- Why vegetable oil? The oil essentially emulsifies the milk, preventing it from separating. This is why you’ll often see lots of plant-based milk brands use oil in their milks, such as rapeseed (canola) oil.
- The pea milk should last for around 4-5 days in the fridge if you keep it inside a air-tight container. If you sterilise the bottle beforehand, you might be able to keep it for even longer.
- We tested using a nut bag and sieve. The nut bag is far better at keeping out the sediment, so your left with a smoother milk. You’ll find them online or in vegan and health food stores.
Homemade Pea Milk 🥛 BTW did you know we have a new cookbook? You can pre-order your copy of One Pot Vegan now 👉 sovegan.co/onepv
Posted by So Vegan on Tuesday, 19 May 2020
Homemade Pea Milk
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Ingredients
1 cup dry yellow split peas - 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- pinch of salt
- 2 Medjool dates
Instructions
- Add the yellow split peas to a bowl and cover with 3 cups (750ml) of water. Cover with a plate and leave to soak for 8 hours or overnight.
- Drain and rinse the yellow split peas, then add them to a pot along with 3 cups (750ml) of water. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on for 45mins – 1 hour or until the yellow split peas are soft.
- Drain the yellow split peas and add them to a blender along with 3.5 cups (875ml) of filtered water, the oil, vanilla extract, and a pinch of salt. Next remove the stones from the dates and add them to the blender. Blend for 30-60 seconds or until smooth.
- Sit a nut milk bag or a muslin cloth over a large bowl and pour the pea milk into the bag. Squeeze the bag so the pea milk comes out and the pulp remains inside (you can add the pulp to cakes!). Transfer the liquid to a bottle with a air-tight lid and place in the fridge. The pea milk will last for up to 4 days refrigerated.
50 comments
hey! I was so excited to try this recipe but my milk turned out so yellow, not white as pictured on this webpage. do you possibly know why?
Hey Michelle! Ah that’s strange. We’re guessing there might still be lots of sediment in the milk, which is giving the milk a yellow colour. What did you use squeeze the milk out of the pulp? We use a nut bag which is really effectively at stopping any sediment escaping.
I made this and followed the amount of water to use. It came out thin. I used a cheese cloth. No dates. Not sure why?
Yours looks so yummy
Hey Amy. Did you blend the cooked peas until the mixture is completely smooth? That will thicken the milk before you push it through a nut milk bag to remove the pulp.
Hi! I haven’t made this yet but I’m excited to try it. In ripple pea milk there is high protein and fat. Is there the same amount of fat in this milk? Where does it come from?
I made this today with organic yellow peas. I used canola/olive oil mix because I didn’t have sunflower oil. I can still taste the peas in it. So I added a little bit more vanilla and next time I’ll add 1 more date. Anyway it tastes fine in my coffee. I can still notice a slight pea taste but my husband tasted my coffee and said it tastes like coffee! I didn’t want to throw out all the mush. It’s very mild tasting, and looks like hummus. So, I added salt, garlic, lemon juice, cumin and a little bit of light olive oil and it’s so yummy! You can’t tastes the peas at all. You would never know it wasn’t hummus from chickpeas.
I tried your recipe. It’s good. But I think I added lesser water. It has a little more pea taste than I expected. I will try again with more water this time. I didnt add dates as I wanted it in an unsweetened version!
Thank you! The sweetness in the dates will help mask the taste of the peas, which otherwise can be a little bitter. You could also try thinning out the milk with more water like you say. Good luck!
Referring to yellow split peas as lentils in the recipe is confusing. They aren’t the same thing.
Hi Miriam. Yes in hindsight we agree. We’ve amended the wording. Thanks.
I love this pea milk- I was using Ripple on cereal & in my cappuccino and this is even better.
I don’t add the dates, and I put the vanilla into the milk after I strain it so I can use the mash for other recipes. I added a couple of eggs and some chopped veggies and made veggie pancakes
I’ve also made hummus & eaten the mash warmed with butter and salt as a side dish- all good. I also put some in a keto brownie recipe instead of almond flour. Thank you for the recipe!
Thanks for sharing this recipe. I unfortunately did not get anywhere near the results featured. I used a Vitamix (on the smoothie setting) split yellow peas from Costco and a milk bag to strain, but the “pulp” was so thick it would barely release any liquid at all. I did veer from the recipe by using mtc oil instead of sunflower—but I can’t imagine this substitution would cause the consistency issue I experienced. I will try again, maybe adding more water and blending for less time. Also planning to keep more accurate track of time on soaking & cooking as a potential variables. Will probably dilute what I’ve got with water at this point & freeze into cubes to work into recipes, but my first try is definitely nowhere near a pea milk. :/
Does this milk contain protein?
Yes, yellow split peas are high in protein. 🙂
Yes, yellow split peas are high in protein 🙂
Any ideas what to do with the left over pulp, rather than wasting it, I made oat milk and used the left over in a smoothie
Maybe soup
We add it to savoury cakes like scones or loaf cakes 🙂
Please can you share your cake recipe for using the leftover pulp , thank you
See above. I’ve found many uses- make pancakes, substitute for almond flour in most recipes- jus cut back a bit on the liquids
I made this according to your directions. It was really thick in the blender. But I poured it into the bag and Most of it came out of the bag. So instead of it being thin like milk it was thick like P soup. Can you tell me what I did wrong? Thank you
Hey Debbie. Oh strange, it shouldn’t be thick in the blender. Maybe you needed to add more water?
