I love homemade nut milk. It makes coffee, smoothies and even SIBO-approved pancakes better. My SIBO diet allows for all nuts except cashews and pistachios. Further, I am always mindful of rotating what goes into (and on) my body. This is so I don’t end up creating new food sensitivities and also to spread out and maximize the nutrients my body is getting. In my search for alternatives to almonds, which are all too easy to eat in excess if you’re gluten or especially grain-free, I discovered brazil nuts.

Turns out, brazil nut milk is creamier and more satisfying than regular almond milk. My secret is doubling the amount of nuts, adding a pinch of Himalayan pink salt and vanilla bean.

This recipe will yield about 40 ounces (over a liter) of milk, equaling eight 5-ounce servings.

Directions

1. Soak Brazil nuts in water for 8 hours, at room temperature, covered with a flour sack towel or cheese cloth. (3-4 hours is fine - add a pinch of sea salt and a splash of lemon juice or apple cider vinegar to help activate faster). I use this glass pitcher because my nut bag fits over the sides and it’s easy to pour into the blender.

2. Drain and rinse the nuts and add them to a 64 oz Vitamix or other blender, along with 5 cups / 1 liter of water.

3. Arrange your nut milk bag in the glass pitcher you used to soak your nuts, trying to get the edges of the bag over the rim. I stick to organic cloth nut bags like this one.

4. Blend nuts on medium working up to high until smooth and creamy, about 45-60 seconds.

5. Pour liquid through nut bag back into glass pitcher and strain out the pulp. The pulp can be saved, even frozen, for baking and other uses that call for almond or other nut meal.

6. Pour nut milk back into Vitamix and add salt and vanilla. Blend until smooth and well-mixed, about 10-15 seconds.

TIPS

**For a sweet nut milk, add maple syrup or chopped dates.
**Save in an airtight container in the refrigerator for 3-5 days.
**A note about water quality. I have a whole house water filter, so even my soaking water is filtered. I also have an alkaline water maker built in under my sink and I use that one for the nut milk. Whatever your setup is, use as clean a water source as you can. If you live in the mountains and have delicious unpolluted alpine water, even better!
**Benefits of brazil nuts include this, as well as the trace mineral selenium, which also counteracts mercury toxicity.
**If your vanilla bean pods are grade B or dried out, soak them along with the nuts to soften them to more easily scrape out the paste.
**Vanilla beans can be replaced with vanilla bean paste or vanilla extract.
**If you don’t want to blend twice, you can skip the extra step and add your flavor ingredients before blending the nuts. It just seems wasteful to me to lose any of the precious vanilla beans to the filtering process so this is how I always do it.