LAB NOTES: Super Creamy Split Pea Milk

Posted On May 9, 2023

 

Hello all, Wayne AKA The Mad Food Scientist here.
A while ago, I was in a discussion with someone on Quora and heard about Pea protein milk. 
I was interested in it, but my local grocery store doesn’t have it. So, off to YouTube I went searching for a way to make it at home. I found quite a few, but the majority of them didn’t make sense when the instructions said to cook the split peas before turning them into milk. Then I found Falafelzebub’s channel and her recipe for making milk from split peas. I followed it and prepped one cup of split peas for each of the litres of milk that I planned on making. The first time I made it, I had to dilute it a lot to get it so I could pour it out of the milk bottle. It was that thick and it’s creaminess beat thats of Oatmilk. So, I tried again, this time with a half cup of split peas per litre of milk that I wanted to make. It was very creamy, but also very thick and it too needed to be diluted as well. The third time that I made milk from split peas I prepped a quarter cup of split peas for each litre of milk that I wanted to make. Nearly perfect! However, I still needed to add more water and now, I’m getting three litres of this great  milk out of a half cup of split peas. A few weeks back Keir, a friend of mine, messaged me asking for my recipe for split pea milk. I gave it to him, but I’m still going to dedicate this post to Keir. Here you go! I found this pea milk recipe on YouTube on the Falafelzebub’s Den Of Vegan Iniquity channel. ( LINK HERE: https://youtu.be/iBzUoXqDwVI ) The original recipe that I followed is on Falafelzebub’s blog. (LINK HERE: https://falafelzebubskitchen.blogspot.com/2022/02/pea-milk.html ).

ORIGINAL from Flafelzebub’s blog:
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup dry split yellow peas
enough water to cover
3 cups water

Instructions
Soak peas in room temperature water to cover for eight hours or overnight.
Rinse and drain in a colander placed in the sink. Add drained peas to a high-speed blender, along with the fresh water. Puree until smooth, about one minute. Using a nut milk bag, cheesecloth, or fine strainer, strain. Reserve the pea solids in the nut milk bag for use in soups or stews..
In a saucepan over medium heat, cook the pea milk for thirty minutes. Allow to cool.
Store the milk in a covered container in the refrigerator for up to five days. 
Enjoy!

LAB NOTES: 06 May, 2023
INGREDIENTS: 
113g Split peas Falafelzebub’s recipe said to use yellow split peas, but my local store only has green split peas.
3 litres of cold chilled water.
60g toasted sunflower seeds
1 big pinch of sea salt, or kosher salt
7.5g of Xanthan gum
3g of baking powder
3 TBSP Sunflower seed oil.

EQUIPMENT:
1 Blender with jar
1 Large mixing bowl
1 smaller mixing bowl 
1 saucepan
1 spatula, silicone
2 4 or 8 cup measuring cups.
1 collander
1 wire mesh strainer
1 fine mesh strainer
3 1 litre milk bottles with lids
1 funnel
1 1/4 tsp measuring spoon
1 1 tsp measuring spoon
1 heat source

METHOD: 
Soak the split peas for 24 hours in a lot of cold water and 1 tsp of baking powder
Toast and soak the sunflower seeds in hot water the day of.
Drain and rinse both the split peas and the sunflower seeds. 
Add to the blender jar.
Add the big pinch of salt.
Add 3 cups of water
Blend for at least two minutes
I did three straining passes.
1. Strain through the collandar twice, adding a cup of water for each straining.
2. Through a fine mesh strainer twice, adding a cup of water for each straining as well
3. Through an even finer mesh strainer twice, again adding another cup of water for each straining.
( So far 9 cups of water ). Put the milk into a saucepan and bring to a simmer, be very careful NOT to let the milk get too hot and scorch. Bring it to a simmer, and then lidded it and dropped the heat.
I simmered the milk for 30 minutes, stirring occassionally.
Once the milk was done simmering, I divided it into three. I put three cups of milk into the blender jar 
Then I added 1 cup of cold water, 1 TBSP of sunflower seed oil, 1g of baking powder and 1.25g of Xanthan gum.Then I blended the milk for three and a half  minutes. I repeated the process for the other portions of the milk.
Then I put all the milk back into my mixing bowl before I poured it into bottles.
I filled the three 1 litre bottles then covered the bottles with a tea towel to allow the milk to cool to room temperature. Once cooled, I capped and refrigerated the milk.

WHAT I DID: 
I started the 113g of split peas soaking with cold water and a teaspoon of baking powder in a 1 quart Mason jar on 05 May, 2023.

Although Falafelzebub’s recipe calls for yellow split peas, I use green split peas which is what is locally and affordably available to me. The reason that I started soaking them when I did was that I use a trick I picked up from the Mediterranean Dish’s hummus recipe. Now that it’s been at least twenty four hours, I drained and rinsed the split peas. drained and rinsed the sunflower seeds. I added the drained split peas and sunflower seeds to the blender jar with a hefty pinch of sea salt.

 Initially, I put three cups of water in the blender then blended for two minutes.

Then I strained the solids out of the mixture and added another cup of water at each stage of straining. I did four straining passes. The colander. through a fine mesh sieve.

Lastly, through an even finer mesh sieve.

Then put the nine cups of milk into a saucepan and brought it up to a simmer.

I lidded it and dropped the heat. I simmered the milk for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Once I was done simmering the milk. I divided it in three portions. I put a portion nto the blender jar  added 1 tsp of Xanthan gum, 1/4 tsp of baking powder, and 1 TBSP of sunflower seed oil. I blended the milk for three and a half minutes. I put that blended milk into my mixing bowl and repeated the process for the other two portions.

Then using the funnel, I poured the milk into three 1 litre milk jars, covered them with a tea towel and allowed them to cool to room temperature. Once cooled, I capped the milk jars and placed them in the refrigerator. This recipe creates the creamiest plant based milk that I’ve tried so far. I’ve used this in baking, in soups, on cereal, and in my coffee. I’m thankful to Mark at The Sauce Stache channel, Inga at the Healthy Origins channel and Falefelzebub from the Falafelzebub’s Den Of Vegan Iniquity channel for the three recipes that I used to create this kitbash of the recipe that that I use. If you’ve read the Oatmilk post ( The initial post on this blog ) you’ll notice a huge similarity. That’s because the method for all the plant based milks that I make is very similar with tweaks added as needed. 

CONCLUSIONS: 
This milk is rich, creamy and very versatile. As I’ve mentioned, I’ve baked and cooked with this milk, baked with it, and use it in hot drinks like coffee. It also makes a very nice hot cocoa. One thing I’d like to shine a light on is how this milk makes a very, very nice buttermilk substitute. The extra effort is worth the result. At about $1.00 for three litres it is very much more affordable than the Oatmilk I see in the store. I cannot compare my cost to locally available commericaly made pea milk, but I did a cursory search on Amazon and pack of  six 1 litre cartons of shelf stable Ripple Pea Protein Milk costs approximately $29.35 or about $4.89 USD per litre. I don’t foresee purchasing commercially made plant based milks, not when making them myself is fairly straightforward. There is a slight bean-y taste to the milk, but it isn’t that noticeable. I’ve heard that milk made with yellow split peas has even less of a bean-y taste.
I will definitely continue making and using this milk. I encourage you to give it a try.

Keep Safe