How To Make Almond Milk
Badam Ka Doodh
Having tasted a few ready-made, shop bought almond milks, home made wins hands down in taste and freshness. To me, shop bought one is tasteless, compared to this easy, home made milk, which is delicious. Unlike shop bought one, it actually tastes like almonds, as it should. Please note that it is not fortified, it is just almonds and water.
You can make milk from melon seeds the same way. Please remember that the nutritional values of seed/almond milk is different from Cow/buffalo/other animal milk.
Note from Mamta: My father was in a transferable job, so we moved around northern India quite a lot. He sometimes kept a cow or a water buffalo for family's milk needs, when he had the staff and facilities. At other times, we had many different milkmen who delivered fresh milk morning and evening. Whenever our late grandmother, our beloved Maaji, was staying with us, and when she was not sure about the Doodh-Vallah's (the milkman) hygiene standards, she would make milk for herself from almonds or white melon (Kharbooja) seeds. Almonds were very expensive then, 1950s, so it was mostly melon seeds she used.
She soaked the almonds overnight.Then peeled them one by one. To make milk, she ground them on the traditional stone grinder called Sill-batta, see picture.
Makes approximately 1 litre.
Last picture is my late grandmother, Maaji.
Recipe edited 1/5/2024
Ingredients
- 1 cup almonds , approximately 150 gm
- 4-5 cups water. Add more, as needed
Instructions
- Wash the almonds well in several changes of water. Soak according to whetehwhether you want to peel them or not.
- Making milk from peeled almonds:
- Peeled almonds grind a little faster and will not require to be sieved. My grandmother, our Maaji, used to peel them, and then grind them on a Sill-Batta, see last photo.
- To loosen the skin, either soak the almonds in warm water for 6-8 hours/overnight or place in a bowl of water, heat in a microwave oven for 3-4 minutes, heat on full power. Alternatively, bring to boil and simmer for a couple of minutes.
- Allow to cool until hand warm. Rub vigorously to loosen the skin. The skins will float to the top.
- Remove skins and discard. You will have to repeat the process a few times to get all the almonds peeled.
- Drain water off.
- Put the almonds in a blender with approximately 4 cups/750 ml. of clean water.
- Blend for a couple of minutes until quite smooth. Almonds take a good few minutes to grind to a paste. If the mix feels grainy to touch, blend some more.
- Refrigerate milk. Stir well before each use. It will last for 2-3 days.
- Leftover pulp can be added to doughs, curries. You also add it to the chapatti dough.
- Making milk from unpeeled almonds:
- Soak almonds in warm water for a couple of hours.
- Put in a blender, with approximately 750 ml. water.
- Blend for 3-4 minutes, until quite smooth. Make sure that no grains remains.
- Drain through a fine sieve, pressing gently with a round ladle or large spoon.
- Re-blend the leftover pulp with a cup of water.
- Strain again. You can add any the leftover solids to chapatti/Bread dough or soups etc. or discard it.
- If the milk looks too thick, you can add a little more water.
- Refrigerate milk. Stir well before each use. It will last for 2-3 days