Healthy, creamy, yummy rice milk recipe June 8, 2007
Posted by Karen Joy in Celiac Disease, Cooking/Baking/Food/Recipes, Dairy-free, Digestive Woes, GF Recipes, GFCF Recipes, Medical Stuff, The Kids.trackback
Edited 08/04/07, 06/09/08, 9/29/08 and 07/27/09 with a few refinements.
Rice milk. It’s expensive. It’s nearly devoid of nutrients. It’s also nearly the only non-juice, non-water liquid that my 5yo can drink. Dairy triggers asthma attacks, and he’s intolerant of soy. Most rice milks (or other non-dairy beverages) also contain ingredients to which he’s allergic and/or intolerant; our options are very limited. The *one* brand of rice milk he can drink is $1.79 per quart and is a 25 minute drive away. Now, with my 1yo with an obvious dairy intolerance, too… well, I thought it was time to start making my own rice milk. And, since I’m making it, I thought I’d come up with a recipe that is (refined-) sugar-free and high in protein.
Following is the recipe I created. If all ingredients are used as indicated, the cost is equivalent to about $1.15 per quart. If you omit the brown rice protein powder, and use a less expensive sweetener, your cost will only be about $0.20 per quart.
This recipe makes enough concentrated mix to make 11 quarts of rice milk, or 44 servings at one 8 oz cup each. Each serving (1/4 cup concentrate or 8 oz diluted) contains approximately 13 g carbohydrates, 2.6 g fat, and 4.5 g protein.
It makes a rather creamy, carmelly-colored rice milk with a consistency about the same as dairy/cow milk (IOW, it’s not watery). The thickeners act as an emulsifier, so the oil does not separate.
This recipe makes 2.5+ gallons of rice milk. If that is more than your family will drink in two weeks, you could surely halve the recipe. Or, freeze it. Freeze in 2 cup batches in freezer bags, or freeze in larger containers, but make sure you stir it well after it thaws, as it does separate a little upon thawing.
(A second rice milk recipe of mine is here.)
Rice Milk
7 1/2 c. water (distilled is best)
2 Tbsp vanilla (OR 1-2 tsp cinnamon)
1 c. brown rice flour or white rice flour
1 rounded c. brown rice protein (found at Whole Foods, or various online retailers)
1 tsp. guar gum
1 tsp. xanthan gum
1/2 cup canola, safflower or sunflower oil
1 1/2 c. honey
(Sometimes, I also grind up four dairy-free tabs of acidophilus with a mortar & pestle, and add that, too)
- Over high heat, bring six cups of water to boil in a large saucepan.
- In a small bowl or mixing cup, combine vanilla or cinnamon, rice flour and 1 1/2 cups water, mixing thoroughly.
- While you are waiting for the water to boil, in a large, heat-safe mixing bowl, whisk to combine brown rice protein powder, guar gum and xanthan gum. Add the oil, and stir thoroughly. Add honey, and mix with an electric mixer until well-combined.
- Once the water in the saucepan boils, stir in the rice flour mixture, stirring constantly with a whisk. Turn down heat to medium-low and boil at least five minutes, stirring constantly, until the mixture is thick and no longer gritty.
- Then, pour the brown rice mixture to the mixing bowl, using a silicone spatula to scrape the sides of the saucepan. (Be careful, as the brown rice mixture is very hot. Alternately, cover the rice mixture and cool it until it is easier/safer to handle.) With an electric mixer, beat on high until ingredients are thoroughly combined.
Makes 11 cups concentrated mix. To serve, mix 1/4 c. concentrate with 3/4 c. water to make one cup, and stir or shake well. Or, measure 1 cup mix into the bottom of a quart jar, adding water to fill jar. Shake well to mix. (… or 2 cups for a 1/2 gallon jar, or 4 cups for a gallon jar.)
Store the mix (and diluted rice milk) in the fridge in an airtight container.
Diluted rice milk stays pretty well emulsified; there’s not a whole lot of settling. However, give your rice milk a shake or stir before serving.
