How to Make Your Own Hemp Milk: Quick, Easy and Healthy
Making your own hemp milk is a good way of ingesting the nutritious qualities of hemp seeds without all the additives that are often found in bought varieties. It’s a great vegan alternative to dairy milk and as long as you have a good blender it’s a quick and easy process.
Why This Hemp Milk Recipe Works
- Simple, natural ingredients – You only need hemp seeds, linseeds, water and a pinch of salt. No unnecessary additives, stabilisers or preservatives.
- Whole hemp seeds – Using whole hemp seeds rather than the more expensive hulled hemp hearts makes this a more economical way to make your own plant milk.
- Linseeds help prevent separation – Adding linseeds helps emulsify the milk, giving it a more stable consistency.
- Soaking improves extraction – Soaking the hemp seeds beforehand isn’t essential, but it can help soften them and make their nutrients easier to access.
- Quick to make – There’s no lengthy preparation involved. A few minutes in a good blender is all it takes.
- Straining gives a smoother milk – Passing the mixture through fine muslin or a nut milk bag removes the fibrous husks, leaving you with a smoother drink.
Hemp Seeds
Hemp seeds come from the plant Cannabis sativa, but don’t worry, they aren’t illegal. They’re rich in omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, complete protein, Vitamin E and various minerals. They’ve also been consumed for centuries.
Unlike many nuts, there are, apparently, no known allergies. Win win. Whole hemp seeds are cheaper and more nutritious than hemp hearts and they are fine for making hemp milk. Organic ones are better still.
Power Blender
All you need to make hemp milk is a good blender, I used my Optimum 9200A power blender and a fine muslin cloth or nut milk bag. Don’t be put off by the rather sludgy grey colour of the milk whilst it’s blending, it ends up surprisingly white once filtered.
Soak Your Nuts and Seeds
Whilst not essential, soaking nuts and seeds before use is a good idea. This process removes the enzyme inhibitors that make digestion problematic and reduces the nutrients available to us.
Adding linseeds helps emulsify the liquid and stops it separating out. With most nut milks, you can use the remaining pulp in baking or other recipes, but unless you use hemp hearts rather than the whole seeds, the husks are rather bitter and the pulp is best discarded.
Hemp Milk
Hemp milk is a bit of an acquired taste, but I quite like it. You can of course add a sweetener, but I wanted mine left plain. Honey, maple syrup and date syrup, however, all work well. Use as you would dairy milk or any non-dairy alternative.
Try this salted caramel chocolate milk to see just how good it can taste. You can add it to hot drinks such as this golden turmeric latté without it splitting and it makes a great base for a smoothie. Not surprisingly, it’s also perfect for granola.
Other Nut Milk Recipes You Might Like
- Chocolate hazelnut milk via Gluten Free, SCD and Veggie
- Homemade almond milk via Planet Veggie
- Homemade raw almond cashew milk via Strength & Sunshine
- Middle Eastern almond milks – halva and Turkish delight via Nadia’s Healthy Kitchen
- Raw nutella milk via Wallflower Kitchen
Keep in Touch
Thanks for visiting Tin and Thyme. If you try making this hemp milk, I’d love to hear about it in the comments below or via social media. Do share photos on social media too and use the hashtag #tinandthyme, so I can spot them.
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Choclette x
Make Your Own Hemp Milk. PIN IT.
Hemp Milk
Equipment
- power blender
- large piece of fine muslin or nut milk bag
Ingredients
- 100 g hemp seeds (ideally soaked for an hour or more and rinsed)
- 1 tbsp linseeds (flaxseeds)
- 1 pinch sea or rock salt (I use Himalayan pink rock salt)
- 750 ml filtered water
Instructions
- Place the linseeds in a bowl and cover with a little of the water and leave to soak whilst you’re getting ready. The longer you can leave this the better, but it’s not essential.1 tbsp linseeds (flaxseeds)
- Place the hemp seeds and half the water in a good blender and blitz at high speed for 20 seconds.100 g hemp seeds, 375 ml filtered water
- Add the linseeds (with soaking water), the salt and remaining water. Blitz at high speed for 45 seconds.1 pinch sea or rock salt, 375 ml filtered water
- Place the muslin cloth into a sieve or colander over a large bowl or jug and pour in the milk to strain. Alternatively use a nut milk bag if you have one.
