Adventures in Homemade Rice Milk

I think I have found a delicious alternative to cow's milk. It is very easy to make & very inexpensive.

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This recipe is very easy & it only needs 2 main ingredients: Rice & Water!! Super easy, right!?
I chose to use brown rice just for the nutritional value & the taste is more "natural": sort of a nutty taste. 

I used Riceland "Natural Brown Rice".

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First thing you want to do is cook the rice. I cooked the rice as it said on the package.
2 cups water (I brought to boil first), 1 cup rice, bring back to boil, cover, & let sit on simmer for 30-45 min.

The rice yielded about 3 cups when cooked.
I only need 2 cups of cooked rice, so the last cup can be frozen for use next time or used for dinner!!

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Now for the fun part!!
The rule of thumb for rice milk is 1 cup cooked rice to 4 cups water (which is a quart, but I like to make a half gallon, so I double the amounts), but of course you can play around with the proportions to get a consistency you like.
I placed 2 cups of cooked rice into my Ninja blender & just 2 of the 8 total cups of water, just to make sure I blend the rice thoroughly. I will add the rest of the water later.

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Blend the mixture for at least 3-5 minutes. The consistency will remind you of cream of wheat or porridge.


After blending, add 2 more cups of water. It needs to be more watery so in our next step of straining, it will make the process a lot easier.

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Next step is staining all the rice particles out so all you have left is the "milk".
I first use a metal mesh strainer to get the majority of the large particles out. Place the strainer on top of a bowl & pour the blended liquid in the strainer. With a spoon, gently stir the liquid to move around the rice particles so the liquid passes through the strainer. Do not force the liquid through the strainer by pressing down or mashing. This will force rice particles through the strainer, making the straining process obsolete. 

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The last step is to strain it through a Jelly Strainer Bag (commonly found with Canning supplies). This bag has a micro fine mesh, so it is great at getting all the teeny tiny rice particles that are left. 
I strain my rice milk through this bag twice, to ensure all the rice particles are removed.

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Finally, pour your strained rice milk into a clean glass container & don't forget to add the rest of the 4 cups of water to make it a full half gallon. This is where you can play with the consistency.


You can also add honey & vanilla as an option too!

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Now lets break down the cost....
I purchased that 2lb bag of Riceland rice at my local grocery store for $2.98. So that makes it $0.75 a cup of rice. I used 1 cup of rice & it made 3 cups of cooked rice, so that makes it $0.25 for 1 cup of cooked rice. I used 2 cups of cooked rice for my half gallon of rice milk, so that = $0.50 to make a half gallon of rice milk (that's not including any additives you add or if you use distilled water instead of tap water). Either way, I would rather pay $0.50 instead of $3.34 for a half gallon of Rice Dream (which has unnecessary chemicals & ingredients & has been "enriched", but that a whole different story........)