I’m looking for good alternatives to my ever increasing number of foods I can’t eat.
I noticed you add guar gum and xanthan gum, neither of which I can eat. Can you suggest a substitute???
Thanks.
Lovely rice milk recipe I am sure it tastes fantastic. The sad thing is that people who don’t live close to a top notch health food shop (e.g. everyone apart from cosmopolitan Germans and Americans) will have a hard time finding brown rice flour!
I live in central London, UK and have been looking for rice flour forever. I can’t find it anywhere!
WOW. Can’t find it? Try an Asian market; I guarantee they’ll have some. White rice flour works just as well; it’s just not as abundantly healthy as brown rice flour.
This is the best rice milk recipe on the internet!
I just tested it and it is 10 times better than starting with actual rice.
I couldn’t get hold of xanthan gum, guar gum and or rice protein locally (but ordered from the internet).
However I followed your preparation instructions and improvised a bit – with great results!
The taste now matches “Rice Dream” – that was what I had hoping for…
Thank you so much & warm regards from London, United Kingdom!
Wow, thanks Johanna, for the support!! I am thrilled that you’re so happy with the results.
Also, though you’re not necessarily gluten-free, you’re the third person in the last few weeks to mention how difficult it is to find g.f. baking ingredients in the U.K.! I’m gobsmacked by that. I remember standing in awe in front of a whole section of g.f. items at Tesco, literally in tears with the enormity of selection. That was about five years ago, and g.f. items are more readily available here in the States than they were back then. Still.. guar gum and xanthan gum are REGULARLY used in gluten-free baking, and since, in general, there’s a heightened awareness of celiac disease in the U.K., as compared with the States, I’m really befuddled by the difficulty you and others have had — even in a large, city area — in finding specialty cooking & baking ingredients.
I’m glad you took the effort to order the ingredients online, and that your results were so satisfactory.
Are there any updates for adding Calcium/ Vitamin D to this wonderful recipe?
I’ve started adding a liquid vitamin to this recipe for the calcium and it’s working great. I just add 2 tsp of it to his moring drink and he’s all set. I use “Natrol Liquid Kids Companion multi vitamin”. It has 250% of his needs since he’s under 4 and 167% for kids over 4. I get mine from Vitacost.com since it’s the cheapest. It’s all natural so it has nothing to trigger an allergy. Hope that helps
Samantha ~ No update from me.
I have literally tried about 10 different kinds of calcium in this, and they all make the rice milk taste weird, or they don’t mix in.
Jaime ~ I looked up the liquid vitamins you mentioned (http://www.vitacost.com/Natrol-Liquid-Kids-Multi-Vitamin#IngredientFacts) and unless I’m missing something, there’s no calcium in it!
I still supplement my kids w/ liquid Lifetime Calcium Magnesium Citrate, which comes in lots of different flavors.
Samantha- It’s under Vitamin C (as Calcium Ascorbate and Ascorbic Acid)
[...] recipe is for her. I was inspired to make a dairy-free rice milk, and although I wanted to make Only Sometimes Clever’s Rice Milk recipe but was disappointed to see that I didn’t have many of the ingredients. Luckily looking [...]
Have you tried Sun Warrior powder? I am interested in trying it. Thank you so much for your recipes- they have been so helpful. I recently have become allergic to Casien and It’s so great to have resources like these.
I’m so glad you’ve gotten good use out of my recipes!!!!
I’ve never heard of Sun Warrior powder. Off to look it up! OK, I’m back. Sun Warrior seems really expensive, but the 2.2 lb size is really large. I pay about $14 for about a 1 lb container of the rice protein powder I use, so $43 for 2.2 lbs isn’t crazy, but it is pricey. Also, all the ones I found are flavored (chocolate or vanilla) and sweetened with stevia, and thickened with xanthan gum. So, it would take a lot of tinkering to make it work in this recipe. Or…. did you mean have I tried it instead of this rice milk?
