Delicious Creamy Squash Seed Milk - With Benefits
Following my line of successful vegetarian milking experiments I'm totally hooked. The next item on my radar was squash seeds. I've stopped tossing them as they are delicious when you roast them, but I was finding it very tedious to separate the pulp from the seeds, I had to watch them like a hawk in the oven to cook them perfectly which still often resulted in a mixed bag of perfect ones, burnt ones, and under cooked ones. So what's a girl to do when she can now no longer throw away delicious useful food and dreads the work when she cracks open a squash?
Enter the Google. I literally found only 2 recipes that were what I was looking for. Just straight up, squash to blender s***. No soaking, no separating. So I used the recipe below, and found success! Then, of course I am left with the pulp, and this was an area I just had to get creative all on my own. The recipe I used was from Incredible Smoothies.
With almond milk and rice milk there are many options to use the pulp which I outlined in those recipes. This one not so much. So I experimented and used it in my Pair (Pear) Muffins instead of rice bran and it was a complete success! The muffins had some chew to them, the same as if you roasted them they are very fibrous but delicious! I hope to find some more uses. If your blender can make the pulp super fine, you will find less seed chunks but these were tiny. If you're not ready to use the pulp just yet, as always just freeze it in small batches in small jars.
What I have done is freeze the seeds with pulp when I make squash if I don't need milk just yet and then I thaw them out to make milk when I'm ready. Different squash have different size and amounts of seeds too so adding a few together until you have 2 cups worth is easier.
RAW Squash Seed Milk
4 cups filtered water
2 cups pumpkin or squash seeds, unwashed with pulp
2 dates or dried figs (optional)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon or ginger (optional)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg (optional)
Place all of the above ingredients into your blender.
Blend on high for about 2 minutes or until you can't see any large date/fig/seed pieces. I used the purée setting on mine; soups/sauces setting works well too. I don't have a Vitamix, for reasons I won't get into here. If you have one, use it.
Strain the milk through a nut milk bag or use a fine sieve. Using a nut milk bag will allow you to get more of the milk, but it's messier for sure; a trade off where you choose. I like to strain all of my milks into a glass jug that makes it easy to pour into a smaller jars when I'm done.
Make sure the jars/bottles you store it in have a lid and store it in the fridge. Shake the milk before each use.
For the original recipe, go to the Incredible Smoothies website.
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