Smooth, creamy and naturally sweet, this dairy-free Cashew Milk recipe is a fantastic milk substitute. It’s also super easy to make. Unlike my almond milk recipe, and other nut milk recipes, it does not require a nut milk bag. To make it, you simply whip it up in the blender. There is no need to strain out the pulp. Because it’s so easy to make, this dairy-free milk is one of my all-time favorites!
I keep a quart of this cashew milk on hand in the fridge for the boys. We love using it in my smoothie recipes or pouring it over a bowl of my homemade Paleo Granola.
Cashew Milk
Ingredients
- 1 cup cashews, soaked overnight
- 3-4 cups water
- 1 pinch celtic sea salt
Instructions
- Discard soaking water and rinse cashews thoroughly until water runs clear
- Place cashews, water, and salt in a vitamix
- Process on high speed 30 seconds
- Serve
Equipment
This cashew milk has the viscosity of regular whole milk. If you want to make milk with the consistency of 2% cow milk, add another cup of water. To make this into half and half (perfect in my Dandelion Coffee recipe), use only 2 cups water. Cashew milk can be very foamy when first removed from the Vitamix. It will settle nicely after sitting in the fridge overnight.
Dairy-free Cashew Milk is amazing served with any of these healthy paleo drink recipes:
elana says
Shez -That sounds AMAZING; I’m going to the kitchen right now to make some with my organic decaf coffee. Yum! Thanks for sharing your recipe with us.
I’m back, just made the frapuccino –it is very similar to my coffee ice cream recipe, except it is instant! No waiting for the ice cream maker to get going! Thanks.
Shez says
I blended a cup of the cashew milk with an extra handful of cashews (unsoaked). When it was smooth, I added a shot of espresso, some agave nectar and around 10 ice cubes. Blended until the ice was smooth. It’s really good.
elana says
Freedom -I use the cream stuff on top for tea, or I simply mix it in.
Celine -Thanks for your kind words.
Tarah -You are so welcome.
Bonnie -I am a HUGE fan of the SCD. I would recommend raw cashews for this recipe, have not ever made it with roasted, don’t think it would be the same thing. I will add “raw” to the instructions on the post above; thanks much for pointing this out!
Shez -Yes, isn’t cashew milk the greatest? I think the soaking is necessary as when I have reduced soaking time for this recipe (in a rush), the milk was not quite as creamy. If you experiment and come up with a different end result, please let us know. BTW, what’s in your frappucino recipe? Sounds delicious!
Alisa -I hope you are well! Everyone who needs dairy-free recipes, make sure to stop by Alisa’s Site, godairyfree.com
Abigail -I will add your bbq sauce request to my list, as the one I came up with for Katie has some OJ in it.
abigail says
I’m quite interested in the barbeque sauce recipe! I can’t do agave or fruit sweeteners, so I’m quite interested to see the spicy mustard-vinegar one if you end up making it!
Alisa says
Beautiful, I was just about to make some cashew milk today! Thank you for the great recipe.
Shez says
Elana, I had my first “frappocino” in four years yesterday. thank you. I’ve tried to make them with almond milk but dislike the taste of almond milk. I can’t believe I didn’t think to try cashew nuts before this. I look forward to trying to make Thai tea with the cashew milk. Is the soaking absolutely necessary?
Shez
Bonnie says
Hi Elana,
I have to say I love your website. My husband is on the Specific Carb Diet and needless to say it has been challenging to cook for him. He is Italian and has a real passion for food in general. Thanks to you, I now have 2 cases of Papadini pasta I can get creative with and satisfy his cravings.
I have a question about the cashew milk. You didn’t specify, but I’m assuming you use raw cashews in the recipe? I’ve never tried “nut milk”, but I’d like to give it a shot.
thanks,
Bon
Tarah says
Hmm, I’ve never had cashew milk. Sounds really good. Thanks for the recipe, I’ll defiantly be trying this!
Celine says
even though I usually prefer buying my milk alternatives from the store where they are enriched in much-needed calcium, I think I’ll throw caution to the wind and make your beautiful version!
courtney says
would it be strange to just add a couple calcium tabs to the blender?
Mary BB says
Yuck. Just swallow the capsules and enjoy the cashew milk
yvonne says
Just eat a balanced diet (and most of us do where calcium is concerned). Unless you are on calcium replacement therapy, add more meat or calcium rich veggies to your diet. Chuck the mineral tablets.
Vivienne Levick says
As far as I am aware there is actually more naturally absorbable calcium in apple juice than there is in milk. Pasteurizing it encapsulates the bacteria in order it stop it reproducing in its live form but in doing so it also encapsulates most of the other absorbable vitamins too, making them super hard to digest, so if your milk is pasteurized, heat treated etc then the calcium you are getting is an additive anyway, so you may as well be taking a supplement! Solgar and Viridian are some of the best brands…
Freedom says
What all can you use the cream stuff for? Or do you just discard it? Mix it in?
sara says
I made the cashew milk, my milk turned out very grainy even when we finished it we had a lot of stuff on the bottom of the jar. Is this normal or is my blender not blending it properly?
Thanks,
Sara
Holly Ellerton says
I made this milk as well and mine was grainy. I omitted the agave since I avoid sugars, so I thought this might be why but other say they have gotten good results without the agave. Any ideas out there? Maybe it is just my blender…
mike says
Hi holy
your best bet to stop the grainy thing is get a nut milk bag. I got mine on amazon ……nuts about milk had a good one. Here is the link….www.amazon.com/dp/B00MU5MXYO past this link and you can see it.
Mary BB says
I think it is your blender. Mine doesn’t chop things like a VitaMix either. Therefore I strain the milk and use what’s left in other recipes
Julie says
Hi Sara
I make my own cashew milk but my recipe is slightly different. The first time I made it my milk was grainy and then I realised the best way to stop this happening was to blend the nuts in the beginning with less water. So I now blend the nuts with 1 cup of water, this ensures all the nuts are ground up. Then I add the other 3 cups of water and blend again. Hope this works for you.
Julie says
Hi Sara
I make my own cashew milk but my recipe is slightly different. The first time I made it my milk was grainy and then I realised the best way to stop this happening was to blend the nuts in the beginning with less water. So I now blend the nuts with 1 cup of water, this ensures all the nuts are ground up. Then I add the other 3 cups of water and blend again. Hope this works for you.
Cindy says
Hey all,
In case nobody else replied yet, the cream is awesome and can be used like you would any other cream. Cashew cream is, what I find, to be the most amazing cream replacement ever! Plus you can easily find a recipe for just that, cashew cream, by doing a search online.
As for the grainy-ness, do realize that this recipe calls for a Vita-mix. This is NOT a regular blender, and while totally amazing and (I’m sure) worth the cost, they’re expensive.
So, if you use a regular blender/food processor, it will be grainy. If you can’t live with this, try straining it. I’ve heard that works, and perhaps that’s another online search, but I find it’s a challenge because the creme’s so thick, unless you use extra water.
By the way, when I’ve made this I didn’t make milk, I made cream. And while on that thought, the extra cream on top, the left over, might be more of a light cream than regular cashew cream.
Enjoy!