This tasty treat really hit the spot for me when I first brought Elspeth home. It's yet another recipe from Whole Life Nutrition. The authors call it Warming Raspberry Leaf Almond Drink. If it's hot where you are, I bet it would also be nice iced, kind of like iced chai or horchata.
The original intention behind the recipe is to 'nourish breastfeeding mothers, especially in the early postpartum stage'. Our dear friend made this for me in my 'third day crazies' stage of motherhood and it may well have saved my sanity even if it had an unquantifiable effect on my milk production.
You essentially make your own almond milk first and then make the spiced tea part of it. Thus, you could streamline by using prepared almond milk. If it is sweetened, simply omit the honey in the recipe. And if you're not a nursing new mom, it would still be delicious without the raspberry leaves, so you could further decrease the amount of time to prepare this soothing beverage.
What follows is my 2020 reworked version of this that directs you to make almond milk and sweetened, spiced mix separately so that you can combine them whenever you like. The leftover almond pulp makes amazing muffins such as Fresh Cranberry Almond Muffins or you could add to smoothies or dry it out in a low oven to use wherever you’d use regular almond meal.
ALMOND MILK INGREDIENTS
1 c. raw almonds
Enough water to cover generously
3 c. water
SPICED MIX INGREDIENTS
2 c. water
2 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and sliced
3 sticks cinnamon
4 whole cloves
2 tsp fennel seeds OR any combination of whole spices you might put in chai including black peppercorns, cardamom, allspice berries, etc
3 TBSP dried raspberry leaves (optional)
1/3 c honey or to taste
DIRECTIONS
- For the almond milk, place raw whole almonds in a medium bowl and cover with water by a few inches. Cover the bowl (or I used a quart Mason jar that I put a lid on) and let soak at least 8 hours and up to 24 hours
- Once soaked, discard the water and rinse the almonds
- Place in a blender with 3 cups of fresh water and blend for a few minutes until it gets to be as smooth as possible
- Strain the almond milk through a fine mesh strainer, pressing to get all the liquid out
- Place the strained pulp in a clean kitchen towel and squeeze tightly to get the remaining liquid out
- Save the pulp to use for a different purpose
- For the spiced mix, combine remaining 2 cups of water with the ginger, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and fennel seeds and simmer for 30 minutes, covered
- Remove the pot from the heat and add the raspberry leaves, if using and et steep, covered, for 10-20 minutes
- Strain the herb mixture into a blender (discard the herbs)
- Start with a generous tablespoon or two of honey to sweeten the warm liquid. Stir until it dissolves then taste and adjust for sweetness. You might also want to play around with the flavors by adding a pinch of salt or turmeric to add a bit of depth
- To make a finished beverage, take about 2/3 cup of almond milk and add 1/4 to 1/3 cup sweetened spice mix. Taste and adjust proportions
- Warm on the stove or in the microwave and serve
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