The first time that we made milk using flax was a disaster. We made flax milk at a fair following the standard process for little seeds: 60grams of seeds and ½ litre of hot water. It was a surprise when the result was a dense liquid, that was almost imposible to strain…

It was like a natural gum!

Afterwards we learned that was becouse the flax seeds contain high content of mucilages. It is a natural sticky vegetable substance which can also be found in chía, seaweed and oats to name a few. It´s a type of fiber which is soluble in blood, and because of that it is highly recommended to be used as a natural detox. However precaution should be taken because overuse can provoke the loss of important elements and minerals in the blood system. In this link you have more information.

After many attempts this is the best recipe that we have come up with.

Ingredients

• 1 heaped tablespoon golden flax seeds (aprox. 15 gr.)
• ½ litre of water
• 1 teaspoon of organic vanilla powder or syrup

Preparation

1. Soak the flax seeds in water overnight
2. The next morning clean the mucilage from the seeds under the tap using a regular strainer. You won’t be able to clean all of the mucilage from the seeds but you’ll reduce most of it.
3. Add ½ litre of water to the ChufaMix container, put the seeds and the flavouring in the filtering glass and blend with the hand blender for 2 or 3 minutes using the highest setting.
4. Strain using the mortar. Because you´ve taken out the mucilage you will notice that it can be strained like regular seed milk.
5. You can water the milk down if it is too strong or thick.

Water temperature

Don’t use hot water with flax seed because it thickens the milk making it harder to work with.

Tips and alternatives

• You can see that the amount of seeds used is inferior to that of other seed milks, because of the high content of mucilage which thickens the flax milk too much.
• Make sure that you soak the seed overnight because if you don’t, it will take longer to blend and strain and the final product will be an undrinkable natural gum.
• As there is always a good side to every bad side, although we´ve discovered that flax milk is quite difficult to make because of its thickening qualities, these same qualities can also be used to our advantage as a natural thickener when making milks such as rice and hemp milk. For example, by adding no more than 5 grams of flax seeds to rice milk, you will have a thicker and more nutritional final result.
• You can also use the remaining pulp n¡by mixing it with other flours to make veggieburgers. Here are some ideas.
• If you don´t have time to use it the same day, it can be frozen for up to a month and used further on.
• Brown flaxseed milk recipe.

Enjoy!