Hi! I really want to try this recipe but there is any oil-free alternatve, excluding also the dates? I was looking for a sugar an oil-free pea milk. Thanks!
Hey Patricia! You can leave the oil out. It essentially helps to prevent the milk splitting in tea and coffee, but as long as you shake the milk you can still use it in cereal and things like that without the oil. The dates add a sweetness, but this again is optional. Hope that helps!
can I use MCT oil instead?
We haven’t tested this sorry
This is beautiful plant based milk!! I was wondering if avocado oil or olive oil can be used in place of the sunflower oil.
Hey Heidi. Yes possibly but sunflower oil has a very neutral flavour so tends to work best 🙂
This worked great for me first try. I sampled a few recipes and this won the taste test in my home. I used regular sugar instead of dates and used canola oil (what I had on hand) and dried whole yellow peas gifted to me by a farmer (I needed to find something to do with 50lbs of it). Turned out great and I didn’t even find that it separated in the fridge. I use a ninja professional and a couple of layers of cheesecloth. The leftover paste was used to make pea hummus with success.
That’s great to hear! Thanks Rae 🙂
Can I use a slow juicer in place of a blender?
We don’t think so sorry
Hey Ben (Assuming you’ll be the one replying due to your amazing attentiveness to others)
Very excited to try this recipe.
I intend to turn the milk into a Vegan Mozza so my first question is whether or not you have experience with this?
Simpler question (Hopefully) – What are the Nutrient facts per 100ml/grams to this recipe – I understand you may not know it exact and do not wish to quote but I am only interested in a rough estimation at the very least.
Thanks and happy new year!
Matt Hughes – It should work – I made THE BEST cheese sauce “Two Ingredient Cheese Sauce Base” ( It is not actually two-ingredients), from Sauce Stache’s site and it is the best cheese sauce I have EVER tasted! And I think he has a Mozz recipe also. I used Ripple Pea milk and lemon juice and added smoked paprika and garlic to the base. it has potato starch and corn starch to make it thick. like queso cheese that I added a homemade salsa to.
Thanks for your reply! Thats funny that you have tried these recipes – I actually came across this web post here after searching for Ripple Products because of Sauce Stache haha! Turns out Europe doesn’t have the access to Ripple the same as the US just yet so I’m in the middle of building the Pea Milk European Empire against Ripple 😀 Ha!
Does this froth well (hot and cold milk temperatures)? Can you please make a pea milk barista version? Ripple discontinued their barista pea milk product. That product really froths like dairy milk. I would love to make a plant based milk that froths like dairy milk.
Do you know if your pea milk will steam/foam?
It foams great in my espresso machine
Presumably, there’s no calcium in this milk as it is with manufactured ?
Great question. I would also like to know this but from my research, one cup of yellow split peas has about 100mg of calcuim (8-9% RDA)(One 3rd of Cows Milk) before it has gone through the processes described above so it is unlikely to have the same value after. I believe Ripple Foods in the US/Canada use E341 (Tricalcium Phosphate) to raise the amount of calcium to the same as cows milk in their range of Pea Protien based milks.
Is it possible to give this to toddlers as a milk alternative?
Thanks
If you are interested in the calcium that dairy milk offers for young children, you would need to get that from a different source. It looks like pea milk has about 10% of the calcium that dairy milk has, except cow’s milk has 30% of your calcium needs per day, pea milk would only have 3%. If you’re a toddler is allergic to dairy, then it seems like this would be a great substitute for flavor though!
Mine looked really soapy..also doesn’t look white like
The picture, mine is a orange tone
yes tired it and dissapointing… definitely not white , yellow pea colour and very thin… followed recipe to a T
Hi Ben. Thanks so much for this clear and useful recipe. I’m wondering if it’s possible to skip the soaking step and just cook the peas longer?
hi, can we use olive oil instead of sunflower oil.
What an interesting find! I only use plant milk for pancakes, muffins, avocado pudding, soups., chia pudding. As a result, I never strain it. (I use Laird for coffee.) I’ve made almonds, rolled oats, hemp, brazil nut, and sesame milk. Never bought or made pea milk. I freeze the stirred-as-much-as-possible “milk” in 1/2 cup freezer cubes. Today I took out 4 cubes of coconut milk to make avocado pudding and banana pancakes. Tomorrow I’ll make & freeze my first DIY pea milk for my next batch of goodies. I happen to have a few bags of yellow split peas. I’ll leave out the oil & salt and do 4C water instead of 3C. And will report back!
Just made this and it turned out like pea soup! Very thick. I tried to use more water but the pulp comes straight through the nut milk bag and is thick. I ended up thinning it out but it is nothing like your recipe.
I had the same problem. I used a Vitamix and the consistency was so creamy it went straight through my nut milk bag. I added water to thin it down but it’s VERY filling. I accidentally bought yellow lentils which cook in about 15 min and are perhaps far softer. I added the dates and vanilla and taste-wise I didn’t notice a strong lentil flavor.
sorry but this recipe is a real fail. Not sure how your milk turned out like that but definitely not through this recipe 😉 It’s a pea soup