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Vegan Bean Milk is a nutritious, creamy beverage that’s great for topping cereal, oatmeal, granola and adding to smoothies. This recipe is naturally gluten-free and high in fiber.
Paired with grains, it creates a protein-rich combo for nutrient-dense snacks and meals.
Vegan Bean Milk is dairy-free, soy-free and nut-free. And you can actually make this beautiful milk with canned beans or home cooked beans — super convenient and affordable.
Plus, homemade vegan milk means: no single-use disposable containers from the store that leach plastics and aluminum into our dairy-free milks.
This recipe even has Low Carb and GAPS diet variations.
Our family’s been eating a lot more oatmeal lately, which is how I came to need a new dairy-free milk. A lot of my other favorite dairy-free milks (Avocado and Macadamia) aren’t practical for our current diet, so I got to thinking … Has anyone created a bean milk? I asked myself, Is that weird? And, Will it taste good?
Unexpectedly, I couldn’t find a recipe for the kind of bean milk I had in mind. This surprised me! I mean, after all, soy milk’s been around for forever; why not make milk from beans that are less estrogenic? (Let’s face it: soy milk can cause major hormone imbalances and isn’t a good choice for a lot of people.)
So I made my Bean Milk idea, and it worked!
I gave it to my boys for their oatmeal, and didn’t hear a peep. Just slip-slop, gobble-gobble. When I asked them how they liked it, they said it was great! Only positive reviews!
I don’t think Bean Milk is ideal for drinking by the glass, though. It does taste like beans to some extent. However, I make mine kind of like horchata: I add cinnamon and/or vanilla and a little sweetener. So with other foods, and as a topping, the bean quality does NOT come through. I only sweeten this milk slightly, so you could obviously cover up the bean taste more, but I don’t think that’s necessary.
It’s delicious as a topping, and that was my goal. We now enjoy this milk daily on our oatmeal! It’s a family staple.
Ingredients in Vegan Bean Milk
The key ingredients in Vegan Bean Milk are water, beans and maple syrup. Cinnamon and/or vanilla can be added for a nice, sweetening of the recipe flavor-wise — which helps the beany taste be less pronounced.
What kind of beans to use: canned or home-cooked dried beans
One thing I really like about this recipe is that you can use canned beans or home-cooked dried beans. Canned beans are nice for some of us who find them more digestible or convenient. Home-cooked dried beans are more affordable.
I personally find that Eden brand beans is easier for me to digest than long-soaked home-cooked beans, so that’s why I choose canned beans for our family. Eden uses a little bit of kombu before their high-pressure canning, and we find them really gentle as a result. (Find Eden beans here.)
If you love cooking your own beans, it’s easy to measure your cooked beans for this recipe. I give both options in the recipe below.
What variety of beans to use
This recipe uses any mild-tasting white bean: navy, white kidney (cannellini) or Great Northern bean.
Nutritional benefits of beans
Beans are a great source of B vitamins, fiber and protein.
Personally, we eat beans for all three of these reasons! If you eat a lot of white rice, a B1 deficiency can occur. Eating beans puts the B1 back in your diet. Most people need more B vitamins, whether or not they eat polished grains. B vitamins are vital for proper cell functioning — including brain health, energy production and the ability to detoxify.
Fiber in one’s diet helps to prevent constipation and toxicity, and also benefits heart health and blood sugar levels.
If you’re vegan, it’s always nice to have another way to eat beans, to increase the amino acids in one’s diet.
How to make Vegan Bean Milk
The second thing I love about this recipe is that it does not need to be strained! This recipe is fast and easy to blend and serve!
The reasons we don’t strain are:
- Vegan Bean Milk is naturally smooth. After 50 seconds or less of blending, there are no discernible bits whatsoever.
- We certainly do not want to strain this milk because — we want all that fiber! One of the main benefits of eating beans is their fiber, so we don’t want to omit it from this recipe or our diet.
So, back to how to make Vegan Bean Milk: We simply blend equal parts white beans and filtered water with a small amount of pure maple syrup and a tiny amount of cinnamon. That’s it! This recipe takes 5 minutes and is ready to serve!
You may also add optional vanilla and sea salt, if you’d like.
How to store Vegan Bean Milk
I pour our Bean Milk into a 4-cup mason jar. This recipe makes about 3-1/2 cups, so that size jar is the perfect storage container. (Find quart mason jars here.)
It keeps well in the fridge for about 4 days. I have never tried keeping it longer than that, because we use it up pretty quickly.
