Making nut butter and nut milk

[naturegirl7]

HOW exactly do you do this?

I figure the nut butter is fairly simply -drop them in a blender/food processor and pulse until smooth? How heavy duty of a processor do i need? Is it really true that you need a Vitamix (that is what my local HF store told me)?

And how in the world would I begin to makenut milk? What can I do with the nuts themselves after I make the milk?

Thanks!

[root*children]

you don't have to buy a vita-mix, tho i'd guess it would probably get the job done. But a plain blender won't help you at all. I think you can stick peanuts in a regular food processor, but the other nuts you're gonna need a heavy duty food processor or a special grinder. Most nuts are roasted prior to grinding, but I like raw ones too

I use a soymilk maker to make nutmilk. I have alot of friends who simply use this method, though:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2041161_make-almond-milk.html. You can use the leftover pulp in baking or compost or veggie burgers or smoothies or whatever the heck you feel like

[cristeen]

You can make nut butter with any soft nut with just a standard FP (not a mini). But your hard nuts like almonds you can't (or so I've heard).

As for milks, you usually start by soaking the nuts in water, then blending them in a blender.

Neither one requires a VM.

[craft_media_hero]

Huh. You can do either in a regular blender.

For nut butters, you just have to add extra oil, and salt if desired. Start on "chop", then move to "grind" then whatever to make it the consistency you want.

I just made almond milk in my blender, and it was awesome! I used about 1 1/2-2c raw almonds, soaked them overnight in the blender. They grow a little after soaking. In the am, pour off the soak water, and replace with fresh water.

Add a pinch of salt and a couple pitted dates (optional, but really added a lot). Then hit grind on the blender til the nuts are broken up, then switch to liquify.

I then strained into a glass bottle and continued to add more water to the pulp and re-blend the pulp over and over til I got enough milk to fill a 1.5 litre bottle (thanks, Carlo Rossi, your bottles are better than your wine!). I used a strainer and a cheese cloth and strained it back and forth twice to get the grit out that settled with the first straining.

Really, it was very easy, my family loved it, and I definitely want to make more.

For the leftover almond meal, coz I wasn't about to throw that pricey stuff away! I spread it out in my dehydrator and will keep for baking or to use along with dry bread crumbs and seasoning for breading smth later on. We also used some of the almond meal right away mixed in with oatmeal, and it was delish! If you don't have a dehydrator, you could probably use the pulp as "eggs" in vegan baking (oatmeal cookies comes to mind!), tho I haven't tried this yet. If nothing else, you could freeze it in "egg" size portions (like in an ice cube tray) and then just mix it in to hot cereal, one lump at at a time.

[es1967]

I've made almond milk in my regular blender but had alot of pulp. I felt like so much was wasted b/c I ended up making it several times a week. I couldn't possibly use all that pulp. Now that I have my vitamix I don't even strain the pulp. Its so fine that you really don't need to.