Fermented Cashew Milk

Step 1

Place raw cashews in a blender with about 6 cups of water.

Step 2

Soaking the cashews is fully optional. Soaking them will perhaps make them blend up a little creamier but I haven't found it to be necessary at all.

Step 3

Blend on high for about a minute. I personally use a fancy schmancy Vitamix blender but I'm sure you'll be fine using another blender.

Step 4

Make a Latte - I like to have a little ritual of making a cashew milk based latte whenever I make a new batch of cashew milk. After blending, there is a nice frothy foam layer on top, great for topping your chai latte or matcha latte or whatever kind of latte you might have a hankering for.

Step 5

Add the starter You have a couple of options for starter. The easiest is to buy a small single-serving size of yogurt and add that in as your starter. Be sure it contains "live" cultures. I usually opt for a non-dairy yogurt and search for one with the greatest number of bacterial strains. Regular dairy yogurt will work fine too. You can also buy a yogurt starter online if you prefer. For subsequent batches, simply add the final cup of the previous batch as a starter. I'm probably about 30 generations deep in my current fermented cashew milk.

Step 6

Add the remainder of the water and blend on low simply to mix the starter more evenly throughout the cashew milk.

Step 7

There is no need to strain the cashew milk as it should blend to a fairly consistent texture.

Step 8

Pour the cashew milk into a glass or ceramic vessel of your choosing. A half-gallon mason jar would work fine.

Step 9

Cover with a cloth or airlock to prevent wild yeasts or mold from settling into the milk.

Step 10

Place into an incubator. There are two very easy forms of incubator to use. One option is an Instapot set to the yogurt setting. The other is to place an electric seed starter mat on the bottom of your oven. Simply place your vessel with the milk onto the seed starter mat and close the door. This seems to keep the milk at a nice temperature for fermentation.

Step 11

Incubate for about 16 hours. You can vary the fermentation time for a more or less tart taste. I've left my fermented cashew milk to incubate for as long as 24 hours without any issues.

Step 12

Stir before use. The cashew milk will stratify into different layers. Don't fret, that's normal. Simply stir the milk well before pouring. There will be a slight amount of cashew sediment at the bottom but that will become well integrated with a good swirl.