Homemade Cinnamon Cashew Milk

There’s nothing weirder than opening your fridge and seeing a cup of cashews floating around a bowl of water, like some bizarre school of fish. You stare at them for a moment, entirely baffled. And then it hits you -- you put them there last night to soak, for a batch of cashew milk. Then you shake your head, leave them to swim around for a few hours more, and proceed to make your omelette. All is well.

Suddenly, it’s lunch time, and you open your fridge again. The cashews are mildly less surprising this time, but you still stand there for a second, puzzled. Then you remember and grab the spinach for your Buddha Bowl, promising yourself you’ll make the drink before dinner. You kind of like seeing the cashews swimming about. There's no need to disturb them just yet.

A few hours later -- poof! -- it’s magically dinner time, and you haven’t made the recipe yet, and your sister opens the fridge to get the Dijon mustard and shouts, “Why are there CASHEWS in WATER in the FRIDGE, MAYA?!” At this point, you leap out of your chair, where you’ve been reading Tan France’s autobiography (because you are obsessed with Queer Eye and want to know why he thinks Crocs are the “giving up on life” shoe), and finally drain the nuts. Your sister’s screaming was the catalyst you needed.

Five minutes pass, the Cinnamon Cashew Milk is done, and you wonder why you’ve put it off all day. It wasn’t like you were avoiding a great deal of work, because this recipe you’ve invented was insanely simplistic.

And then you realize - you liked the cashews floating around a bowl of water, like some bizarre school of fish. It was almost like having a new pet. You sip on your mug of cashew milk, thinking about the pets you sacrificed for a yummy drink. They just wanted to swim and float and have fun. They were just poor little baby cashews. And then you think to yourself: you’re so freaking weird.
And as you’re writing this, you’ll think, now everyone else is going to know how weird you are, and not try the recipe because they’re going to be put off by the whole Cashew-Fish thing.
Then you’ll decide, that’s no big deal.

Finally, you think, I should probably stop rambling now and just publish the recipe. And so, that is exactly what you do.

Maya’s Cinnamon Cashew Milk

Ingredients
* 1 cup unsalted cashews (I suppose they could be salted, I’ve just never tried them that way)
* 6 cups water
* 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
* ½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
* 2 Tablespoons monk fruit or honey (you can, of course, add more to taste)
* A good dash of cinnamon
* A little sprinkle of nutmeg, and a little sprinkle of cardamom

Execution
The night before, soak your 1 cup of unsalted cashews in 2 cups of water. Leave them in the fridge overnight. Or, if you’re like me and like the company of your Cashew Fish (which is going to make no sense if you’ve skipped the intro and gone straight to the recipe), you can leave them for a few hours longer. The next day, drain your cashew water. Add the softened cashews to a blender with two cups of water. Blitz until smooth. Pour in the remaining two cups of water, the monk fruit, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. Blend again! Taste, and make sure the flavor is as you’d like it to be. Don’t be afraid to add more cinnamon or vanilla. Pop in the refrigerator, and enjoy!

Suggested Ways to Have Your Cinnamon-Vanilla Cashew Milk:
- Drink it on its own, iced, with an extra dash of cinnamon;
- Blend with banana, blueberries, ice, chia seeds, and spinach for a smoothie;
- Make chia seed pudding with 2 Tbsps. Chia seeds, 1 Tbsp monk fruit, and 1/2 - 3/4 cup Cinnamon Cashew Milk

Happy blending, friends.
- Maya

Photo by Irene Kredenets on Unsplash, Photo by Ahmed zayan on Unsplash,
Photo by Raychan on Unsplash, Photo by Heather Barnes on Unsplash