Leite Caseiro

homemade plant milk

 

Milk packages are one of the major waste issues. Here at Garbags we receive a few thousands of those every year. For us, it is wonderful to know that every year more people are aware of waste problems and are willing to work with us on contributing to a better sustainability through our P2P program, but we all can do better.

If you still drink animal milk and you don’t live near the animal or you don’t know how to milk a cow, then we can’t help you because neither we drink milk nor we milk cows. But if you drink some plant beverage like almond, cashew, rice or oat milk, we have some recipes to give you and that’ll help you get rid of all those packages you have to buy (and, believe us, they are expensive). Besides, all beverages usually have a lot of sugar, palm oil or other stuff that you don’t need.

So we are giving you some recipes for homemade plant drinks that you can very easily do. For almond or cashew milk, you have to soak 1 cup of almonds or cashew for about 8 hours (or overnight). Put it in the blender with 4 cups of hot water and blend in high speed for about 4 or 5 minutes until it turns creamy and white. Then strain through a cheesecloth or a strainer (even an old clean t-shirt will do). Store the almond milk in a sealed bottle in the fridge for 3 or 4 days. You can use the same recipe for oat milk – instead of almond or cashew, you add 1 cup of rolled oats (no need to soak) and a pinch of salt to the blender.

If you prefer rice milk, you can use cooked brown rice (it is better and healthier), add 2 cups of water and 3 or 4 dates for sweetness and procceed using the same process. You can also cook the brown rice with 6 or 7 cups of water and use that creamy water afterwards as milk, adding the dates.

You can add flavour to your favourite plant milk by adding dates, vanilla extract or simply some fruit. This way, you will have a tasty milk that’s healthy for you and for the planet, as milk cartons are a huge part of plastic pollution (check here).