By Maddie Pasquariello of East Coast Health

Admittedly, I’ve never been big on making my own vegan nut milks. Whenever I see someone reference how easy it is to make vegan milk at home, I tend to do a mental eye-roll. Sure, it’s easy, but there’s a lot involved: soaking, straining, and adding flavors to make it a bit more delicious. And by that point I’ve checked out of the whole thing. This recipe really cuts out all that, because there’s no straining or soaking involved. Sure, you could probably do both, but it’s not necessary since hemp seeds are so small and liquefy so easily in the Blendtec. Plus, there are really only three ingredients for this recipe, not including the optional pinch of sea salt.

As soon as you blend it up, you’re good to go. What you’re left with is super frothy milk that’s a bit thicker than typical nut milk. It’s best served chilled over granola or oatmeal, but it’s also a super creamy addition to smoothies (think the consistency of canned coconut milk). It definitely needs a bit of sweetener to cut through hemp seeds’ inherent grassy flavor (unless that’s your thing, in which case you could skip or reduce the amount of sweetener used). Also, you can switch out the maple syrup for your sweetener of choice, or use liquid stevia for a sugar-free option.

Maple-Sweetened Hemp Milk

Ingredients

1 cup hemp seeds
2 cups filtered fresh water (use less for thicker milk)
2 tbsp maple syrup, or to taste
1 pinch sea salt or Himalayan salt

Directions

1. Blend the hemp seeds and water using the Smoothie cycle until frothy. If your Blendtec doesn’t have a smoothie cycle, blend on a Low speed for 10 seconds, then a Medium to Medium-Low speed for 10 seconds, then Medium to Medium-High speed for 40 seconds.
2. Add the maple syrup and sea salt and blend on high until combined and no hemp seed pieces remain. Enjoy!