Tigernut Milk – Homemade, AIP, Paleo
Today’s recipe focuses on the sweet and deliciously creamy milk that can be made from the miniature tuber, the tigernut.
The mild flavored creamy concoction, can be drank all by its lonesome, or used in place of dairy milk or nut milks in your favorite recipes.
I intend to make a delicious custard with it in the days to come, as well as try it over coconut flake “cereal,” and even in my smoothies, sauces and soups! I am in love with the stuff, folks.
The tigernut’s popularity is steadily growing within the paleo community, and for good reason.
Apparently, the tigernut could have made up to 80% of the paleolithic diet, but this a debatable topic still.
What we DO know is that current-day paleoliths rather enjoy noshing on tigernuts! We like them whole as a crunchy nut-like snack, sliced as a topping on yogurt or casseroles, and even ground up to be used as a flour substitute in baking.
Making your own tigernut milk from scratch ensures you’re only getting two ingredients: tigernuts (aka chufa seeds) and water.
That’s it.
When you’re done squeezing the liquid through the mesh bag, you can freeze and save the leftover “pulp” for future use in baking things like breads and cookies. You can even dehydrate the flour and use it for coating chicken, fish, etc.
Your first step is to soak your tigernut flour in filtered water in an airtight container for 24 hours in the refrigerator.
(Soaking it on the counter top is not recommended so that we don’t start to ferment the stuff.)
Next, pour the soaked contents plus 2 more cups of water into a high-speed blender, and slowly walk the speed up to high. Allow to blend for 30 seconds, then walk the speed back down and turn off.
Alternately, if you have a Vitamix with a programmable dial, you can run the smoothie program and it will also turn out beautifully.
Then, hold your nut milk bag over a spouted bowl and carefully pour the flour-water mixture into the bag.
Most of the liquid should start to pour through the bag without much squeezing effort. Squeeze the bag as much as you can until the liquid has passed through.
Now, pour your deliciously creamy yummy awesome tasty om nom tigernut milk into an airtight, pourable pitcher container or a mason jar. Keep in the fridge for up to a week.
You can freeze this for longer storage, too…but this stuff is so delicious, I don’t think I’m going to run into a surplus anytime soon!
You can totally re-purpose your tigernut pulp leftover from making the milk.
Tigernut flour is a bit costly, so here are some tips:
1) You can reuse it to make another (thinner) batch or two of more milk. You would not need to re-soak it in this case.
2) You can add a tablespoon or two to smoothie to bulk up the fiber content.
3) You could use it in protein balls by adding some melted coconut oil, carob powder, honey, and salt – then forming them into balls and keeping in the fridge.
4) You can even dehydrate it and use it in recipes that call for tigernut flour, but you may need to slightly increase the fat or liquid content in the recipe since the flour has been dried out.
- 4-cup airtight container
- High-speed blender
- Nut milk bag
, or a couple of tea towels, or doubled up cheesecloth
- 1 cup tigernut flour
- 4 cups filtered water, divided
- Add tigernut flour and 2 cups water to an airtight container.
- Store in the refrigerator for 24 hours to allow flour to soak up water and soften.
- Pour contents into a high-speed blender and add 2 more cups water.
- slowly walk the speed up to high. Allow to blend for 30 seconds, then walk the speed back down and turn off.
- Hold nut milk bag over a spouted bowl and carefully pour the flour-water mixture into the bag.
- Squeeze the bag as much as you can until the liquid has passed through.
- Store milk in an airtight, pourable pitcher container or a mason jar.
- Keep in the fridge for up to a week. Freeze in freezer-safe containers for longer storage.
Photo credit: Glass milk pour - https://pixabay.com/en/users/Couleur-1195798/ References: http://paleoleap.com/all-about-tiger-nuts/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyperus_esculentus
6 Comments
Emily
This is the first time I’ve seen tigernut milk made from the flour. I thought the flour was made from the leftover chaff after making tigernut milk, so that this recipe would produce a watery result.
Do different tigernut brnds make their flour differently? I’ve always used the whole tigernuts to make milk, which scratches the inside of my Vitamix plastic container (something I don’t like, because I don’t like the idea of ingesting minute particles of plastic).
Samantha Jo Teague
Hi Emily,
Eeek, plastic particles don’t sound very yummy in milk!
I’m not well versed in the makings of the flours themselves. I do really like Anthony’s over Organic Gemini…it’s softer and less gritty. Maybe Anthony’s doesn’t sell it as an “aftermarket” product? Sorry I don’t have an answer for that hun.
This does come out creamy-ish, like 2% milk in my opinion. Definitely not coconut-cream thickness at all, but it makes a good replacement for milk in some recipes. I hope that helps! 🙂
Pingback:
Pingback:
Pingback:
Pingback: