Homemade Macadamia Nut Milk (Keto, Paleo, Vegan, 2 ingredients) (2024)

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Keto & Paleo Homemade Macadamia Nut Milk is super creamy, delicious and easy to make. Also perfect for Low Carb, Gluten-free, GAPS, VAD and Vegan diets, Homemade Macadamia Nut Milk is high in fat and versatile for all your dairy-free milk needs. You’ll love this rich, 2-ingredient, nutritious milk!

Homemade Macadamia Nut Milk is also Low-FODMAP.

Why make homemade milk from macadamia nuts?

Macadamia Nut Milk is one of the most delicious dairy-free milks, which probably goes without saying … because who doesn’t love macadamia nuts?

Here are several other macadamia nut highlights:

High in monosaturated fat (like extra-virgin olive oil), low in carbs and protein, macadamia nuts make a creamy, rich milk, perfect for Keto and Low Carb diets, but also other diets that are dairy-free. Macadamia nuts contain 4 grams of carbohydrates per serving (60% of which is fiber). The net carb count is 1.6 grams per serving, with 25 grams of fat.
Macadamia nuts are also high in magnesium, calcium, zinc, potassium, B6, selenium, thiamin, niacin, iron and fiber.
Macadamia nuts are lower in anti-nutrients than any other nut! That means they’re easy to digest and our bodies absorb more of their great nutrition. While I soak most of the nuts and seeds I eat to reduce phytic acid, this step isn’t necessary with macadamia nuts.
Very low in Vitamin A, homemade macadamia milk without any additives is a perfect milk choice for those doing a Vitamin A detox.
Macadamia nuts are a Low-FODMAP food, gentle to digest, not likely to cause IBS symptoms or bloating.
Lastly, macadamia nut milk doesn’t require straining! You don’t need a nut milk bag or that extra step to make this recipe. I do include the straining instructions below as optional, if you prefer to strain.

Why to soak macadamia nuts?

We soak macadamia nuts before puréeing them for two reasons:

Soaking macadamia nuts makes them softer, so they blend into a smooth, creamy milk. A seven hour soak is ideal for the creamiest milk (but as few as 2 hours is helpful).
As long as we’re soaking macadamia nuts to soften them, we add a small amount of optional Vitamin C powder. Vitamin C powder kills any unseen mold that is common in store bought nuts. (This is a good Vitamin C powder for soaking and a good step to include if you plan to enjoy nuts regularly.)

Soaking is easy: We simply stir together the nuts, water and optional Vitamin C powder.

The nuts soak for 2 hours (if you’re in a hurry), ideally about 7 hours or up to overnight, get rinsed and then puréed with just a few other ingredients.

What other ingredients go into homemade macadamia nut milk?

Filtered water, a tiny bit of optional sweetener, sea salt and optional vanilla — that’s all! Easy, pure and delicious!

Why make dairy-free milks homemade?

Why make it yourself when you can buy it? The answer is one word: additives.

Simply put, real food ages. Read food settles. So food manufacturers use stabilizers and preservatives. Additives cause food sensitivities, allergies and irritation to our gut lining.

Companies will keep using additives because they extend the shelf-life of products and make them cheaper to produce. Many additives affect the texture and flavor of a product, so fewer real food ingredients are needed.

Consumers, at this stage in history, will continue to buy and not ask enough questions about freshness and sourcing of ingredients because as humans we live stressed lives, so we crave convenience.

Real food diets, on the other hand, are made from fresh whole ingredients.

Which macadamia nuts to buy?

Being high in fat, macadamia nuts are prone to rancidity if not kept in cold storage. Look for companies that use refrigeration after harvesting.

I recommend this product for freshness and care in handling. (No need to use the Vitamin C when soaking this brand of nut, in my opinion.) Here‘s another brand, if the first is unavailable.

Once you know what a rancid nut tastes like, you’ll be able to decide better which nuts to keep buying from a certain source and when to look elsewhere. For example, while I appreciate the prices and many whole food products from Trader Joe’s, I no longer buy their macadamia nuts, which taste very rancid.

Print Recipe

4.95 from 17 votes

Keto & Paleo Macadamia Nut Milk {Low Carb, Gluten-free, GAPS, VAD & Vegan}

Keto & Paleo Macadamia Nut Milk has just 1.6g net carbs per serving making it the creamiest, healthiest and most delicious low carb milk! Being homemade (with just 2 ingredients!) means no unhealthy additives, just pure, fresh nutrition.

Prep Time10 minutes mins

Total Time2 hours hrs 10 minutes mins

Equipment

blender
deep bowl

Ingredients

1 cup macadamia nuts raw and unsalted
4 cups water
½ teaspoon vanilla extract optional
stevia or monkfruit sweetener, to taste; I use 10 drops of stevia (for Paleo and Vegan, you can also use 1 Tablespoon maple syrup; Paleo and GAPS can use honey)
½ teaspoon Vitamin C crystals optional
pinch sea salt

Instructions

Place nuts in a bowl and cover with water and Vitamin C. Stir to dissolve. Soak 2 hours if you're in a hurry, ideally about 7 hours or overnight. Drain the water off, and rinse well in a strainer.
Place nuts in a blender. Add 4 cups filtered water and pinch of sea salt. Add optional vanilla and stevia. Blend on high for 1-½ minutes. Taste and add more sweetener if needed.
Optionally, strain: Nest cheese cloth over strainer and a deep bowl, or alternately use a nut milk bag inside a deep bowl. Pour the nut mixture over the cheese cloth or through the nut milk bag. Use a spoon to press out as much of the milk from the nut meal as you can. Pick up the cheese cloth or bag and squeeze out more of the milk with your hands. (Save the remaining nut meal for energy balls, porridge, smoothies etc.)
Pour into storage jar and refrigerate.

Nutrition

For those not on a keto or low carb diet, why not use cashews?

While cashews make a nice creamy milk, cashews are more likely to cause an allergic reaction than other nuts.

Cashews are high in polyunsaturated fats, whereas macadamia nuts are high in healthy monounsaturated fats.

Lastly, most cashews are not fair trade, and sadly, as Time Magazine and others have reported, most cashew processing conditions are horrific for workers.

In contrast, macadamia nuts are eco-friendly nuts! The trees take only 5 to 7 years to start producing, then keep producing for up to 100 years, protecting the soil from erosion, nutrient depletion and chemicals. Sustainable macadamia nut farms are common.

My macadamia nut tree

I grew up with a large macadamia nut tree in my front yard, in San Diego. 🙂 I spent a lot of time under the umbrella of that tree, alone, with my walkie talkie, sitting on the fallen shells and husks. I’d crawl in under the branches and leaves on my belly. Then, by the trunk, there was an opening all around where I could sit privately, observing the tree and imagining.

Our family did eat the macadamia nuts. I used my dad’s vice to crack the hard, mahogany-colored shells. Sometimes I used his hammers, and the spherical balls would occasionally go jetting off across the wood shop’s concrete floor to hide under some saw or other. 🙂

Where to use Homemade Macadamia Nut Milk? Here are a few recipes into which you can incorporate this creamy nut milk:

The Very Best Matcha Latte
Lavender White Hot Chocolate
Bulletproof Hot Chocolate
Copycat Cream of Wheat Porridge
Constipation Smoothie (this recipe isn’t low carb)

Additional Sources

https://perfectketo.com/macadamia-nuts /
http://www.nativenut.com.au/native-nut-blog/macadamia-sustainability