Dairy is an essential element of any diet due to its high Calcium content, not to mention other nutrients like potassium, magnesium, riboflavin, vitamins A, B12 and D. It’s every sportsman’s best friend. They munch on cottage cheese like crazy and it does them good. Generally, dairy seems like a healthy thing to include in your diet.
The benefits of dairy are:
- it is key to strong bones;
- it contains probiotics which are irreplaceable for your stomach, gut and pancreas;
- supports metabolism;
- improves your skin;
- helps control the blood pressure.
However, not everybody is that thrilled with the idea of introducing dairy to their diet. In fact, dairy stirred quite the controversy around itself. The anti-dairy promoters include vegans and lactose-intolerant people. They will definitely warn you to stay away from it.
However, the beauty of dairy is that you can make it yourself from different ingredients. Vegans use all kinds of different things to make “milk” (one of the recipes features poppy seeds, the other – cashews). So why limit yourself to something as boring as store-bought milk if you can make your own? Try for yourself and choose the best-suiting method.
3 recipes for making low-fat dairy products at home
Hard, low-fat homemade diet cheese
Ingredients
- All you need is:
- % cottage cheese — 600 g dry
- 0,5 % milk — 500 ml
- egg — 1 pcs
- pink salt — 1 teaspoon I use this Himalayan one
- soda — 2 g I have this nongluten one. It shouldn’t be heaped spoon
- oregano — 2 g for example, like this
Instructions
- Step 1. Blend cheese with milk together until smooth.
- Step 2. Put this mixture on a small fire and don’t forget to stir all the time.
- Step 3. With some time begins the peel off the serum. As soon as this process has begun, continue to heat it again on a small fire for 8-10 minutes. The cheese should clearly separate from the serum.
- Step 4. Then remove the cheese from the fire, throw it in a colander and wait until the whey dries
- Step 5. At this time, lightly whip egg with soda and salt. Here you can add any spices, greens, which you would like to see in your cheese, in my recipe I use oregano.
- Step 6. Pour the egg mixture into a cheese-oregano mass, blend it properly until smooth.
- Step 7. Put the pan on a small fire (better use a thick-walled pan) or on a water bath.
- Step 8. Heat it, stirring constantly, until the mixture begins to lag out of the walls and will form a tight knot.
- Step 9. Now put the cheese mass in a mould with a food film.
- Step 10. Level it, covered it with a film and put it in the refrigerator until it cools down completely. Cheese is ready!
- Step 11. This cheese is easy to cut, it melts, it can be rubbed on a grater. You can add it in hot pasta, make pizza with it or even salads and other dishes. The remaining serum can be used to make pancakes, pies and other dishes. Bon appetit!
Cashew Milk
Ingredients
- All you need is :
- cashew – 80 g 1 jar of these, not fried, but dried
- water – 800 ml
- stevia sugar replacement – 1 g (of this, natural one)
- vanilla stick – 1 pcs for a great scent of you can use some drops of vanilla extraction
Instructions
- Step 1. Cashew needs to be washed and poured with three glasses of drinking water. Leave it for 6-8 hours or even for the night if it is possible. After this, extra water should be drained.
- Step 2. Repeat this action again but now blend these nuts on a high speed for 30-40 seconds until the mixture becomes white and cashew turns into fine grist.
- Step 3. After this, you should filter your milk, and the rest of the mill cake you can wring out through gauze. By the way, this mill cake you can also use in a dietetic bakery or in making dietetic candies.
- Step 4. To make dietetic milk tastier add stevia to it and a little bit of vanilla. However, you can choose syrup, honey, cinnamon or lemon juice. It’s up to you
- Step 5. Keep your cashew milk in the fridge no longer than 36 hours. Shake it up properly before consuming. That’s it! Bon appetit!
Dietetic poppy milk
Ingredients
- All you need is:
- poppy seeds – 2 tablespoons I have this one
- honey – 1 tablespoon like this one, or replace it with stevia, Jerusalem artichoke syrup or with 4 dates
- water – 1 tablespoon 250 ml
Instructions
- Step 1. Properly blend poppy with a half of the water glass and with honey.
- Step 2. Heat the water. The measures are up to you, you can even use cream instead of water. After, pour hot water into this mixture and blend it up again, but now for 3-5 minutes.
- Step 3. Filter it, and then squeeze through a strainer or gauze. Now drink in your good health and also try to add to different dishes. Bon appetit!
Conclusion: you get to decide whether or not you like real dairy
You can try all of these and make up your mind what suits you the best: real dairy or the vegan version of it. Whatever it is that you think makes you healthy.