The king of (non dairy) milks- Hail Horchata!

Tiger nuts

Spain has a wonderful tradition of drinking 'horchata' of 'chufa' or Tiger nut milk. 
Sounds cool, huh, TIGER NUTS- but, never fear, no tiger has been unmanned ( untigered?) for this delight so PETA adherents, calm down. Funnily enough, these nuts are not even nuts but the tubers of a sedge family! The plant was first introduced by the Arabs in the region of Valencia and over time, the resulting milk/drink, which is very popular in summer, can be found everywhere in Spain. Though grown in many countries, especially for animal feed, tis just in Spain that the tubers are harvested for their milk. Once the sun has started sliding towards the horizon, people start coming out of their homes and mill around 'horchaterías' which sell this cooling drink, along with ice cream. 

As you can guess, I LOVE this milk but generally find that most places make it so sweet that just one sip gives me diabetes. Argh. And then a few years ago, a friend told me that the 'Horchateria' near my home also does the sugar free version so imagine my delight when I asked for it! Over time, my order has come to be half of the sugary one, mixed with half a glass of the sugar-free one and I am in heaven! 

Recently, I wondered if I could make my own. At 1.90€ for a 100 ml glass, it ain't cheap and frankly, anyone who has made soya milk can easily make this so I decided to go for it. Weirdly enough, finding organic 'chufa' was not easy but I found a place. The nuts themselves definitely look like dried dwarf tiger nuts ( ergo the name?), or even monkey nuts. LOL And yes, you can eat them raw and I wonder why most people don't since they are so tasty, like a more intense and sweeter almond. Yum! Here goes the making of:

Makes 1 litre
Ingredients:
125 gms tiger nuts
1 litre water
6 drops stevia + 1 teaspoon muscovado sugar (optional) or demerara or refined sugar. Please, no saccharine or chemical crap - UGH UGH
Method:
Soak the nuts in water for 24 hrs and make sure to change the water 2-3 times.
Do a final rinse the next day and put them in your blender with a cup of your litre of water.
Blend away till you get a thick and mostly smooth sludge.
Add the rest of the water and mix well. And now for the fun! Sieving! Woot woot! 
Once you have sieved the milk, add the sugary stuff to your taste or don't. DON'T chuck the leftover dried sludge - integrate it into your pancake or bread mix or why not, to your chicken à la coco (tiger) nut - it's delicious!
I also add poppy seed, chiia and or finely chopped almonds to my horchata as a post workout drink full of all the goodness and protein that the expensive, chemical laden protein shakes claim to have. And why not blend it with a banana? Sluuuuuuurp