How to digest beans better
If you don’t digest beans that well — if they cause you gas — you might find this resource helpful: a list of which beans digest best based on one’s blood type. We’ve found this list SO helpful.
Also see How to Soak Beans for 4 Days to Prevent Gas & Which Beans Digest Best.
GAPS diet variation
You can make this recipe GAPS-friendly by using honey in place of maple syrup. Assuming you’ve reintroduced beans successfully.
Low Carb variation
A low-carb diet can shortchange the body of fiber, by reducing fruits, grains, and certain vegetables in order to stay on track — and fiber is good for digestion.
Surprisingly, beans can actually fit well into a Low Carb diet. As one source says, “While it’s true that beans are high in carbohydrates, ‘along with that comes fiber — mostly soluble fiber, which can help lower cholesterol — and important vitamins and minerals like folate, potassium, iron, and zinc.'”
Fiber reduces net carbs. So by changing the sweetener in this recipe, Bean Milk becomes a great dairy-free milk alternative. To make this recipe Low Carb and Keto-friendly, use a liquid low carb sweetener like Lakanto’s Maple Syrup, in place of the pure maple syrup. Or, sub in stevia or pure monk fruit, if preferred.
Keto and Vegan, with this one sub, Bean Milk has just 4.5 grams net carbs per serving.
Savory variation — for soups and gravy
Yes, Vegan Bean Milk can also be used for savory applications! Just leave out the cinnamon and/or vanilla.
Enjoy in soups, sauces and gravies — in place of other milks or creams.
The naturally creamy and umami qualities of beans means this Milk is the perfect texture and flavor for pasta dishes, stews, condiments and more.
You may choose to exclude the sweetener, or leave it in, because a subtle rich sweetness can add a nice dimension to recipes.
Vegan Bean Milk (soy-free, nut-free, grain-free)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 can white beans OR 1-⅔ cup cooked white beans: navy, kidney or Northern
- 1-⅔ cup filtered water
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup You could also use two soaked, softened dates, if preferred. (For GAPS, use honey; for Low Carb, sub in Lakanto's Maple Syrup or stevia, to taste.)
- ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon Use more if preferred. I like it subtle.
- Optional: 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 to 2 pinches sea salt
Instructions
- Place water, beans, maple syrup and cinnamon in high-powered blender. Blend for 30 seconds at medium speed. Increase speed to medium-high for 20 additional seconds.
- Pour into quart-size mason jar, and serve, or refrigerate until ready to use.
Notes
The Low Carb, Keto version of this recipe has 4.5 grams net carbs per serving.
Nutrition
Please comment below and let me know how you like Vegan Bean Milk!
And what to eat with it? Enjoy these favorite vegan and gluten-free cereals with Vegan Bean Milk poured on top!:
- Buckwheat Porridge
- Rice Flour Porridge
- Overnight Hemp “Oatmeal”
- Best Grain-free Granola
- Kombucha Overnight Oats
Kristy says
What a great idea!! I’m definitely going to have to try this. Do you know if it works well in soups in place of dairy?
Megan says
Hi Kristy, yes, it works great, and also to make gravy! 🙂 Just leave out the cinnamon and vanilla.
tina says
Interesting! I’ve only had soya beans milk before, Didn’t realize you can make your own other white beans milk, looks tasty!
Jean Choi says
Wow, I never knew it was this easy to make milk with beans! Can’t wait to try it.
ChihYu says
Thank you for this recipe! This will go wonderfully with hot cereal!
Kelly says
Thank you for this recipe! I’d not considered using beans for a milk beverage!
Stacey Crawford says
I’ve used beans as flour before but never made milk with them. Such a great idea & I really like the addition of cinnamon & vanilla!
Erin says
So you invented bean milk? How cool is that?! You are very inventive. I almost made your cheese sauce tonight and was thinking the same thing. 🙂
Megan says
So sweet, Erin, thank you! 😉 We’ll see if it becomes a thing. I can’t imagine how it’s not a thing yet, honestly. It’s so good, and so much healthier than soy. Also, I do not think I invented it, quite, but maybe this version. It’s always necessity that’s the mother of invention. Folks must be quite content with all of the other non-dairy milks, but we needed a different one. 🙂
Suzanne Stubbs says
Dear Megan and to all the Eat Beautiful Readers,
Letting you know I have tried this recipe and it is so easy to prepare. For me I used dried red lentils as I have lots of those in my pantry. After washing them well I cooked 1 cup of dried lentils in an equal amount 1 cup of filtered water (no salt). Once they had cooked to be soft enough for the blender I followed Megan’s white bean recipe adding a little more filtered water to blend to my preference and used our own honey to sweeten just a little. (My husband and I raise bees.)
