Cashew Milk (So Easy, It's Nuts!)

I have been so busy with, you know, life, that I only just found the time to get together my recipe for cashew milk. As it turns out, cashew milk is stupidly easy. I like using cashew milk because it is rich and thick, without a lot of sugar. And, I definitely prefer homemade over the store-bought version, which is basically just giving you water cashews have been soaked in. Plus a bunch of other stuff they add to make it taste more complete. Tasty! Or, not so tasty.

Let's get started! You will need a cup of raw cashews, a bowl, something to cover the bowl, a blender, a jar to store the milk in, and a strainer if you prefer. That's really it.

Start by pouring the cashews into the bowl, and covering the cashews with water. Cover the bowl and leave it in the fridge for several hours, preferably overnight.

The next morning, drain the water from the bowl and rinse the cashews with fresh water. Then, put the cashews into the blender. Blend on high for 30 seconds or so, or until nothing is moving. It will look like this:

Not the most appealing thing ever, but stick with me. Now you are going to add a cup of water, and blend on high for about a minute. You should be getting some great blend action at this point. Once it looks fairly incorporated, add the remaining three cups of water. Blend on high for about two minutes. At the end, it will look like this:

You can see that it is amazingly rich and creamy. I always strain my cashew milk, because I'm worried there will be some hard piece that never blended. That hasn't been the case so far, but I do it anyway.

Unlike my coconut milk, there is no byproduct from cashew milk. On the downside, that means there's nothing left over that you could use for something else. On the upside, you get more cashew milk. One cup of raw, soaked cashews, plus four cups of water usually makes about five cups of cashew milk. These jars don't hold five cups, so I usually reserve a cup left over to add to my tea or something.

And that's it! Cashew milk with only one ingredient, that took you about 5-10 minutes of active preparation to make. If you can find raw cashews at a bargain somewhere, you can save quite a bit of money making it yourself. And, you can avoid all the garbage they put into the store-bought stuff.

Cashew Milk
1 cup raw cashews (plus 1.5 cups water for soaking)
4 cups water
Soak cashews in a bowl of water for several hours. Drain and rinse cashews. Blend in blender until softened. Add one cup of water and blend for one minute. Add remaining water and blend on high for about two more minutes. Strain if desired. Store in the fridge for up to a week.