How to Make Rice Milk

Holy moly, what a crazy couple of weeks. I know I promised a raw brownie recipe but (this is not a joke), the brownies I made were gobbled up before I could take pictures. Since I can't very well put a recipe up without a picture, I'm going to show you all how to make rice milk instead (I'll put up the brownie recipe next week).

It is so much easier than you would think to make rice milk. The best part about making your own rice milk is that it is cheaper than buying it at the store and for those of you who love to buy Rice Dream rice milk (including myself), by not buying Rice Dream, we are not supporting Monsanto. That's right, Monsanto holds stock in the company that produces Rice Dream. Sad right? Plus, some of the ingredients in Rice Dream are a little fishy. How about the fact that the vanilla flavored rice milk doesn't have vanilla in its ingredients, very suspicious...Anywho, here is an easy recipe for rice milk:

What you will need:

•  1 cup of long-grain brown rice
• 8 cups of water, plus more to thin out the rice milk
• pinch of salt
• blender
• mesh strainer
• something to keep the milk in (glass jars, plastic containers, etc)
• maple syrup, raw sugar, vanilla extract, or oil (all optional to add sweetness and creaminess) 

Bring the 8 cups of water to a boil on high heat. Meanwhile, rinse the rice. Once the water is boiling, add the rice. Turn the heat to low, cover the pot and allow to simmer for approximately three hours.

The end result will be sort of like rice pudding. Add the salt.

Now pour the mixture into a blender filling until halfway and fill the other half of the blender with cold water. Blend until smooth and then repeat this process with the rest of the rice. Strain the rice/water mixture with a mesh strainer two or three times to strain out what looks like a sort of sandy residue. Pour the strained mixture into containers for refrigerating.

The final step is to add some sweetness to the milk. I add about 3 or 4 tablespoons of maple syrup to my rice milk. I do not add oil, but Rice Dream does put oil in their rice milk, so you may consider adding some to yours to make it creamier.

The finished product is a bit thicker and creamier than the kind of rice milk you are probably used to. Add water in small amounts to thin the milk out. 

Refrigerate.