–3 dates, pitted (optional)
Directions:
Blend all of the ingredients until creamy and smooth.
Variations:
- Make it vanilla by adding the seeds of a vanilla bean or some vanilla extract.
- Make it chocolate by adding 1-2 tablespoons of raw chocolate powder or cocoa powder.
2½ cups water, more if desired
1½ cups hemp seeds
11–2 tablespoons raw agave nectar or 2–3 dates, pitted (optional)
<p>Blend all of the ingredients until creamy and smooth.<br /> <br /> Variations:<br /> - Make it vanilla by adding the seeds of a vanilla bean or some vanilla extract.</p> <p>- Make it chocolate by adding 1-2 tablespoons of raw chocolate powder or cocoa powder.</p>