I can drink milk and eat dairy. It’s just that I have never really liked it (apart from cheese of course)…

My brother has become completely obsessed with healthy eating and only swears by organic ingredients and alternative dairy products. I was curious and decided to taste his Hazelnut / Spelt / Rice milk when we were on holiday together last summer. And I must say that it actually tasted delicious!

Unfortunately we can’t find the Borg brand here in the UK so I made do with simple Hazelnut milk from the Alpro brand which is quite nice as well. But it made me raise an eyebrow when I looked at the ingredients : water, sugar, Hazelnuts (2.5%), Calcium (tri-calcium phosphate), sea salt, stabilisers (locust bean gum, gellan gum), emulsifier (Sunflower lecithin), vitamins (Riboflavin (B2), B12, E, D2). Whaaaat?

I checked the other brands. It was either the same issue, or the price was just ridiculous and I just didn’t want to spend so much money for something that was quite simple to make.

That’s why I started to make my own hazelnut milk. To be honest, It’s a bit less sweet than the Alpro one but I quite like it as well and more importantly I know what’s in there. And it is soooooo easy to make. All you need is hazelnuts, water and sea salt. You can keep it in the fridge for about 3 days so if you do not drink a lot, 1/2 L is actually a good quantity to start with.

For 1/2L of hazelnut / almond milk

• 60g hazelnuts or almonds (don’t need to be blanched)
• 440g water
• a pinch of sea salt (optional)
• 1  date / honey / vanilla (optional) if you want to add a bit of taste / sweetness

Mix all the ingredients for 1 minute on the highest speed setting (you would need quite a powerful blender though). I have a Thermomix and I mix for 1 minute on Speed 10.

Transfer to a bottle using a sieve or a nut milk bag. I actually skip this step when making almond milk.