I poured the lentil milk into a mason jar and put it in the fridge to get cold. As an old milk guzzler, I always liked my glass of milk before bed. Now I can enjoy an alternative to cows milk (and soy milk for that matter). Having a glass of lentil milk helps my blood sugar levels at night stay on an even keel and keeps me from being hungry in the wee hours. This recipe is amazing and I like my lentil milk! Thank you Megan for such an interesting take on an alternative beverage. Suzanne Stubbs
Megan says
Wow, Suzanne. Great!! Thank you so much for your thorough and helpful review. I’m so happy you love your new bean milk!! How neat that you made it with red lentils!!! 🙂
Donny says
Such a cool idea! Never would’ve thought of this but since I’m dairy-free I can’t wait to try it!
Megan says
Great, Donny, hope you love bean milk as much as we do!
Sharon says
This is the greatest idea!!! I also had no idea that Eden added kombu to their beans. They really are a great product. Thanks so much for sharing, This is a super vegan option.
Megan says
You’re welcome, Sharon. And thanks for your kind comments!
Luke says
So quick and easy to make, we added agave syrup for sweetness instead of maple syrup and added vanilla extract as you suggested. I used it to make overnight oats with raspberries, came out perfect!
Megan says
Great, Luke! Thanks for sharing what you did and so happy you’re enjoying the recipe. I love having mine with oatmeal, too, and the nutrition I get every morning from having beans and oats together, great sources of B1 and fiber! 🙂 Plus yummy!
Deborah says
Wow, I never even knew you could make milk out of beans. Can’t wait to try this recipe!
Alex Smilansky says
Hello Megan,
This recipe sounds great and we are getting ready to introduce more foods into our VAD diet, so this is a perfectly easy recipe for us to start with. One thing I noticed is that when you make bean milk, you add filtered water, rather than the cooking liquid from the beans. Is that because the aquafaba is not good to consume or is it due to the stronger bean taste in the resulting bean milk?
Also wondering if aquafaba is ok to use in recipes instead of eggs, as I cannot have eggs.
Thanks.
Alex
Megan says
Hi Alex, good question. As long as the aquafaba doesn’t give you gas, you can use it in this recipe or in place of eggs. Yes, it can add to the bean flavor and add a gooier texture, too. But you may not mind or notice! 🙂 Totally fine if you’d like to. (Great about your stage of the VAD diet, too!)
Alex Smilansky says
I love your blog and the info you publish. Thank you. 🙂
Megan says
Thank you so much, Alex!! And you’re welcome! It’s always so helpful to know what I’m doing is helping others! I appreciate your encouragement! 🙂
IvyM says
Hi Megan,
I used to make soybean milk and now I want to explore other beans. I ran into your blog and saw this recipe. I have couple questions about your recipe. 1 – Do you not filter the milk (separate pulp from liquid)? 2 – If you don’t filter the milk, is the texture more like a smoothie?
Thank you,
Ivy
Megan says
Hi Ivy, great questions. No, you don’t need to filter the milk. The fiber is very healthful, and amazingly, the milk ends up very creamy and very smooth. BUT, I don’t think it’s like a smoothie, no; it’s not that thick. It’s quiet milk-like with a little viscosity/silkiness from the beans’ texture. I think you’ll like it and would love to hear how it turns out for you. 🙂
Shane says
I haven’t actually tried the recipe but I was thinking the exact same thing you wrote above before coming across your recipe. I have been eating a lot of beans lately and realized they have been giving me all the amino acids I wasn’t getting before. I am trying to get my protein and eat something other than lots of tofu. I thought, “BEANS!!! I should make a tofu replacement with BEANS, since its just soy milk and a coagulant.” That led me to bean milk and your site. This is great! I know how to make cashew milk tofu but its full of fat and just not enough protein. I’m on a super low fat and super high carbohydrate ratio at the moment so, yay! Interesting, that when we look for different options we all tend to think in the same direction. Thank you for being creative!!! You Rock!
Megan says
So kind, Shane, and I’m so glad the recipe meets your needs and is just what you were thinking and needing! I hope you love and enjoy it!!
Joana says
Wonderful idea, which I will certainly try. I discovered your blog after having this crazy thought about making a kind of “bean yogurt”. I quickly looked it up online but found nothing, so I googled “bean milk” and here I am. Anyway, I’m curious, have you ever tried to ferment this bean milk with yogurt cultures, so as to make some kind of yogurt?
