Monday 26 May 2014

Green Inspiration #7


Besides dips, smoothies are one of my favourite things to eat.

This recipe comes from a detox in Whole Living Magazine that I did last year. I liked it so much that I've continued to eat it throughout the year. I especially like it in the winter or on rainy days as the fresh, sweet flavours remind me that summer will indeed, come again; last week's sunshine here in London makes me hopeful that it will be sooner rather than later. But in the meantime, this smoothie will suffice ...


Summer Smoothie:

1 cup apple juice, pear juice or water
1/2 honeydew melon, chopped
1/2 cucumer, peeled and chopped
handful of mint leaves
one lime peeled, or juice of one lime

Serves 2

Place all ingredients in blender until smooth - add a couple of ice cubes at the end to keep it cool.

Enjoy!

Monday 19 May 2014

Going Nuts for Almond Milk



Lately I've been on a bit of a DIY almond milk kick, and today I'm going to answer the age old question, "How do you milk an almond?"

It's REALLY easy ... probably even easier than milking a cow/goat/sheep .... mostly because you can buy almonds at the store and they don't run away when you grab their teats ... uh, wait - almonds don't have teats ...

Without further ado, here is my step-by-step guide to making your own almond milk (which, I might add, is much more delicious than the store-bought kind, doesn't have any of those weird chemicals like carrageenan, sunflower lecithin, potassium citrate, has no added salt or sugar, and takes less than 10 minutes to make - what's not to love?).



DIY Almond Milk

Ingredients:
About 1 cup of almonds (organic if you want the almond milk to be organic)
Lots of water ...

Directions:
1) Soak about 1 cup of (organic) almonds in filtered water in the fridge overnight.

2) Rinse almonds and discard the soaking water - the almonds will have puffed up a bit from soaking.


3) Place almonds in a blender with enough water to cover them, and then about the same amount of water again (you can use more or less water depending on how thick/thin you like your milk to be)

4) Blend for a few minutes until all almonds have been blended with the water and you have a milk-like appearance.




5) Line a jar or bowl with a nut milk bag or large piece of triple folded cheesecloth and pour about 1/2 the liquid inside. 

(Tip 1- use a container that is big and wide enough for your hand to fit inside so that you have room to squeeze the bag and lift it up as you go, without the bag being higher than the rim of the container)

(Tip 2 - I recommend investing in a nut milk bag rather than the cheesecloth as I had several random milk and nut pulp shootings -who knew that nut pulp could travel so far?!?!? - when using the cheescloth. You can easily find them online, at many organic stores, or make your own. I don't recommend spending more than about £10.)




6) Milk it baby! ( ...or just squeeze out all the liquid from the nut milk bag/cheescloth and discard the nut pulp .... unless you are really inventive and find a recipe for it!)




7) Pour into a sealable container and keep in the fridge for up to 3 days (no preservatives means this stuff doesn't last long, but it takes only 5-10 minutes to make, so it's easy to make when you need it!)

8) Inhale the incredible almond aroma (smells like almond extract) and drink with porridge, granola, on its own, or any other way you'd usually use regular milk or almond milk.


And that, my friends, is how you milk an almond ....!

GG Rating: Good for Spelt Supporters - all you need is a blender, a bag and some almonds ...