The reason we originally wanted to learn to make our own almond milk is Whole 30. My sister properly introduced us to this movement when she brought the book over from the USA, during a visit here to South Africa earlier this year.
Since tea is a ridiculously big part of the Afrikaner culture, we immediately started thinking of ways to “cream” our tea in a non-dairy way (no dairy is allowed on the Whole 30 challenge *sadface*). We were also pretty adamant to do something homemade. Hence, our Easy Homemade Almond Milk was born.
Now, a super awesome by-product of making your own almond milk – is turning the leftover pulp into a batch of glorious almond meal. A perfect way to thicken sauces, dredge chicken for pan searing, or as a gluten-free baking alternative.
It’s pretty amazing how a single batch of almonds, that is not only very enjoyable by itself as a healthy snack, can also be transformed into two separate healthy products for use in a vast number of ways. That’s the beauty of cooking and making things like this with your own hands.
It definitely gives one a new appreciation, and definitely inspired us to try and home make as many things as we possibly can for ourselves. Next step is using our own fresh produce from our future homestead to achieve this.
How do you make your own almond meal? Well, it’s very simple. Once you’ve strained and squeezed the almond milk through a clean tea towel, you scrape out and then spread all the pulp evenly on a baking sheet prepared with parchment paper – don’t worry too much about clumps. Then, all you do it pop it into the oven until it is dried out, which in my experience takes about 90 minutes at 160C/320F.
Now, throw your dried up crumbs into a high power blender and blend until it is powdery smooth and VOILÀ! Almond Meal. Now you’re free to use it for anything. Pretty amazing if I do say so myself.
Homemade Almond Meal – Pin It!
Ingredients
- Pulp leftover from one batch of almond milk
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 160C/320F.
- Evenly spread the pulp on a sheet pan prepared with parchment paper.
- Bake the pulp for approximately 90 minutes, until dry.
- Blend in a high power blender until powdery smooth.