With nearly 20 million Americans counting themselves as vegans, and millions more of us trying to cut down on the animal products in their diets, cow’s milk is no longer as popular as it once was.
This isn’t such a bad thing and, in fact, there are plenty of tasty and healthy non-dairy alternatives.
Here are 10 of the most common options.
10 No-Dairy Milk Alternatives
Soy Milk
Extracted from soybeans or formed from soy protein isolate, soy milk will also typically contain vegetable oil and a thickener to make it taste right.
The flavor is very similar to cow’s milk, though it can vary dramatically depending on the brand, and it’s great in cereal or in a cup of coffee.
Almond Milk
While there are concerns about the amount of water used to grow almonds, almond milk is a light, sweet and slightly nutty milk substitute.
It works well in drinks as well as in desserts or baked goods, it’s much lower in calories than cow’s milk too.
Coconut Milk
Coconut milk is recommended in one of our favorite books, How Not To Die, and it is both creamy and sweet and only has about ⅓ of the calories that cow’s milk does.
It’s very pleasant by itself and it has a great protein content, but be warned it’s also high in saturated fat.
Oat Milk
If you want to make your own Oat Milk for your plant-based diet, then it’s cheap and easy to do at home as it’s simply a mixture of oats and water.
It’s naturally sweet, works well in coffee and has the added benefit of being clinically demonstrated to reduce cholesterol in your body!
Rice Milk
If you want a low allergy non-dairy milk, perhaps because you’re following The Plant-Based Baby and Toddler diet in your home, then look no farther than rice milk.
It has its problems though and it’s nearly as calorific as cow’s milk and contains an awful lot more carbs than any other non-dairy milk and it’s fairly low in protein too.
Cashew Milk
This can be made from cashew nuts or from cashew butter blended with water and it is seriously creamy with a slightly subtle hint of nuts in the flavor.
We love making smoothies with cashew milk and we’re happy to use it in place of cow’s milk when making dessert too but you should know that it has very little protein in it.
Macadamia Milk
This is a fairly new product and the majority of macadamia milk is just water and the macadamia nuts take up only 3% of the volume!
It is low in fat, carbs, protein and calories and it’s super creamy and you can drink it by itself with no loss of taste whatsoever.
Diabetics can benefit from adding macadamia milk to their daily routine as it has a very low glycemic index.
Hemp Milk
Yes, it’s made from the plant which we get cannabis from but happily (or possibly sadly depending on what you like to do on your weekends) you can’t get right from it as it only has tiny amounts of THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) the chemical in cannabis that makes you high.
It is quite sweet but not so milk-like and it’s much more watery than your average non-dairy milk, think of it as a skimmed milk substitute.
It has some protein, nearly no carbs but it’s quite high in fat but as these are Omega-3 and Omega-6 fats, this is actually a good thing.
Quinoa Milk
Take some quinoa and blend it with water and you have quinoa milk which is sweet with a very distinct quinoa taste to the finished product.
We like it over cereal (such as a nice hot porridge) but don’t use it that often, otherwise, it’s quite heavy on the carbs compared to other non-dairy milks.
Pea Milk
Pea protein tends to be blended with other non-dairy milks in various ratios to make milk as by itself it’s not all that interesting to taste.
So, if you see “pea milk” it will probably have almond milk or soy milk in the mix to give it some taste and it will taste quite different between different manufacturers.
Final Thoughts On No-Dairy Milk Alternatives
Veganism has gone mainstream in the last decade and there are plenty of great-tasting alternatives to cow’s milk, all you need to do is find your favorite.
Why not start testing our no-dairy milk alternatives today? We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.
