So usually when you go into any grocery store, you see the same vegan milks every time. Those usually consist of soy, almond, coconut, rice, hemp, and cashew milk. All of those are absolutely incredible, but I’ve always been curious about what other types of nut milk taste like. Plus making your own homemade nut milk is SO satisfying and way more delicious than store bought, no matter what kind of nut you use. Peanut butter is one of my most favorite things ever, so I was curious about what peanut milk would taste like…. and oh my gosh you guys. It tastes like liquid peanut butter. Its so tasty and so easy, let me show you how to make it!
We’re gonna start by making our vanilla peanut milk, because that will be the base for our chocolate milk, or any other flavor that you’d wanna create. This isn’t the prettiest process, so sorry for that in advance. Start by soaking your peanuts in water for about 6 hours at least, overnight is better. This helps them soften so they blend a lot easier. Also MAKE SURE you are using UNSALTED peanuts. You can use raw or roasted, but make sure they are unsalted. We used unsalted roasted peanuts for ours. Once they’ve soaked, drain them and discard of the soaking water. They’ll look kinda gross and weird, that’s okay, don’t fret it’ll be delicious! Add your peanuts to a high powered blender with your new filtered water, pitted dates, and vanilla extract. Blend on high for a few minutes until its completely completely smooth.
Once your nut milk is all blended up, you’ll want to take some cheesecloth or a nut milk bag, and place that inside of a fine mesh strainer. Balance that on top of a quart sized mason jar, and pour in some of your milk. Work in batches. Once the milk gets into the bag / cloth, pick up the sides and start squeezing the bag lightly to separate and drain the milk. Continue to work in small batches until you’ve strained everything in the blender. And thats your vanilla peanut milk done! Now to make it chocolate, put half of your vanilla milk back in the blender, and add some more dates, and cacao powder. Blend again for a minute or so, and then strain again (only through the fine mesh strainer this time, you don’t have to do the nut milk bag or cheesecloth) into a separate jar, and you’ve got chocolate peanut milk! Keep in the fridge for at least an hour before drinking to get it nice and cold. We also served it over ice, and topped it with some chopped up vegan dark chocolate Justin’s peanut butter cups. They are also both delicious mixed with some black iced coffee as well! This milk will last for about three days in the fridge, so drink it quickly! But if you’d like, you can add some citric acid into the nut milk to make it keep longer in the fridge. We hope you guys enjoy this recipe! It has endless uses for both sweet and savory dishes as well! You could even make an unsweetened regular version to use in a thai dish! 
INGREDIENTS
Vanilla:
- 2 c. unsalted roasted peanuts, soaked
- 6 c. filtered water
- 4 pitted dates
- 1 tbs. vanilla extract
Chocolate:
- 1/2 of your vanilla peanut milk
- 3 tbs. cacao powder
- 2 pitted dates
DIRECTIONS
- Soak your peanuts for at least 6 hours, or overnight. Drain and discard the soaking water.
- Add your peanuts, filtered water, 4 pitted dates, and vanilla extract into a high powered blender and blend for 2-3 minutes on high until completely smooth.
- Strain through a nut milk bag or cheesecloth overtop a fine mesh strainer into a quart sized mason jar. Do this step in small batches as to not overflow the nut milk bag or cheesecloth.
- Add half of your vanilla peanut milk back into the blender with your cacao powder, and 2 pitted dates, and blend again on high for 1-2 minutes until completely smooth.
- Strain through a fine mesh strainer (no nut milk bag or cheesecloth required for this step) into a separate container.
- Keep in the fridge for at least an hour before drinking so it gets nice and cold.
