How to Make Potato Milk

Potato milk is the new vegan “it” milk. Wondering how to make potato milk? Use this quick and easy plant-based recipe.

Almond milk, oat milk, and even alternative milks like banana and pistachio milk have had their time in the spotlight. The new “it” beverage among non-dairy milks? Potato milk. This beverage is a sustainable choice, using less resources than oat milk and less water than nut milks. It’s surprisingly nutritious, too.

I’ve been super curious about the new plant-based eating trend of potato milk so set out to make my very own batch. I even made a latte with the ‘tater milk! Read on to find out how to make potato milk–the super easy way.

What is potato milk?

Potato milk is what it sounds like: It’s a dairy-free milk made from peeled and boiled potatoes. However, it typically contains other ingredients, too.

The store-bought version, made by Dug, contains a few more ingredients than the homemade version. Dug, based in the United Kingdom, recently released the world’s first potato milk, which contains water, potato, maltodextrin, pea protein, chicory fiber, rapeseed oil, fructose (a sugar), sucrose (a sugar), acidity regulator, calcium carbonate, sunflower lecithin (a emulsifier), natural flavor, and vitamins.

However, I set out to make a potato milk with just a handful of ingredients. Here’s what I put into my homemade potato milk.

Potato milk ingredients

It might be no surprise that when it comes to making potato milk, you only need a handful of ingredients. Here they are:

Potatoes

Many people shun potatoes–but they shouldn’t! You may not realize that potatoes are a complex carbohydrate, but they are, and this is a good thing. The vegetable boasts many beneficial ingredients. These include vitamin B6, which is an important vitamin for energy, as it helps your body convert non-carbohydrate sources into a usable form of energy.

Potatoes also provide fiber and protein, according to the USDA FoodCentral database. These nutrients help keep you satiated for longer, and the fiber is also helpful for your cholesterol levels. As well, ‘taters offer the electrolyte potassium, which helps regulate blood pressure and counteract the negative effects of eating too much sodium-rich food. 

And we can’t ignore the immunity-helping vitamin C that potatoes provide. A medium potato offers almost a quarter of your daily need for immune-helping vitamin C!

Kosher salt

I used a very minimal amount of salt in this recipe. Salt isn’t used for only savory foods: In this potato milk recipe, it helps to bring out the sweetness of the other ingredients.

Almonds

When it comes to making potato milk, I used almonds to add a subtle sweetness and to add additional protein. Like all nuts, almonds offer a trip of protein, healthy fat, and fiber.

Now, you might be concerned that eating any food with nuts will lead to weight gain. However, a review study in Obesity Reviews should put any concerns to rest. The researchers found that eating more nuts is connected with decreases in both weight and waist circumference. The research included a huge assortment of nuts–including pistachios, almonds, cashews, walnuts, and peanuts.

Vanilla extract

When it comes to adding sweetness to recipes without adding a ton of added sugar, vanilla extract is one of my best-kept secrets. It adds a delightful vanilla taste to beverages but doesn’t contain any added sugar.

Maple syrup

Even though I used vanilla extract in this potato milk recipe, I didn’t think the milk was sweet enough. So I added a little maple syrup, as well. When I cook with added sugar, I like using maple syrup because Maple it offers many nutrients: It  boasts 60-plus health-helping polyphenols, as well as the blood-sugar-helping mineral manganese and the B vitamin riboflavin.

How to make potato milk

When it comes to making potato milk, the process is pretty simple. Let’s take a look at the step-by-step instructions of how to make potato milk.

Step-by-step instructions

To make potato milk, you first need to peel and slice one large Russet potato and the cook it in in four cups of boiling water. Once the potato is fork tender, you’ll reserve the cooking water and add the water and potato pieces to a blender.

Add one additional cup of cold water to the blender, along with a pinch of salt, two Tablespoons of almonds, two teaspoons vanilla extract, and two Tablespoons maple syrup. Blend for five minutes, then strain the mixture through a mesh strainer or a cheesecloth.

Nutrition of potato milk

I’m going to be really honest with you. While I always run a nutritional analysis of my recipes when it’s possible to do so, many homemade milk alternative recipes pose a problem with this because you strain out part of the recipe. Thus, the only truly accurate way to get a nutritional analysis for my homemade nut milk would be to send it to a lab for analysis, and this would cost hundreds of dollars!

So for the purposes of getting as close a look as possible without breaking the bank, I used the nutritional profile provided by the only shelf-stable potato milk, Dug Original.

Here’s an overview of the nutrients you’ll get from a one-cup serving of potato milk, including the daily values (DVs) per serving:

• Calories: 88
• Fat: 3 g (4% DV)
• Saturated fat: .2 g (1% DV)
• Carbs: 10 g (4% DV)
• Fiber: 2.5 g (9% DV)
• Sugar: 4 g
• Protein: 3 g (6% DV)
• Sodium: 226 mg (10% DV)

You can see that potato milk contains satiating protein and fiber. It’s naturally low in carbs but has a significant amount of sodium. I included just a pinch of sodium in my homemade potato milk.

How to use potato milk

You can use potato milk just as you would use any alternative milk: in a bowl of cereal, in a smoothie, or in a recipe. I made a latte with the milk. The milk foamed pretty well, although it is very, very thick so was a little harder to work with than regular milk. Because potato milk is so thick, you could also use it as a lower-calorie coffee creamer.

Recipe FAQ

More plant-based milk recipes

If you love vegan smoothies, give these other recipes a try, as well:

• Homemade pistachio milk from my own kitchen
• Homemade almond milk from Sarah Koszyk, MA, RDN, author of 365 Snacks for Every Day of the Year
• Homemade oat milk from Kathy Levin, RD

Sources

• USDA FoodCentral database
• A review study in Obesity Reviews
• Dug Original
• Sarah Koszyk, MA, RDN, author of 365 Snacks for Every Day of the Year
• Kathy Levin, RD