more uses for nut milk pulp

This morning Robert and I enjoyed homemade hazelnut-almond milk lattes. We simply heated up the milk and French-pressed coffee with a bit of sweetener on the stovetop and enjoyed with my hazelnut milk infused fudge brownies.
The functions for leftover nut pulp are endless. I am going to share with you a ravioli recipe that I just whipped up. Be inspired to make your own Mushroom & Nut Pulp Ravioli from scratch!

crimini mushroom and hazelnut-almond pulp ravioli

 First prepare your ravioli dough. You will need:
1 cup white flour
salt and pepper
any desired herbs/spices, finely minced
cold water


Assemble dry ingredients in a bowl and slowly add cold water. Use your fingertips to incorporate wet ingredients to dry to make a smooth and dry dough. It should be consistent, squishy (not dense like bread dough) and dry on the surface. Add more flour if necessary. Let dough rest in the refrigerator.

While the dough chills out in the fridge, you can blend up your ravioli filling.

You will need:
leftover nut milk pulp
1/4 c raw or lightly steamed mushrooms (I used crimini)
1/2 tablespoon chopped garlic
1 tablespoon chopped onion
salt and pepper to taste
feel free to add chile pepper, parsley, oregano, fresh basil, mustard, etc.

Puree this mixture in a food processor or blender until smooth.
Taste and adjust seasonings as necessary.

Both dough and filling (pictured) can be refrigerated for up to three days.

 I had to use mushrooms that I bought from the co-op since my mushroom hunting has been rather fruitless. I was pleasantly surprised at the "wild mushroom" flavor that these particular Canadian Crimini's imparted. In addition to ravioli, this spread was absolutely delicious spread on toast or rice.

oh my goodness, all of those beautiful mushrooms (Barcelona, Spain)

Back to the recipe:
Fill a pot with water and bring to a boil. Take your dough out of the refrigerator and on a well floured surface roll it out very thin. I like to take pinches off my main dough ball and do a few ravioli at a time, saving my scraps to roll out more ravioli until all of the dough is used.  To prepare ravioli add a small spoonful of filling to ravioli and fold over like a pillow using a knife or your fingertips to seal the ravioli shut. You want to make sure it is sealed very well or else your filling will seep out when you boil it.
When the water is boiling rapidly add your ravioli to the pot. Because you're cooking freshly made pasta dough, the ravioli will cook very quickly, about one minute. Scoop out the cooked ravioli into a colander, let cool, dress with olive oil or sauce and enjoy!!!

let the nut milk adventures begin

I brewed my first nut milk last Wednesday while making a pumpkin and chicken-of-the-wood mushroom curry.

chicken-of-the-wood mushroom

Now I am totally hooked.
The milk was made with the guts and seeds of a small sugar pumpkin. Take the guts and seeds, add half the amount pure water (for a 2:1 ratio) and blend it up with a blender. Now you have a chunky milk puree. Well, there is another step to achieve nut milk. Pour all of the pulp into cheesecloth, muselin, or a piece of porous cotton (like a piece of summer-weight bedsheet) and catch all of the milk in a container. Feel free to give the "nut-bag" a squeeze to wring all of the milk out of the pulp. Now you are left with two fantastic products: 1. fresh, nutritious, delicious nut milk 2. nutritious and delicious nut pulp.
My second experiment with nut milk involved soaked almonds, peanuts, and walnuts. I soaked the nuts overnight and then the first thing I did in the morning was puree them in the blender with a little less water than nuts. The result? A delicious, unprecedented nut milk, perfect for Robert's morning coffee with a spoonful of agave nectar.
Later on that day I used some soaked almonds and hazelnuts for another batch of nut milk. The result? An intensely flavorful nut milk. Oh man, those hazelnuts are powerful!

hazelnuts/filberts

Nut milk pulp can be used in any baking application. This morning I used my almond-peanut-walnut pulp to make blackberry jam thumbprint cookies.

Just now I infused my fudge brownies with a splash of hazelnut-almond milk.

As I write this the leftover hazelnut-almond pulp is mingling with lactic acid rich sauerkraut juice to ferment into "nut cheese"! I'm letting the magic proceed overnight and in the morning I should have a tasty batch of fresh, tangy nut cheese. (There are multiple approaches to making nut cheese. One could skip the fermentation and simply dry it out in a disc shape until it forms a "rind" or season the damp pulp and enjoy your "cheese" spread immediately! I'll know when my cheese is ready when bubbles have formed - similar to a sourdough.)

nut cheese

My favorite of these milks was the first one, the pumpkin nut/gut milk. With just a dash of cinnamon and a spoonful of maple syrup, I had the most intensely "pumpkin pie" flavored beverage. It is most definitely crave-worthy. Just because Halloween has come and gone, doesn't mean you can't still eat pumpkins! Pumpkin meat makes the best soups and curries, and of course pie. While roasted pumpkin seeds are a great snack, I hope you will try using them to make pumpkin milk!