Nut milk substitute for food allergy child?
Hi everyone :-)
I'm new here and I hope this is the right place to ask this question. I have been a vegetarian for 20 years or so and I have a 2 year old son who has several food allergies - soy, peanuts/nuts, some beans, and severly allergic to sesame seeds. I recently purchased Isa Chandra Moskowitz new book "Isa Does It" (a signed copy too!) and many of the recipes use homemade cahsew milk. My problem is that he still nurses, so I can't eat the things that he's allergic to because it's transferred through my breastmilk, and he's also 2 1/2 and he's a big foodie and always wants to eat what I'm eating. So even after I stop nursing I am not going to be able to fix anything for myself because he will want to eat it, too. Well, not until he's old enough to understand why he can't eat what I'm eating. Anyway, my question is if there is a good substitute for nut milks. I haven't ever used them before and I wasn't sure if it is thicker than say rice milk (which is really my only option as a substitute or use cows milk) or if it also adds a lot of flavor and will grately affect the end result of the recipe.
Thank you so much for your help. This has been a huge challenge for me being a vegetarian and having a son who's allergic to everything that I love to eat.
Dianne :-)
Hi Dianne,
I have had success using rice milk in pancake recipes and some stir fry/curries, but I find it too thin for baking or things like mashed potatoes. A better bet would be to try oat milk (if you can't find it in the store, google homemade oat milk and you will get a ton of recipes and they are really easy). I have only used oat milk as a beverage and have not cooked with it, but it is richer and creamier than rice milk and has a higher protein content so I think it would work better for baking. Just my guess. Also, there is a hemp milk as well (I know of one called Tempt) in most natural food stores. I have baked with that one on rare occasion and it works well but does have a unique flavor that might affect a finished product. Coconut milk also works for baked goods or curries that call for a coconut flavor, and is a nice beverage. Those are the only ones I am aware of. Hope this helps.
Hi Dianne,
I recently got that cookbook too. I believe that Isa suggests using sunflower seeds in place of cashews if you can't have cashews. If your son can eat sunflower seeds that would be an option for those recipes. The purpose of the soaked, blended cashews is to add creaminess; I don't think that rice milk would work there.
Otherwise, I'd second Naturebound's suggestions of oat milk, hemp milk and coconut milk. There's also sunflower milk out there again if that's an option. I'm not sure if someone allergic to sesame seeds would also be allergic to sunflower seeds.
HTH