Nutritious walnuts transform into creamy, non-dairy milk in this Homemade Walnut Milk recipe that anyone can make!
I love making homemade nut milk. But for some reason, I've never made homemade walnut milk before! We love walnuts in my family, yet it never occurred to me to transform walnuts into homemade walnut milk. I've been making homemade almond milk and homemade oat milk for ages, but now I'm officially obsessed with homemade walnut milk as well. I love to pour it over a bowl of fruit cereal or use it to bake all of our favorite vegan muffins. I hope you give this walnut milk recipe a try.
Why You'll Love This Recipe!
- You'll feel like a magician when you turn plain, old walnuts into creamy, non-dairy milk. Seriously, it's so fun to watch water and walnuts transform into milk right before your eyes!
- This recipe requires a minimum of 2 ingredients, but you can always add a couple more ingredients to add sweetness and flavor.
- Once you master how to make this homemade walnut milk, you'll be able to make any kind of nut or seed milk that you want!
- Depending on the price on non-dairy milk where you live and whether you can buy walnuts in bulk, making walnut milk at home could save you some money.
Ingredients
- Walnuts - I love to buy my walnuts in bulk to make this homemade walnut milk really affordable. If you don't have a high speed blender, you'll need to soak your walnuts before blending them into milk. If you do have a high speed blender, such as a Vitamix, it's possible to skip the soaking process.
- Water - Cold, filtered water is the water I like to use when making homemade walnut milk.
- Salt - Salt is optional, but I always like to add a pinch of salt to my homemade nut milk.
Substitutions and Variations
- Sweetened Walnut Milk - To sweeten your walnut milk, blend in some maple syrup or medjool dates. You can make your homemade walnut milk as sweet as you desire.
- Vanilla Walnut Milk - For vanilla walnut milk, add in 1-3 teaspoons of vanilla extract (and some sweetener, if desired!) when blending your walnuts. This will create delicious, vanilla walnut milk!
- Chocolate Walnut Milk - Add 1-2 tablespoons of cocoa powder and 2-4 tablespoons of maple syrup to your blender along with the walnuts and water and blend until smooth. Once you strain the milk, you'll have creamy, chocolatey walnut milk!
- Other Nut Milks - Obviously, if you substitute the walnuts for another type of nut or seed, you won't have walnut milk. But you can use 1 cup of any nut or seed you want to make a plethora of different non-dairy milks at home, such as homemade almond milk and cashew milk!
Equipment
Homemade nut milk is so easy to make, however you do need to have a few small kitchen appliances and items on hand.
- Bowl - You'll need a simple bowl to soak your walnuts in before blending them.
- Blender - I love to use my Vitamix or another brand of high speed blender whenever I make homemade nut milk. However, you can make nut milk with a regular blender as well. You'll just need to be sure to soak your nuts well before blending them.
- Nut Milk Bag - I've used a few nut milk bags over the years and I love ones with rounded edges as I find they are easier to clean. You can also use a double layer of cheese cloth, but if you can get a nut milk bag, it's a wonderful, reusable tool to have on hand!
- Jars - You'll need either a 1 liter jar or a few smaller jars to store your homemade walnut milk. Swing top 1 liter jars are my favorite way to store homemade nut milk, but you can use any other kind of sealable jar you have on hand.
How to Make Homemade Walnut Milk
Step 1: Soak the walnuts in water over night or for about 8 hours. After the walnuts have soaked, discard the soaking water, rinse them and place them in a blender. Add in the filtered water, a pinch of salt and any flavorings/sweeteners that you desire.
Step 2: Blend the walnuts, water and flavorings for about a minute or until white and smooth.
Step 3: Pour the milk through a nut milk bag or through two layers of cheesecloth and use your hands to squeeze out as much milk as possible. Save the pulp for another use or discard it.
Step 4: Pour the strained milk into a sealable bottle and store it in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Storage
You can store your homemade walnut milk in an airtight jar or container in the fridge for 3-4 days. Before enjoying your milk, give it a good shake as the walnut pulp that's still in the milk will have settled to the bottom of the jar. I love to use swing-top bottle to store my homemade nut milk, but any other kind of sealable pitcher or jar should work.
