Rice Milk????

We have two allergic to dairy so we use rice milk also. But I have only tried making my own once and it was bad : (. You can frequently find good prices in bulk or thru coops.

You can use it the same as cow milk. We prefer vanilla flavored for drinks and muffins and the like. But use plain for soups and casseroles (we made the mistake of using vanilla in mashed potatoes before and YUCK! : ).

As far as other substitutues: use broth in mashed potatoes and the like, make a white sauce in place of “cream of” soups, guacamole tastes good in place of cheese/sour cream in mexican food. And with summer here, there are some yummy rice milk and coconut milk ice creams out there : ).

Let me know if you need anything in particular. We’ve been doing this for 13 years. -Rebecca

Here is the recipe I use.

Ingredients:

4 cups water
1/2 cup cooked brown rice
1-2 Tablespoons light vegetable oil
1-2 Tablespoons honey
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

Directions:
Blend in a standard beverage blender, on high speed, for 10 minutes
Strain if needed
Refridgerate leftovers

Some notes-
I always use the max honey and oil, but I’d start with the lesser amounts – you can always add more!

To my taste, safflower oil tastes best.  I don’t generally use corn or canola (or mixed “vegetable” oils) but any of the light flavor ones would probably taste fine.  Olive oil has a distinct taste that I don’t like in my rice milk.  Coconut oil (pre-warmed/melted) should work for milk you intend to serve fresh and warm, but might solidify and ruin any rice milk you store in the fridge.

I usually skip the vanilla, just because we are usually out of vanilla.  

And cooking brown rice…. aaaaah, what an art!  It took me years to figure out how to make perfect brown rice, and I still botch it every now and then!

“Perfectly” cooked rice, and slightly over-cooked and/or over-watered mushy rice, make great rice milk.

Hot fresh rice, makes great rice milk.  I think it’s more than the fluffy freshness, but also I think the heat helps the oil, water, and honey emulsify.  (Just a guess though!)

Recent (aka, not yet in the fridge) leftover rice, makes great rice milk.

Slightly undercooked or underwatered rice, makes clumpy rice milk.

Refridgerated leftover rice shrivles a bit, and also tends to make clumpy rice milk.

Lastly, when you are blending, you may want to put a towel over the lid before you turn it on.  You can probably guess why. 😉

I hope that helps some.  I love rice milk.

-Laura

We do rice milk as well.  Our recipe is somewhat different than the one above.  I simply soak a couple of cups of almonds overnight (I don’t chop them and they must be RAW).  Then, drain the almonds, toss them and two cups of almonds in the blender and blend for a minute or two.  Strain the concotion into a bowl or pitcher.  Once most of the liquid is drained, gather the edges of the cloth you’re using or close the bag if using a cheese bag and gently squeeze the cloth to remove the remaining liquid.  The almond pulp can be used as almond flour for recipes, made into almond butter with the addition of a bit of oil, or used as bulk in recipes if you desire to use stevia in place of sugar in a recipe.  It must be stored in the frig and will not last as long as commercial butters.  The almond meal can be gently dried in an oven, toaster oven, or dehydrator and then stored in the freezer.

I use a set-up that home canners/ cookers use for making jams, jellies, &/or cheeses, etc.  It looks like this and was less than $10.00 at our local Big R (which is like a Farm and Fleet).  You can use a plain jane feed sack style dish towel placed in a small strainer that will fit inside of a med/ large size bowl as well – just so long as there is space beneath so that the strainer isn’t sitting in the milk when you strain the blended mixture.

Enjoy!

Pax,

~jacqleene