Name: Vanilla Almond Milk
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 1 cup raw almonds (, soaked for 6-8 hours); 4 cups filtered water; 4 Medjool dates (, pitted (or 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup)); 2 teaspoons vanilla extract; 1/8 teaspoon sea salt

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This Vanilla Almond Milk is naturally sweetened, and can be used to make chia pudding, or added to cereal or steel cut oats, for a healthier breakfast. All you need is 3 ingredients and a few minutes to make it!

What is Vanilla Almond Milk?

Similar to Chocolate Almond Milk, vanilla almond milk is lightly sweetened and flavored with vanilla. This flavor is commonly sold at grocery stores, but it’s super-easy to make at home, without any extra preservatives or thickeners.

This recipe is based on my original almond milk recipe, but embellished with extra flavor!

How to Make it

All you need is 3 ingredients to make this flavored almond milk:

Almonds
Dates (or maple syrup)
Vanilla extract

You’ll blend the almonds with water, then strain out the almond pulp, leaving behind a silky-smooth almond milk.

Straining out the almonds first keeps the almond pulp neutral in flavor, and easy to work with, so you can save it to make my favorite Almond Pulp Hummus as a healthy snack later.

Then you’ll just pour the strained almond milk back into the blender, add in the dates and vanilla, and blend again until smooth.

You don’t have to strain the milk again if you have a blender that is powerful enough to break down the dates. I prefer not to strain it a second time, so that the milk retains the fiber from the dates, and helps thicken it slightly.

How to Adjust the Flavor

When you make your own vanilla almond milk, you get to control the flavor. Free free to start with less dates if you don’t want a sweet milk. You can always add more, to your taste, if needed. If you don’t want a strong vanilla flavor, you can use less of that, too. I always like to taste as I go, to make sure it turns out perfectly every time.

If you end up with a milk that tastes too sweet, you can always add more water to dilute it, or a pinch of salt to help balance the flavor.

Is Almond Milk Good for You?

Almond milk doesn’t have the same protein content as cow’s milk, but it’s a great dairy-free free alternative for adding to smoothie recipes and serving over cereal. Almonds are also loaded with nutrients!

Benefits of Almonds:

Almonds are a good source of vitamin E, which has been linked to lowering the risk of heart disease.
They are also high in magnesium, which may help to lower blood sugar levels and may improve insulin sensitivity.
Getting plenty of magnesium may also help with lowering blood pressure.
Eating almonds regularly may help to lower “bad” LDL cholesterol levels.

Considering that cow’s milk may increase the risk of certain cancers and may also increase the risk for hip fractures, almond milk seems like a pretty satisfying alternative to me.

I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as my family does!

Vanilla Almond Milk

4.69 from 16 votes

Vanilla Almond Milk is naturally sweet and is the perfect beverage for pouring over cereal or oatmeal.

prep10 mins total10 mins

Servings:4

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Ingredients

1 cup raw almonds , soaked for 6-8 hours
4 cups filtered water
4 Medjool dates , pitted (or 2-3 tablespoons maple syrup)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon sea salt

Instructions

Drain and rinse the soaked almonds, then pour them into a high-powered blender with 4 cups of fresh water. Blend until creamy.
Pour the blended milk into a nut milk bag, or fine mesh strainer. Squeeze well to make sure you extract all the liquid from the pulp. Save the almond pulp for another use, like making my Almond Pulp Hummus.
Return the strained milk to the blender, then add the dates, vanilla, and sea salt. Blend until the dates are completely broken down. Taste and adjust any flavoring as needed, then transfer the milk to a storage container. You can serve the milk right away or chill in the fridge until ready to use.
Homemade almond milk lasts roughly 4 days in the fridge before it can start to smell or taste "off" so only make what you will use in that time. You can freeze any leftover milk in ice cube trays to use in smoothies. Frozen milk should last for up to 3 months if you transfer the cubes into an airtight container.

Notes

You can omit the dates and sweeten with maple syrup or honey, to taste. In this case, you can blend everything together all at once, then strain it, since the liquid sweeteners don't add any additional fiber.

Nutrition

Author: Megan Gilmore

Course: Drinks

Cuisine: vegan

Keyword: vanilla almond milk

Nutrition information is for 1 cup of milk, but doesn’t take into account that much of the almonds are strained out in this recipe– so use your best guess regarding that!

If you try this recipe, please leave a comment below letting me know how you like it. If you make any modifications, I’d love to hear about those, too! We can all benefit from your experience.

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Reader Feedback: What’s your favorite non-dairy milk? I have tutorials for making oat milk and hemp milk, too!