Milk Substitutes?
Hi! my name is Dina, I’m 27 y/o from Tel Aviv, Israel.
I’m new to Robyn’s website and find it a treasure of information.
I guess one could define me as “flexitarian”. My aim is to eventually consist 70% of my diet on raw foods.
The question is: Breakfast! Besides the wonderful smoothies – green, pink or otherwise… What can be substituted for milk?
It would be a simple question had I not discovered I can’t “do” soy milk or tofu. I’ve also tried almond and rice milks (all of them of the boxed varieties), with the same higly unpleasant results.
So, milk substitutes. I’ve discovered that for cooking, cashew cream works amazingly well instead of dairy (*especially when I want to make meat dishes for guests who keep kosher – they swear it’s the real deal). But what about a cup of hot chocolate or cold milk on cereal? what can be done for that?
I’ll be very glad for your ideas, anyone who can help. Thanks!
Posted in: Whole Food
Hi Dina and welcome!
I make my own almond milk, i don’t buy the boxes because there are other things in them that I don’t want to drink. It’s very easy to make. You can also make nut mylks from any nut. You just soak the nuts over night. Then put them into a high speed blender or food processor & add purified or spring water. You can add stevia or dates to sweeten it and some alcohol free vanilla or fresh vanilla beans. After you puree the entire thing you then put it thru a nut bag, or fine strainer or cheese cloth & separate out the nut pieces that are left from the liquid. You can then dehydrate the nut pieces and use them in other recipes. So nothing goes to waste. It is so easy and so delicious! I made homemade raw granola and put the almond mylk over it and it was so delicious!
If you buy Robyn’s 12 step program you will get this recipe and tons of others to help you out. Robyn has so many delicious, healthful recipes. You can also go online to get directions on how to make nut mylks.
Since we can’t do dairy or soy, I use Rice Dream rice milk and homemade all raw pumpkin seed milk.
http://oceanskater.blogspot.com/2009/05/pumpkin-seed-milk.html
I’m not quite sure what to tell you since you don’t like soy, almond, or rice milks. You could try oat milk, but it has a similar taste and consistency to the other non-dairy milks listed so you might have a problem with that too. It might just be something you’ll have to get used to.
The only other thing I can think to suggest is thinned down coconut milk. You buy a can of coconut milk and thin it to desired consistency with rice milk, almond milk, or water. Add a dash of salt and a bit of agave. It tastes great over granola or museli for breakfast, but we only use it as an occasional treat at my house.
Thank you very much for the ideas! I’ll certainly give them a try. 🙂
I was going to sug. the coconut milk, too! Steff’s sug. is great – I mix with at least 1/2 can water, & stir well. I sometimes add agave but often don’t.
Also – for my AM granola, I enjoy using herb tea, which I often make in my fridge. ‘fruity’ ones work well, esp if you’re adding fresh fruit 🙂 Good luck.
carrot juice.
I was going to suggest coconut milk too. There’s a new So Delicious carton that’s really good.
If you blend some walnuts (other nuts would be ok) and a banana with some water it makes great milk for cereal. You could add some coconut oil and vanilla and agave if you want.
Cashews blended with water and sieved are really nice too.
I also came across this,
http://evertophealth.co.uk/milk-makers/soy-quick-milk-maker-with-free-shipping/prod_6.html
which I have not bought yet but I have read good reviews about. It has a cold option so you can make raw milks.
When you say you “can’t” do almond or rice milks, I am not sure if that means you can’t digest them or you just don’t like them. A homemade raw almond milk with almonds that have been soaked before hand will be easier to digest if that is the issue. If taste is the issue, then homemad raw almond milk TASTES waaaay better than those bought in the store.
So Delicious coconut milk is now ready to go and you don’t have to thin it out. Or coconut milk fromo the can.
Coconut water is what I use in my smoothies. You can crack open your own baby coconuts if you like, but I am lazy and buy my coconut water in those little tetrapaks from my my healthfood store. I used to buy a case online before my HFS carried them. coconut water is Nature’s gatorade. Good stuff.
Grapes are watery andhelp thin out smoothies.
Oh, hemp milk is also very good for you and can be found with the almoind and rice milks.
I have the newest soyquick and I think it’s great. However, if you are going to stick with raw nut milks you really only need a Blendtec.
Dina – I guess it depends on what “unpleasant results” means. I’m not particularly fond of drinking most non-dairy milks straight, but I find them perfectly acceptable in cereal, smoothies, etc. If it is an allergy then clearly you should avoid those foods, at least for a while. You may be able to slowly reintroduce them at a later date if your allergy is not severe. If the reaction is neither of the above you may just need to introduce them slowly and give your body a chance to adjust.
A friend of mine eats her granola with orange juice. It’s pretty fantastic, really!
I personal like sesame seed milk.I put the seeds and water in a blender with about 2 or 3 majool dates beat the heck out of it,then I pour it into a mylk bag and mylk my goat so to speak ;-). Oh yeah, I mix about a 1/2 cup seeds to about 3 or 4 cups water.
Hi, me again.
(TMI alert)
I can’t “do” those milks means my body seemed to reject them. after 2-3 days of even a little bit (1/2 a cup) of soy milk, I would get diarrhea. The same with rice milk, the same with almond milk.
And it improved within 1-2 days of removing them from my diet. I tried it several times, esp. with soy, with the same results every single time.
Tofu had the same effect.
As for the boxed almond and rice milks, I’m not sure whether it was the almonds or the additives in the milk… I may have a go at making my own almond milk, as I seem to have no problem digesting almonds – or rice – per se.
I don’t think hemp milk is available here in Israel. I’ve been looking for hemp seeds at health food shops all over, and no dice. I don’t know whether it’s due to agriculture ministry regulations regarding importing seeds, or it’s hemp, therefore cannabis, thus it makes the sanctimontious and the ignorant government members scream: “DRUGS!”.
Coconut milk, carrot juice, coconut water (I’d like to try THAT!), walnuts, bananas… all seem viable options, rather yummy too.
Thank you all SO VERY MUCH. 🙂