Homemade Date Cardamom Almond Milk and a Vitamix Giveaway


Making almond milk at home is super easy. The total amount of work involved is less than 10 minutes and the benefits of homemade almond are numerous. For one, you get to control what goes into the almond milk. You control the sweetness and flavoring. And there are no chemical additives in home made almond milk. All thats in it are almonds and water and whatever flavoring you choose to add. Pure and simple.

I like adding Indian flavors like cardamom when I make almond milk at home. It reminds me of the traditional badam kheer – which is a heavy smoothie of milk, almonds, cardamom and saffron. In this recipe, I’ve lightly sweetened the almond milk with dates. You can leave it out for unsweeted almond milk or add sugar instead of the dates.

If you have a Vitamix, its the best way to make almond milk at home. It blends the soaked almond into a creamy puree in no time. If you don’t have a Vitamix, use whatever powerful blender you have. Or enter the Vitamix giveaway below for a chance to win this awesome blender!

When you are done making the almond milk, you will have almond meal as a by product. Don’t throw it away. Its good stuff! I save the almond meal in a zip lock bag or tupperwear and add a little to my breakfast smoothies. Others like to dehydrate the almond meal, and freeze it for use in cookies etc.

Home made almond milk will keep in the fridge for about 5 days.

Homemade Date Cardamom Almond Milk Recipe

Makes about 4 cups

Ingredients
1 cup raw almonds
1-2 cardamom pods
4-6 seeded dates
4 saffron strands. Optional

Method
1.Soak the almonds in plenty of water over night, about 8 hours.
2. Drain the soaked almonds, and put them into a blender (I used my Vitamix), along with 3 cups of water. Add the cardamom and dates to the blender.
3. Blend on medium-high speed till all the almonds are well blended into a homogenous puree, about 2 minutes.
4. Line a fine mesh strainer with two layers of cheese cloth. Place a bowl under the strainer. Pour the pureed almonds into the strainer, gather up the cheese cloth into a ball, and gently squeeze till all the almond milk comes out.
5. This first extract of almond will be thick. Add more water to it to dilute it to your preferred consistency.
6. If you wish, you can make a second extract – scoop the almond meal in the strainer and put it back in the blender. Pour 1-2 cups water and blend. Strain the second extract of almond milk through the strainer. This extract will be thinner. You could also use this thinner second extract to dilute the thicker first extract.
7. Sprinkle saffron strands, if using, on top of the almond milk.
8. Home made almond milk will keep in the fridge, in an air tight container for about 5 days.

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Homemade Almond and Oat Granola Parfaits with Clementine Honey and Greek Yogurt

I was suddenly gripped by an intense and urgent desire to make granola at home. Didn’t want to make dinner that night. Didn’t want to go to the store to buy granola ingredients. But I just had to make granola. Right that minute. (I’m weird like that). I suspect this granola craving rubbed off from my sister who was visiting me. She is a total granola junkie and can go through a whole box in a day. So M, this one is for you ♥ 

Like I said, I hardly had any of the ingredients needed to make granola. So I just used what I had on hand – instant oats, wheatgerm and almond meal.  This is by no means a ‘proper’ granola recipe, but it certainly tastes good. Take a look at some of the other granola recipes on the web:

Addictive granola on Tastes Like Home
Four grain granola bars on Whats For Lunch Honey
Savory granola trifle on Jugalbandi
Low fat citrust granola on Inn Cuisine
Granola cookies on Dandy Sugar

Clementines are a type of mandarin orange. They have cute little sweet segments with lots of juice. You could also use a tangerine for this recipe, but it probably wont be as sweet as a clementine. You could of course, substitute with good old orange.

Simple (Improvisational) Oat and Almond Granola Recipe
makes about 2 1/2 cups

1 cup rolled oats (I used instant oats because thats all I had, but rolled oats will make better granola)
1/4 cup wheatgerm
1/2 cup slivered almonds (I used almond meal because thats all I had)
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt

Pre heat oven to 300f

Place oats, wheatgerm, almonds and brown sugar in a bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together oil, vanilla, salt and 2 tablespoons of water. Add this liquid mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix well until clumps form. Spread out on a baking sheet and bake 30-40 minutes or till the granola is crunchy. Stir the granola every 15 minutes while it is baking. Once completely cooled, store granola in an airtight container.

Clementine Honey Recipe
makes about 1/4 cup

1/2 cup fresh clementine juice (substitute with tangerine or orange)
1 tablespoon brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon tangerine zest

Place clementine juice and brown sugar in a small pan and bring to a boil. Continue boiling till the mixture reduces in half and becomes like a syrup. (Be careful sugar burns easily!). Turn off heat. Stir in honey and zest. Clementine honey will thicken once cool.

To make granola parfaits

Layer granola, Greek yogurt and tangerine honey in serving glasses.

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