Homemade Almond Coconut Milk is a great dairy milk alternative with a unique blend of taste and nutrition not found on store shelves.
Blending the almonds with the coconut flakes offers a more balanced fat profile (you don’t want to overdo nut consumption because of its high omega-6 content) and for those that find coconut milk too strong of a taste, the almond milk lightens it up.
And it only takes 2-3 more ingredients to make your own vanilla or chocolate (still healthy) flavored versions.
What’s So Bad about Store-Bought Soy, Rice, Nut, Hemp, (fill-in-the-blank) Milk?
Have you read the ingredients?
Store bought milk alternatives are highly processed. Most have added sugars and synthetic vitamins, vegetable oils, and other unnecessary ingredients.
One common ingredient found in the majority of these milk alternatives is carrageenan. Carrageenan has been linked to gastrointestinal inflammation, including higher rates of colon cancer in laboratory animals. (Read the Cornucopia report for more information; Carrageenan: How a “Natural” Food Additive is Making us Sick and check out their Shopping Guide to Avoiding Foods with Carrageenan).
When made at home you’re assured that all the healthy nutrients and enzymes are still intact. Just presoaking your nuts before eating makes them more digestible by releasing phytic acid – an enzyme inhibitor found in nuts and grains.
Homemade Almond Coconut Milk
Remember to soak your almonds the night before you prepare this (or use sprouted almonds) and discard the soaking liquid. A reusable nut milk bag makes straining the milk much easier, but cheesecloth can also be used.
Yield: About 3 1/2 cups (strained)
1 cup sprouted almonds, or raw almonds soaked in warm water overnight (add a few dashes of sea salt to the soaking water)
1 cup unsweetened coconut flakes*
4 cups hot water (not boiling)
Pinch of sea salt
For Vanilla Flavored Milk
3-4 pitted dates
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For Chocolate Flavored Milk
3-4 pitted dates
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1. Place coconut flakes and hot water in blender and let soak for an hour (or at least 15 minutes).
2. Blend almonds, coconut flakes with water, and pinch of salt for a few minutes in a high speed blender.
3. Strain milk through a nut milk bag or a few layers of cheesecloth placed over a mesh strainer. Squeeze pulp with your hands to remove as much liquid as possible.
4. Store strained milk in the refrigerator for 2-3 days (or freeze). Milk will separate when refrigerated, shake before serving.
5. For vanilla or chocolate flavored milk, return strained milk to blender and blend with pitted dates, vanilla extract, and cocoa powder (if using).
*You can also make coconut milk out of coconut butter. For this recipe, add 2 tablespoons of coconut butter to the strained almond milk and blend again.
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i LOVE making homemade almond/coconut milk and using it in smoothies. been doing that all summer long. thanks lisa!
I just started making it the last few weeks.
How do you make yours? Do you use the coconut flakes as well?
Would love for you to share!
What do you do with the strained coconut and almond? When I make either almond or coconut milk, I dehydrate the pulp and use then use for flour. A mixture of coconut and almond would be hard to use in a recipe….unless of course you have recipes for this mix??
I put the pulp in the nut milk bag straight in to my dehydrator…
I’ve been saving the dehydrated pulp in my freezer until I get a chance to experiment with a recipe.
Elana’s Pantry has a recipe for almond pulp crackers that I want to try with the almond/coconut pulp – but I may add an egg to it to compensate for the coconut pulp.
http://www.elanaspantry.com/vegan-almond-pulp-crackers/
I’ll update you if I get a chance to make it. I’m thinking it would also work well in a brownie recipe…
I think the pulp would be good in muffins.
Yes!
My girls love almond-coconut blend. I hadn’t thought to make it myself. I’ve made almond milk, but not yet coconut milk. We’ll have to try this. Thanks for the recipe!
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Did you ever find a use for the combined coconut-almond pulp?
I just add it to crisp toppings along with the other ingredients. I’m sure there are other creative uses for the pulp – it could probably be added to baked goods as well.