This link doesn’t mention xanthan gum- but I know when I looked it up on amazon it only had the flavors. I bet it is expensive- i just heard good things about it.
I’m sure you knew this already, but did you know you don’t have to buy rice flour? You can make it with a coffee grinder and the brown rice. That’s how I’ve been using your recipe as a template. I have altered the recipe a little and made my own version of rice/oat milk and when it is fresh it’s hard not to drink half of it. It’s so good!
Does the protein powder cause grittiness at the end? Just wondering. I tired rice dream and it seemed a little gritty to me. It’s flavor was good though.
Thanks for all your help,
Deborah
It won’t let me put the link on it for you- it’s on the sun warrior website under the natural flavor.
Thank you for sharing these recipes, and thank you for talking about products on the market.
No problem!!! I appreciate your thankfulness!!
Just thought I would let you know that I found your recipe and changed it up a bit for myself. Since I cannot find rice protein powder regularly in Florida, for some reason, I just sub almond flour for that. To make it vegan I use agave nectar, and in place of the oil I use coconut oil. I have also just stopped using the vanilla, and it still tastes quite good. Also, since I do not have a mixer, I figured out how to do this with a blender, either stick or countertop. Here is the link: http://therepublicofbunny.blogspot.com/2009/05/rice-milk-recipe-and-some-news.html
That’s GREAT!!!!! So, did you start with my recipe? The ingredients look a lot different, but the instructions are very similar. Whenever I significantly alter a recipe, I always give a hat tip to the original creator.
I’m surprised that the almond flour doesn’t make the rice milk gritty!
Just in case you want to try it w/ rice protein powder, I have seen it in normal grocery stores in the health-shake-powder section. It’s usually MLO brand (not my fave), and it’s overpriced. But, especially since you’re vegan, you may want to check it out!!
By the way, your recipes look fantastic.
Could you tell me if you could make kefir using your first recipe for rice milk? I need to add probiotics to my sons diet and I love what kefir can do but we just can’t give him dairy or soy. And he is gluten intolerant also.
I’ve never made kefir!! The only recipes I’ve seen for kefir start with some sort of dairy — cow, goat, or even mare’s milk. The “grains” referred to aren’t grain; they’re from a dairy source.
I make kefir from dairy for us with kefir grains. You can make kefir with these grains in non-dairy mediums. Thats why you use the extra grains that your kefir produces. The grains will just not multiply using a non-dairy medium. When they refer to rice milk kefir I don’t know if their talking about homemade rice milk or bought rice milk(with gluten in it)(which is a no-no for my son). Thats why I asked the question. Thanks for your response.
Hi
I started because I like fermented milk, and probiotics are expensive…
I’ve never made kefir – or this particular rice milk – but I’ve made “yoghurt” from several non-diary milks – and blending soy and rice and coconut etc. I use a probiotic powder (NDS, but I’m sure other brands work) and it seems to work on most “milks”
However, the results seem to vary with temperature. Different bacteria work in different environments and temperatures, so maybe experimenting with that could work?
And – for the benefit of others who’d like to try, I’m sure you know: It’s vital that all containers and utensils are very clean, or you could grow other unwanted bacteria.
I’m going to try that!!! I have wondered, actually, if it would work to make yogurt from probiotics and non-dairy liquid… I’m going to check into it a bit more, then try it!! Thanks!
I use Sun Warrior Rice Protein powder. It is expensive but it is not as grainy as the others I have tried. Jared , my son, is a special needs child. And they seem to be very honest about what works. Especially if the child can’t speak. Their body language tells all. Everytime we give Jared a different rice protein , other than Sun Warrior, he coughs and coughs. So I guess it’s Sun Warrior for now.
The only problem with Sun Warrior is that it ONLY comes flavored, and if memory recalls correctly, it also comes sweetened with stevia. Those aren’t problems if you’re going to just make rice milk, but I add my rice protein powder to LOTS of other stuff, and the flavor/sweetness would not work. However, I’m very glad that you’ve found something that works for your son!!!!!!
