Although I am not a very adventurous person (ok, not an EXTREME adventure person – I love the outdoors, hiking, camping etc, but would never do anything crazy like bungy jump), I am always up for a challenge when it comes to experimenting in the kitchen. I have had many flops, especially trying to recreate a certain dish. Many a times my brother has said, “That is NOT ____(insert certain dish)____ so don’t even call it that or attach the word vegan in front of it! Name it something else!”

So when my American friend challenged me to come up with a vegan version of eggnog, I immediately began looking up traditional (non-vegan) recipes to get an idea of what they consisted. I have created a vegan ALTERNATIVE to eggnog as I cannot say a vegan version as: 1) there is absolutely nothing vegan about the traditional drink so that would just be strange and, 2) I have never had real eggnog before so I don’t think I could fairly compare the two.

Thus a “vegan alternative” seems like a good compromise ?

According to Wikipedia, “Eggnog, historically also known (when alcoholic) as milk punch or egg milk punch, is a rich, chilled, sweetened, creamy dairy-based beverage traditionally made with milk, cream, sugar, whipped eggs (which gives it a frothy texture) and, in some contexts, distilled spirits such as brandy, rum or bourbon”

To try and replicate the traditional drink as far as possible I made the following adaptions:

the “creamy, dairy-based” part was easy – plant milk (I chose homemade almond milk) as well as a handful of cashew nuts

For the “rich” part I added macadamia nut butter (although any nut butter will do)

For the “sweetened” part I used maple syrup (although honey or dates would also work – they may just be more overpowering in flavour)

Blending all the ingredients in a high speed blender gives it the “frothy texture”

In place of the egg, I used chia seeds (this thickened it nicely, but it can also be left out for a thinner consistency)

Instead of distilled spirits, I have used vanilla extract (vanilla powder will also work)

I noticed that most recipes contained nutmeg, so I included this as well as some cinnamon (other spices such as cardamom and cloves would also be lovely). Traditionally, fresh, grated nutmeg should be used, but this is quite expensive and not always easy to find.

Ingredients:

1 cup almond/cashew milk (or coconut milk for a richer, creamier drink)

¼ cup cashews

1 TBS nut butter (eg: macadamia)

1 TBS maple syrup

a dash of nutmeg (freshly grated if possible)

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 TBS chia seeds

Method:

Place all ingredients in a high speed blender and blend for a few seconds until smooth and creamy. Pour into a glass, decorate with a sprinkle of vanilla powder or cinnamon and serve.

Be sure to visit my blog for more healthy ideas: https://z4zest.wordpress.com

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