cashew milk

A huge bag of unroasted cashews landed in my lap a few days ago. They're expensive and I didn't want them to go to waste so, I've been putting them to every imaginable use in the kitchen. Nuts tend to go rancid quite quickly in warm, humid weather and if kept in the fridge, haphazardly packaged, they will absorb odours from other foods very easily.



Amongst the things I've made with them, and probably my favourite so far, is this cashew milk. I never would've thought that making a nut milk could be so easy, and so satisfying an undertaking, had I not tried it. Cashews are especially suitable for a nut milk as they are amongst the softest of nuts and when well soaked, are easily crushed by blender blades into a creamy and silken milk that tastes surprisingly, no, shockingly delicious!

I've never liked dairy milk, and though I love Asian style soy milk, cashew milk is a delicious and welcome change. It makes a fabulous substitute for coconut or diary milk in cooking, tastes fantastic with coffee, drinking  chocolate, tea and hot or cold breakfast cereal. Of course, the very first thing I tested it on was a cup of coffee and as you can see from the pictures, it gives the coffee a pretty head of creamy foam, or crema as the Italians call it. And you don't even need a coffee machine!

The recipe below yields a very thick and creamy milk that's best for creaming beverages and thickening  soups or curries. If you want a thinner milk that you can drink straight, like a glass of dairy milk, use three or even four cups of water to every cup of nuts. You may not want to add any salt, but I find it amplifies the creaminess of the milk and I recommend that you do add a little and correspondingly increase the amount of salt if you increase the amount of water.

As this is a raw food (if you discount that most commercially processed nuts are actually steamed out of their shells and that I used boiled water) that spoils easily, please be mindful of food hygiene with regard to all your equipment, implements, hands and storage containers, at every stage of the process and use boiled or distilled water when liquidising the nuts. I wouldn't want you to have any tummy troubles!

I'll be sharing more recipes that use either cashews or cashew milk in upcoming posts, so keep a look out for them. In the meantime, I hope you give this gorgeous nut milk a whirl and enjoy both the process and the  fruit of your labours :)

cashew milk

prep 6 hours        makes 3 cups thick cashew milk


120 g (1 cup) unroasted cashews, each split into halves
2 cups cooled boiled (or distilled) water
1/5 tsp salt (optional)



Wash split cashews in several changes of water and drain. Soak in cold water for 6 - 8 hours.

Drain cashews and combine with water and salt in blender jug. Process until very, very smooth. A powerful blender will be able to blend this fine enough so that filtering out the solids is unnecessary.

If you feel the milk is a little gritty, strain through double layers of very clean muslin or cheesecloth. The solids make a fantastic face or body scrub or mask and works wonders on dry scaly knees and elbows.

Decant into a very clean, dry covered container or bottle and refrigerate until needed. Consume within 3 days.

click here for printable recipe