“Young” Almond Cheese and Almond Milk

This is a delicious, creamy raw almond milk. For the last couple of months I have been really excited about the soy milk maker that I recently bought, which does make superior milk to anything you can buy in the store, but in my recent attempts to become less dependent on soy products I rediscovered almond milk, inspired by Sarah from My New Roots(a fantastic blog BTW).It’s simple and very rewarding to make, because unlike the soy milk machine which basically makes the milk for you, with this recipe I get to milk my own cheese cloth, giving me a back to basics feeling!

And, of course the “Young” Almond Cheese is a Bonus!

Almond Milk
1 1/2 cups soaked peeled almonds
6 cups of water

-first make almond milk
-put the soaked almonds and the water in the blender and blend very well for a couple of minutes
-pass the milk through a cheese cloth and more water if you think it’s too thick
-put your freshly made almond mil in a bottle in the refrigerator until ready to use

Cheese

pulp from making almond milk
3 tbs umesu vinegar or lemon juice
a couple of spoons of olive oil

-take the pulp out of the cheese cloth and put it in a bowl
-add the rest of the ingredients and ix well
-rinse your cheese cloth
-put the almond pulp back in the cheese cloth and make a closed package in the form of a ball and tie it well
-in a deep pan boil water and place the almond pulp package in the boiling water
-let it boil for about 5 minutes
-take package out of the boiling water and let it cool a bit before you can squeeze some of the extra water
-take pulp out of cheese cloth and place in a bowl
-drizzle with olive oil and other herbs if you like, such as oregano, rosemary, garlic, paprika etc…

Eat with freshly made bread and olives

Delicate Humus

This humus is so easy and so tasty. I don’t use tahini or cumin because I like to keep it fresh tasting and those two ingredients are a bit heavier. Make this humus when you have great olive oil around!

3 cups of cooked chick peas( you can use canned)
the juice of 1 large lemon
olive oil
1/2 clove of garlic minced(or none if you prefer)
sea salt
about 1/4 to 1/2 cup roasted pine nuts
fresh cilantro
A handful of Kalamata olives without pits and chopped
paprika powder

-puree the chickpeas with the hand blender or the food processor
-add a bit of olive oil, garlic and sea salt
-add the lemon juice and blend a bit more
-stir in the pine nuts(leave some for garnish)and the olives
-add the cilantro
-garnish with the pine nuts and drizzle with extra olive oil, creating a film of oil on top of the humus.
-sprinkle with paprika powder