Mine is unflavored, just plain. I get it from Amazon.com
Karen
I just came across your website today! Where have you been for my last 2 1/2 years of gfcf cooking! Thank you so much for your many great ideas. I am anxious to try this milk recipe.
I love the addition of acidophilus to your recipe but wouldn’t the high heat destroy the bacteria? I was wondering if you added it after the milk cooled down?
Anyways, thank you thank you…and yes, I will be buying your book when it comes out
Thank you for the kind words, Renee! That’s a good point about the acidophilus. I haven’t done that in a while, but as memory serves (though sometimes it doesn’t!!!), I did add it after the rice mixture had cooled.
I was so excited when I found your recipe and i finally got around to making it last week. The honey is such a strong taste in the milk though and I was wondering if you’ve ever replaced it with something with a milder flavor? Thanks for sharing your wisdom!!
I have tried a number of other sweeteners, but didn’t like any of them for one reason or another. Did you use 2 cups of honey, or 1 1/2? I’m currently using 1 1/2 cups. My kids like it w/ 2 cups, but it’s expensive that way, and I found that 1 1/2 cups makes it more than adequately sweet.
One problem I had with all of the other sweeteners is that none of them really masked the taste of rice protein powder. I *really* want my kids to be getting some protein from their “milk” so I’m not willing to omit it, even though it has a strong, somewhat objectionable taste. If you use less protein powder (or don’t use any at all, or use a different kind if your child can tolerate it), you would likely be able to successfully use LESS honey, or a different sweetener.
Also, I want a drink that my kids consume regularly to be HEALTHY. I’m not satisfied with the healthfulness of ANY other sweetener, except stevia (which didn’t mask the protein taste) or xylitol (which is hard to find and expensive). Even agave syrup, which is really popular right now, IMO has too high of a fructose content to really be qualified as HEALTHY, in my book. But, if your opinion is different, of course, feel free to try a different sweetener!!
I found a liquid calcium/vitamin D supplement that I’m curious to try adding to this recipe. I’m having a hard time figuring out how much I should add to the concentrate though. Any math tips?
http://www.vitacost.com/Wellesse-Calcium-Vitamin-D-Essential-Bone-Health-Liquid
Hi, Susan!
OK, first, let me mention that I have yet to find a liquid supplement that is not pre-acidified. Supplement suppliers pre-acidify liquid calcium in order to help the body absorb the calcium better, and so that the calcium doesn’t, essentially, act as a antacid in your stomach. DON’T USE PRE-ACIDIFIED LIQUID CALCIUM. It tastes nasty — basically makes the rice milk taste like SOUR rice milk. Ask me how I know.
Many times, the liquid supplement will say “pre-acidified” on the label. If you can’t find that on the label, look in the ingredients for an acidifying ingredient — usually, it’s citric acid. If there is any kind of acid in the ingredient, it will taste awful if added to the rice milk.
If the supplement is not preacidified, just look at the serving size. If you use one serving of the calcium supplement that supplies 100% of the daily value, then add it to 1 cup of concentrate (or 1 quart of diluted), then each cup (as there are 4 cups in a quart) will have about 25% daily value of calcium, which is pretty close to the value of regular milk, which has 30% daily value for calcium . (For instance, if it says that 1 Tbsp supplies 50% of the daily value, you would need to add 2 Tbsp to a quart of diluted rice milk.)
Hope that helps!!!
OH! Duh. I don’t know how I missed it: you provided a link to the supplement itself. It does have citric acid and citrus flavor on top of it. If I were you, I wouldn’t try it. Bummer.
Is this a calcium, vitamin A, and vitamin D fortified recipe for rice milk? If not, how do I fortify it with these nutrients?
No, it’s not fortified with those nutrients. I have literally tried adding about 15 different calcium supplements, and none of them have been satisfactory. I haven’t tried adding vitamins, though. Our family supplements with calcium and multivitamins.