Megan says
Hi Joana, great idea. I haven’t, but I do think it’s very possible. I am remembering the many fermented hummus recipes I have seen. I would look to those as your guide, and then you’ll just need to add to their methods a consideration of how to thicken the yogurt. I would lean toward making a bit thicker milk, less watery, to start. You could also reference my oat milk yogurt or cashew yogurts as points of reference on methods, how to thicken etc. Sounds like an exciting recipe I would like as well! 🙂
Kate says
I regularly make and use oat milk, but it seems pretty redundant with oatmeal or Cheerios! Thus I too have made bean milk with great northern beans. Your recipe is a good and easy one for that purpose! I’m going to try making yogurt from it — not expecting much, but we’ll see.
Megan says
So glad you’re enjoying the Bean Milk recipe, Kate! Thanks for sharing, and yes, I agree, so nice to have a variety of ingredients and nutrients in a meal. I’d love to hear if you have luck with the yogurt! 🙂
Makenzie says
Any luck making yogurt?
Joanne says
Here is a link for garbanzo bean yogurt. Hope this helps. https://youtu.be/K7ZWi4oST2E
Megan says
Fun, Joanne, thanks so much for sharing!
Lee says
Megan, Thank you for publishing this recipe! I have been using a navy bean/rice combo as a creamy sauce for a couple of years now but never thought of it as a replacement for milk … can’t way to try it and replace the more expensive almonds I’ve been using
Megan says
Yay, Lee, you’re welcome. I hope you love it! 🙂
Tamie Petersen says
Came across this looking for non-soy but bean milk. I think I’ll try a Bean & Rice yogurt ideas.
Megan says
Great, I’d love to hear how it goes.
Olen says
Your recipe used canned or cooked beans, but something you have omitted here, which is important, is a warning not to make “milk” from kidney beans that have merely been soaked, but not cooked….the way you would make milk from raw cashews. Without such a warning, some people will try the cold, raw processing method and poison themselves if they use the wrong bean variety.&/or don’t cook them long enough. Kidney beans, in particular, contain something called (real tongue-twister…) phytohemagglutinin, a type of “lectin” that can cause extreme digestive upset (not just the “gas” we associate with beans) and this can occur from eating less than 5-6 raw or poorly cooked beans. Soaking them does not remove that chemical. They must be cooked at a high temperature (not in a slow cooker) for at least 30 minutes, which destroys the toxin. After that time, the result is a safe, nutritious food. Other legumes, though not all (ie: Adzuki beans) also contain that lectin.
One other comment is that bean milk protein is not complete, as in animal milk. The suggest is to make the milk from a 50/50 mixture of rice & beans. There is a reason why that combination is a common Hispanic recipe: Each of the two products have incomplete proteins. But, the amino acids missing from one, are abundant in the other…what is called “protein complementary”. Mixing them, yields a complete protein.
I hope this is helpful
Sharlene says
Please clarify: Should the beans be drained before blending, or do you blend the beans and bean broth together with the extra water in the recipe? Thanks!
Megan says
Yes, Sharlene, good clarification: Drain the beans before blending.
KH says
I’m not a novice cook or new to the dairy free world but my journey with beans, white beans in particular, is just starting.
I saw a recipe for black beans milk and thought to myself, but can you do for white beans?
YES! Thank you for this simple and flavorful milk alternative recipe. My df son was out of milk but we have plenty of beans. I don’t have a high enough power blender, so I did need to strain out the little bits that were left. I used great northern beans and honey; the dash of cinnamon was just perfect. Pinned to use again!
Megan says
Great to hear! Thanks so much for sharing and so glad you enjoyed!
Kasey says
I would love to love this recipe. But I can’t keep it on my page for more than a couple of seconds to try to make it. There are so many ads and pop-ups that my screen keeps jumping around.
Megan says
Sorry to hear, Kasey; that’s frustrating. I’ve tried to reduce my ads just recently to help with that. Perhaps you can print out the recipe. There’s a print feature on the recipe card. 🙂
Donna says
I tried your recipe, doubling ingredients and substituting pinto beans (had no navy beans). It was beige and very satisfying; I drank nearly all of it through the evening, enjoyed it. Having already had a good breakfast and small lunch and supper, I did not get hungry for anything else for the rest of the evening. I wasn’t aware until reading through the comments that the aquafaba should not be included (it was okay!). I then tried adding carob (yum!), then added a few cubes of avocado (meh…more like a smoothie).
Thanks for opening our eyes to more possibilities. I hope to retry your recipe soon with navy beans. 🙂
Megan says
Great to hear your results, Donna! Yay, so glad you enjoyed, and thanks for sharing your details! 🙂