Tiger nut milk is rich in nutrients and it is one of the plant-based milks that can replace your dairy milk.
It does not only taste nice, but offers high nutritional benefits.
Most importantly, tiger nut milk is a great alternative to persons with lactose malabsorption.
This is a situation where the body is unable to fully digest the sugar (lactose) in milk.
As a result, the individual comes down with diarrhea, gas and bloating after eating or drinking dairy products.
While it is a usually harmless, its symptoms can be uncomfortable.
For such persons, tiger nut milk is a good alternative.
Furthermore, some of the dairy milk available contain soy which studies say could cause cancer.
According to a study, higher intakes of dairy milk with soy were associated with greater risk of breast cancer (1).
Researchers further advise that women should view current guidelines for dairy milk consumption with some caution.
Also, you are not sure of the amount of sugar in the milk that you take. As a result, it would make sense to take tiger nut milk once in a while.
In an earlier article we highlighted how tiger nuts could be very useful to men’s sexual wellness.
- Tiger Nuts And Men Sexual Wellness: How Effective?
- Honey For Boosting Sexual Drive | Side Effect And How To Use
One very amazing thing is the taste of this milk that is rich in nutrients.
Also, you can add vanilla flavour and cinnamon to your tiger nut milk to make it richer and more delicious.
How To Make Tiger Nut Milk
To begin, you need to buy the dry nuts. Any quantity is fine and that depends on the quantity you intend to prepare.
Pick out the stones or dead nuts from the nuts.
Boil some water to 60oC pour it in a plastic that is BPA free and add your tiger nuts in it.
Ensure that the water is at least 3 times the level of the nuts.
This will help ensure that the nuts will still be submerged as they increase in size.
Allow for 6 hours and then pour out the water and soak with room temperature water. This is to ensure that it is soft enough for blending.
Cover the bowl with a cling film and put in your refrigerator. This will hep stop fermentation.
If you can cope with a little taste of fermentation, you can keep it out of the refrigerator.
The reason we recommend that you use water at 60oC is to ensure that the anti-nutrients in the nuts are reduced.
Tiger nut contains phytate, oxalate, tannin and saponin which are anti-nutrients.
According to a study, soaking at higher temperature (60°C) is more effective in reducing the anti-nutrients than
ambient temperature soaking (2).
Soaking at 60°C for 6 hours is a good way of lowering the amount of anti-nutrients in tiger nut.
The next day, pour out the water and rinse again. Afterwards, pour it in a blender and add water.
Blend until it is smooth enough. Strain with a sieve, fine mesh strainer, or sift, to separate the fibre.
Your tiger nut milk is ready for consumption. You can pour it in a bottle and save in your refrigerator.
Should I Boil My Tiger Nut Milk
Ensure that there is constant light in the refrigerator. If allowed without light for some hours, the tiger nut milk will ferment.
This makes it impossible for you to take the drink, making a mess of your effort and time.
We do not recommend that you boil your tiger nut milk. Boiling will reduce the amount of nutrients that is in the milk.
Soaking in water at 60°C is okay to lower the anti-nutrients which is one of the reasons people want to boil the milk.
Why you Should Use Dry Tiger Nut
Making the choice of tiger nuts to use, whether dry or fresh, is a thing to be thoughtful about.
For instance, in Nigeria, there are claims that people who sell the fresh tiger nuts use unhealthy chemicals to make them fresh.
However, choosing the dry nuts would give you an opportunity to decide what you soften the nuts with. We recommend you use clean drinking water.
People who have tried the fresh and dry nuts, say the dry nuts give a better taste when you make your milk.
For that reason, we strongly recommend that you use dry tiger nuts to make your milk.