- Squeeze the cloth to get out as much of the milk as you can.
- Discard the pulp or add it to your compost bin.
thank you Choclette, i saw some “Good Hemp Milk” in waitrese today but had some additives but i also found Planish Almond Milk…..
Yay, well done. I quite liked that one, though my favourite so far is Planish oat milk.
hello, i am inspired to try hemp milk as i’ve never had it, i looked on line and can see organic shelled hemp seeds, do i want them shelled?
I used whole hemp seeds. They’re a lot cheaper than shelled ones. But if your blender isn’t that powerful, you might be better off going for the shelled ones.
I’ll have to try this. I’ve had so many nut/seed milks but never hemp. Your notes in the recipe are so useful, too.
Thanks Kate. I’m really enjoying the hemp milk. I had some warm this morning with turmeric and honey and it was delicious.
I’m on a real hemp seed kick at the moment but never thought to make hemp milk! I’ve heard it’s fantastic though. Thanks for linking to my nutella milk 🙂
My pleasure Aimee. I really like hemp seed milk, but it definitely has a flavour!
Homemade milk is just SO…FRESH! Haha! That’s the only word to describe the taste! (And I love making things with the nut or seed pulp afterwards!)
Such a good idea to use the leftover pulp Rebecca, but couldn’t think of anything to do with the hemp as the husks are just too unfriendly.
I’ve never made my own milk, and in fact I very rarely experiment with different kinds of vegan milk. Sounds like this is something I need to push myself to try!
Well it’s taken me this long to get there Becca. Glad I did though.
Oh your blog is a wonder of information – I would never have thought how to make hemp milk – I bet it would be lovely with the addition of honey. How magic that it turns white during the process.
It sort of is a bit like magic Helen. I wasn’t looking forward to drinking (and photographing) a sludgy grey liquid 😉
I always think of hemp as being made into bags and clothes and stuff. It would never have occurred to me to make milk from it!
Hahaha Cathy. One of the many things I love about food blogging, is coming across things I didn’t know about or hadn’t thought about 🙂
Sounds like a great alternative to milk, I wonder if one could use it in a quiche?
I don’t see why it wouldn’t work Camilla, but I haven’t tried it, so wouldn’t like to say for sure.
Wow I’ve never tried hemp milk before, but I have hemp and linseeds at home so will have to try this!
I’m really excited by this Diana. It’s the first ‘nut’ milk I’ve made.
I’ve always wanted to try hemp milk but am always confused by hemp seeds, are yours hard in texture? The ones I once received were soft. were they hemp hearts? Where do you get yours from? I’m pinning this for later, thank you for the tutorial.
Thanks Vicky. I’ve never actually tried hemp hearts as I’ve not been able to source them, but I would imagine they are relatively soft – also white. The whole hemp seeds I use have quite a hard greyish shell which makes them a bit off-putting for baking. I used them in the malted superfood bars I made recently, but I’d use hemp hearts next time – assuming I could get some. They are great for making milk though as all the hard outer casing gets filtered out. I got mine from Suma, but I’d imagine most health food shops sell them. Hope that helps.
I’ve just looked them up, I won some from The Raw Chocolate Company, they were shelled hemp seeds but they weren’t white, they were a sort of green colour. I should have used them to make milk, we sprinkled them on salads. I’ve heard that hemp milk has a lovely flavour so I’ll try this recipe sometime, I also like that you’ve included the linseeds to stop the milk from separating.
Thanks for letting me know Vicky. Whole hemp seeds are grey green too, so I’m not quite sure what shelled hemp seeds are. Anyway, let me know how you get on if you do get around to making some.
Love hemp seeds! This is such a fun recipe to try.
Thanks Angie. If you like hemp, making your own milk has got to be tried.
I love that you’ve done it but i’m not sure I would or could!
Hehe Dom, there’s no obligation, honestly 😉