Years ago we began messing with alternatives to dairy. Alternative cheeses uniformly sucked when we began exploring, and still lag far behind cheese made from cow, sheep and goat milk. That said, they are getting better.

But dairy-free milk? Yogurt crafted from things like oat and cashew milk? We found that some of those were excellent just five years ago, and today we generally turn to alternatives to dairy for milk and yogurt.

The damn plastic-coated milk cartons, however, irritated us. Same with the plastic yogurt tubs.

Surely, we thought, we could make our own dairy-free milk and yogurt.

Our quest didn’t take long. It turns out making at least some dairy-free milks is ridiculously easy. And a future post will explore our two-ingredient homemade coconut yogurt.

For now, let’s explore making almond milk. We make fresh batches of it every week. Scratch almond milk saves money (lots of money). It tastes far better than store-bought almond milk. And it eliminates plastic waste. A three-fer!

One sip of homemade almond milk and you’ll never go back to store-bought. And you won’t believe how simple it is.

• 1/2 cup raw almonds, soaked overnight in cool water
• 5 cups filtered water
• Pinch sea salt
• 1-2 whole dates
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Add soaked almonds, water, salt and any add-ins (such as dates for sweetness, and vanilla for flavor) to a high-speed blender, and blend until creamy, anywhere from 1 to 2 minutes.

Strain milk,  using a nut milk bag or simply a strainer with a fine weave. You can even pour it over a dish towel (over a bowl), gather up the corners, and squeeze out the milk.

Keep almond milk in a pitcher or some other container, and store in the refrigerator. Homemade almond milk lasts four or five days, before starting to turn bitter.