By Dina Cheney, Author of The New Milks: 100-Plus Dairy-Free Recipes for Making and Cooking with Soy, Nut, Seed, Grain, and Coconut Milks (Atria/Simon & Schuster) and Creator of the Dairy-Free Resource Site, www.thenewmilks.com
If you love peanuts, you’ll appreciate yet another way to enjoy them: peanut milk! With eight grams of protein per cup (about the same amount as in dairy milk), peanut milk is nutritious and satisfying! The magnesium- and potassium-rich drink is also vegan, kosher, and dairy-, cholesterol-, hormone-, and lactose-free.
Peanut milk is delicious plain; alongside PB&J sandwiches; or with desserts featuring peanut butter or chocolate, such as peanut butter or chocolate chip cookies, brownies, or date nut bread. Or, try incorporating it into peanut soup, or sipping it with a dairy-free yogurt and peanut granola parfait.
Since peanut milk is not yet available in stores, make it yourself. The process is incredibly simple! Plus, by making your own peanut milk, you will also yield fiber-rich peanut flour, which you can use in baked goods, such as cookies and crackers. Try substituting one-quarter of the traditional flour in a recipe with the peanut flour.
Here’s how to make peanut milk and flour.
Homemade Peanut Milk & Peanut Flour
Makes 5 cups peanut milk and about 1 cup peanut flour
1. Soak two cups unsalted raw or roasted peanuts in room temperature water to cover for eight hours or overnight.
2. Rinse and drain in a colander placed in the sink.
3. Add drained nuts to a high-speed blender, along with five cups of fresh water. Puree until smooth, about one minute.
4. Using a nut milk bag, cheesecloth, or fine strainer, strain. (You can order a nut milk bag on my website: www.thenewmilks.com). You should yield five cups of peanut milk. Reserve the peanut solids in the nut milk bag.
5. Enjoy the peanut milk plain, or flavor it with two or three Tablespoons agave nectar (or honey), one teaspoon vanilla extract, and ½ teaspoon salt.
6. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 250 degrees F, and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour the peanut solids onto the parchment in one layer. Bake until dried out thoroughly, about 2-1/2 hours. Grind in a food processor until a fine meal, or flour, forms, about 30 seconds. You should yield about one cup of peanut flour.
