Shake up your breakfast time with this homemade walnut milk recipe! It’s creamy, delightfully nutty and easy to make.
Walnut milk might not be as common as other vegan nut milks such as almond and cashew, but it’s really simple to make at home.
This walnut milk has a nutty taste and is not as mild as almond milk in flavour. However, one benefit of walnut milk over almond milk, is that walnuts are a good source of plant-based Omega 3.
Making your own vegan milks at home is a great way to cut down on packaging and unnecessary additives and customise them to your own taste.
And it's so easy too! All you need is:
- Walnuts - we usually get organic walnuts in bulk. You can store them in the freezer to keep them fresh for longer.
- Water - You can use filtered if you have it, but we just use tap water.
- And optionally a sweetener of your choice. You can simply add a teaspoon of sugar, agave or maple syrup, a date or other sweetener to your liking.
Step by step
You'll find the recipe card at the end of the post, but here's a quick visual guide to making nut milk so you know what to expect:
Step 1 - Soak the nuts in water overnight, or for at least 8 hours. Discard the water (which by that point will be dark brown), and rinse the nuts.
Step 2 - Add the soaked nuts, fresh water and optional sweetener to a blender jug.
Step 3 - Blend in a high speed blender for 1 minute. If your blender isn’t so powerful you might want to blend for longer.
Step 4 - Strain out the pulp for the smoothest milk.
No soak method
Skip the soaking, and instead boil the nuts for 5 mins in a pan filled with plenty of water. Drain the water, rinse the nuts, and continue to blend as above.
Variations
This method will work for other types of nut milk - you can make almond milk, hazelnut milk, pecan milk, or a combination of anything you like the sound of!
You can vary the ratio of nuts to water to create your preferred texture:
- Use more water for a milder taste and to get more milk from the nuts (makes it cheaper too).
- Or use less water for an even thicker, creamier texture.
Fancy some chocolate walnut milk? Simply add in 1-2tbsp of cocoa powder and increase your sweetener of choice to taste.
Try other flavours! You can add some vanilla extract for a lovely rich tasting milk, or add some gingerbread spice for a seasonal touch.
Straining tips
To get the smoothest milk you’ll want to strain it well. You can use a nut milk bag, a fine mesh strainer or a sieve lined with unbleached, organic muslin or cheesecloth.
Gently squeeze the bag or cloth to get all the creamy goodness out. Or, if using a mesh strainer, press it through using the back of a spoon.
With a very high speed blender, you may find that the milk is smooth enough to skip straining.
And, depending on what you want to use your homemade walnut milk for, you might not even need to strain it. For something like a smoothie, or a bowl of porridge you can use walnut milk without straining.
How to use leftover nut pulp
When you’ve made your yummy vegan milk, there’s no need to waste the walnut pulp that’s left behind. We’re big fans of zero waste!
You can store fresh nut pulp in the fridge for a few days or freeze it in a covered container.
Nut pulp is a great ingredient to use in baking, cookies and energy balls. Try it in place of some of the nuts or seeds in our Easy Vegan Granola.
Try these other yummy recipes that use leftover nut pulp:
- Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies by A Virtual Vegan
- Chocolate Cherry Bliss Balls by Unconventional Baker
- Leftover Almond Pulp Brownie Balls by Sweet Simple Vegan
You can also dry the pulp in an oven to make walnut meal:
- Spread out the fresh pulp on a baking tray.
- Bake at 90°C or 200°F for 1 - 1 ½ hours until it is fully dry.
- Let it cool, and then grind into meal in a food processor.
- Store in an airtight jar for up to 1 month in the pantry.
- Sprinkle your walnut meal on oatmeal, salads, smoothies or use in baking.
Storage
Store in a clean bottle or jar in the fridge for 3-5 days. To make it keep for longer, use very clean utensils and sterilise your bottle before filling.
It’s natural for homemade nut milks to separate, because they don’t have any stabilisers added. Simply give the bottle a gentle shake before using.
Use it in…
This deliciously nutty milk tastes great with granola for breakfast. You can use it to make porridge, mix it into smoothies or milkshakes, use it in baking...
It also makes incredibly good custard! Just use it as the milk in your favourite custard recipe, add a dash of cinnamon and serve with our Vegan Apple Strudel.
FAQs
Soaking the walnuts before blending makes a big difference to the flavour of the final milk, so it’s important not to skip soaking. The soaking time draws out tannins from the nuts, which have an astringent and bitter flavour. The soaking water will turn brown and should be discarded.
If you don’t have time to soak the nuts, you can use our quick method to make the milk, which boils the nuts before blending.
Yes you can heat walnut milk. Heat gently in a saucepan or microwave. It makes very tasty, nutty hot chocolate!
Because of the acidity of coffee, homemade nut milk often splits when added to coffee. Commercial or barista style nut milks often have stabilisers added to stop them from curdling in coffee.
If you enjoyed this homemade walnut milk recipe, please leave a comment or rating - it makes our day when we hear from our happy readers! Love, Sophie & Paul
Try these other homemade vegan recipes:
These very tasty Easy Vegan Crackers
This three minute recipe for Vegan Parmesan Cheese
And these very moreish Sweet and Spicy Nuts, which are one of our favourite snacks!
📖 Recipe
Homemade Walnut Milk
Ingredients
- 1 cup (100 g) walnuts
- 3 cups (750 ml) water decrease for a creamier milk, or increase for a more mild taste
For sweetened walnut milk
- 1 tsp sugar, maple or agave syrup or 1 date adjust to taste
Instructions
Raw method
- Soak the walnuts in plenty of water for at least 8 hours or overnight.
Quick, no soak method
- Skip the soaking and instead, boil the walnuts in plenty of water for 5 minutes.
Blending and straining
- Drain the brown soaking or boiled water, and rinse the nuts.
- Add the nuts and fresh water and blender for least 1 minute. For sweetened walnut milk, add the sugar or your sweetener of choice.
- Strain your nut milk using a nut milk bag, a fine mesh strainer, or a colander lined with a muslin cloth. To get all the creaminess out, squeeze the cloth or bag until you have just the pulp remaining.
- Fill into a jar or sterilised bottle, and keep refrigerated for 3-5 days.
Notes
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1-2 tbsp of cocoa powder and increase your sweetener of choice to taste.
- Some gingerbread spice
Nutrition
This information is calculated per serving and is an estimate only.
Hope you enjoyed our recipe! With love from,
Sophie and Paul
Loved our recipe? Have a question we can answer? We'd love to hear from you! Sophie and Paul 💚