Expert Tips
- For super creamy walnut milk, be sure to soak your walnuts overnight before blending them into milk. If you don't have a ton of time or forgot to soak your walnuts, you can always soak them in boiling water for about 30 minutes. However, if you have a high speed blender, such as a Vitamix, you can get away with not soaking the nuts if necessary.
- Don't throw the walnut pulp away after you've strained the milk! You can add it to smoothies, dehydrate it into nut flour or use it to bake cookies or other goodies.
Recipe FAQs
Walnuts are high in the good kind of fats, including polyunsaturated fats and Omega-3 fatty acids. They can help lower cholesterol and can ease inflammation that may lead to heart disease. Walnuts are an excellent source of antioxidants and they can help promote a healthy gut as they feed the beneficial bacteria in your gut.
Too much of anything, even good things, is a bad thing. So while walnuts are very nutritious, eating about 2-3oz. a day is probably best. Everything in moderation!
You can use all kinds of nuts and seeds to make homemade milk! I really don't think there is a nut or seed you can't use, although some may be better than others. Some of my favorites are almonds, cashews, walnuts, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, and hemp seeds.
This homemade walnut milk is similar to any other homemade nut or seed milk and it should last for about 3-4 days when stored in an airtight container in the fridge. Before using homemade nut milk, I like to smell it to make sure it hasn't gone off and give it a good shake.
More Homemade Nut Milk Recipes
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📖 Recipe
Homemade Walnut Milk
Ingredients
- 1 cup walnuts soaked
- 3-4 cups cold filtered water
OPTIONAL INGREDIENTS
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1-2 tablespoons liquid sweetener OR 3-4 Medjool pitted dates
- Pinch of salt
Instructions
- Soak the walnuts in water over night or for about 8 hours.
- After the walnuts have soaked, drain and rinse them and place them in a high speed blender. Add in 3-4 cups of water and blend on high for about 1 minute or until frothy, white and smooth.
- Pour the milk through a nut milk bag or through two layers of cheesecloth and use your hands to squeeze out as much milk as possible
- If you are using the optional ingredients, then pour the strained milk back into your rinsed out blender and add in the vanilla extract and liquid sweetener to taste. Blend until combined.*
- Pour the strained milk into an air tight container and store in the fridge for 3-4 days.
Laura says
I tried walnut milk before and I did not care for it but I am excited to try your recipe in the near future cause it sounds delish! Thank you!
Johnson Olu says
What about the pulp? Is it edible or just waste? Thanks
Faith says
Definitely edible! I just posted a recipe using almond pulp and I'm sure the recipe would work just as well with walnut pulp. The post also shares other helpful information so check it out! https://theconscientiouseater.com/almond-pulp-freezer-brownie-bites-recipe/
Zlatko says
One question: what do I do with the water left over from soaking the wallnuts? I thought that's going to become milk, but the way this recipe reads, it looks like that's not going into the blender, just the nuts?
Faith says
Hi Zlatko. Sorry for the confusion. The soaking water isn't listed in the ingredients. So yes, you throw out the soaking water and then blend the walnuts and 3 cups of fresh water together to make the walnut milk. I hope that answers your question!
Angelina says
Yes ! just the nut
Patou says
Awsome !
Faith says
Yay!
Sydni Jackson says
Okay, I have something for you to come up with a recipe for! At Whole Foods the other day I found chocolate pecan butter!!! Of course I had to buy it because 1 - I've never had pecan butter and 2 - it has chocolate in it!! Have you ever tried it?? If you come up with a recipe for it I will love you 🙂
Faith says
YAY! I love a good challenge!! I'm thinking pecans, cocoa powder and maple syrup?? Seriously, I hope I can try and recreate it this week:)
Sydni Jackson says
Sure! At Whole Foods it looked like it was just made from chocolate chips and pecans, but your idea sounds great too!
Faith says
AHH!! That sounds great too! Good to know. I'm hoping to try it out tomorrow:)
Liz @ I Heart Vegetables says
Yum! I'm a big almond milk fan but I've never tried walnut milk! I could definitely see myself making this, especially if I didn't have almonds on hand!
Faith says
Yeah, it's super easy! And walnuts are usually cheaper for me so that's an added bonus:)