Sunflower seed milk might not be one of the more popular milk substitutes out there, but despite its lack of popularity, it is still surprisingly tasty.
Rich, nutty, and filled with healthy fats and fiber, sunflower seed milk is a great alternative to dairy, or the more expensive milk alternatives like soy and almond.
What’s even better, however, is the fact that you can just as easily make it at home! With barely any effort at all, you can make some sunflower seed milk that will taste way better than anything you can get from the store!
How Can I Use My Homemade Sunflower Seed Milk?
Sunflower seed milk is a great alternative to regular dairy milk, so you could use it as a regular drink replacement for milk, or even as an ingredient in baking!
It has a lot of the same fattiness and smooth texture that milk has, so long as you stir it up before drinking it, so you can basically consider it as a direct replacement for milk!
What Kind Of Special Equipment Do I Need To Make Sunflower Seed Milk?
Sunflower seed milk is really nothing more than soaked sunflower seeds and water, all blended together and emulsified.
The only things you’ll need to make this simple recipe are a bowl to hold the soaking sunflower seeds, and a good blender to ensure that everything gets blended up properly!
Ingredients
1 cup sunflower seeds
4 cups water
1 half tsp salt
How To Make Homemade Sunflower Seed Milk
Step 1 – Pour your sunflower seeds into a bowl and then cover them with 4 cups of water, along with the salt.
Step 2 – Cover the bowl and leave it out overnight, or at least 8 hours, in the fridge, to help soften the seeds.
Step 3 – Once rested, pour the contents of the bowl into a blender and seal tightly.
Step 4 – Blend the seeds and water mixture until no particulate of sunflower seeds remain, and the mixture is a uniform white.
Step 5 – Pour your sunflower milk through a sieve into a bowl with a tight fitting lid, so as to catch any errant bits of unblended sunflower husk.
Troubleshooting Tips
• If you find that your sunflower seed milk has a bit of grittiness to it after pouring through a sieve, just put the trained mixture back in the blender and pulse it on medium speed for another 20 seconds. Sometimes, little bits of sunflower husk can be ground down into a fine powder that can stick in your throat if you don’t make sure to really blend it down.
• You might want to have your sunflower seed milk to be a little bit creamier, in order to make it a bit closer to regular milk. To help emulsify your sunflower seed milk better, try adding a little bit of vegetable oil into the mixture as you blend it, and that should help thicken and emulsify everything.
• One thing you might find with your sunflower seed milk is that it doesn’t quite have that slight sweetness that regular milk has. If you want your sunflower seed milk to be a bit sweeter, simply add a little bit of sugar to it to help match the inherent sweetness of milk.
Watch Our Video Version of How to Make Sunflower Seed Milk
Nutritional Facts
For the health-conscious out there, here are the nutritional details for 1 cup of sunflower seed milk:
Calories: 67
Total Fat: 5.9 grams
Saturated Fat: 0.5 grams
Trans Fat: 0 grams
Polyunsaturated Fat: 2. grams
Monounsaturated Fat: 1.5 grams
Cholesterol: 0 milligrams
Sodium: 292 milligrams
Total Carbohydrates: 2.3 grams
Dietary Fiber: 01 grams
Sugars: 0.3 grams
Protein: 2.4 gram
Potassium: 74 milligrams
FAQs
It’s tricky to compare the nutrition of dairy milk and any substitute milk, because they are always going to be totally different things. While dairy milk has a great deal of sugar,making it pretty calorific, but sunflower seed milk will necessarily have a lot of fat in it – the right health option is going to have be up to you.
Ultimately, though, sunflower seed milk is still a seed, and many consider sunflower seeds to be a superfood. Plus, sunflower seed milk is going to have a lot more fiber in it than other milk alternatives, so that might tip the scales!
You might find that, after sitting in the fridge for a few hours, your sunflower seed milk has turned from a milky white, thick liquid, into two layers: one, a thin, transparent liquid, and the other, what seems to be accumulated sediment.
Don’t worry, though! You only need to stir it vigorously and it should quickly mix together back into sunflower seed milk!
One especially unfortunate thing that might happen when preparing your sunflower seed milk is that the liquid can overflow the top of the blender. This happens because it is a lot of water in the blender, and all of the fats and bits of sunflower in the mixture can cause the liquid to burst upwards.
To stop it from pouring out all over your counter, just place a firm hand and a dish towel over the top of the lid, pressing down tightly, to ensure that all of your sunflower seed milk stays in the blender.
How To Make Sunflower Seed Milk at Home
Delicious, nutritious, and easy to make, sunflower seed milk is one of the best dairy alternatives, and is even better when made at home!
- Yield: ~4 cups
Ingredients
1 cup sunflower seeds
4 cups water
1 half tsp salt
Instructions
Step 1 – Pour your sunflower seeds into a bowl and then cover them with 4 cups of water, along with the salt.
Step 2 – Cover the bowl and leave it out overnight, or at least 8 hours, in the fridge, to help soften the seeds.
Step 3 – Once rested, pour the contents of the bowl into a blender and seal tightly.
Step 4 – Blend the seeds and water mixture until no particulate of sunflower seeds remain, and the mixture is a uniform white.
Step 5 – Pour your sunflower milk through a sieve into a bowl with a tight fitting lid, so as to catch any errant bits of unblended sunflower husk.
Nutrition Facts
- Serving Size: 1 cup
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