This milk is rich and creamy, with a delicious mild nutty flavor, and if you keep a stash of cashews in the freezer you can make it anytime.
We have an old Oster blender with only one switch, which doesn’t work well for some nut milks. For a hard nut like almonds, it can’t grind them fine enough to make a smooth milk. Since cashews get softer than almonds after soaking in water, it’s easier to create a smooth milk with them, and our old-school blender does an excellent job. Plus, there’s no need for straining or squeezing the blended milk at the end. Easy!
¾ cup cashews
¼ cup sugar
¼ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon vanilla
Put the cashews into a jar and cover them with water. Refrigerate for 24-48 hours to allow them to soak and soften.
Take the cashews out and drain them. Rinse them a couple of times with clean water. Put them in a blender and fill the blender with water to 5 cups. Add the sugar, salt, and vanilla. Blend for a few minutes until smooth. This keeps in the fridge for about a week.
For plain cashew milk: Leave out the sugar.
For chocolate cashew milk: Add two tablespoons of a good unsweetened cocoa, such as Droste, to the vanilla milk before blending. This chocolate milk makes an excellent base for simple chocolate pudding.