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Dairy-free Eggnog {Paleo + Keto-friendly}
This Dairy-free Eggnog is creamy, rich, frothy and can be made with or without alcohol for a delicious holiday treat!
Holiday traditions of the edible and drinkable persuasion, those are as powerful and important as any others. But the traditional, seasonal foods of today, they pale in comparison to those our grandparents enjoyed. Store bought eggnog is generally loaded with tons of sugar and corn syrup, artificial flavors, pasteurized and denatured dairy, theres gums and other stabilizers and who knows what else. Even the vegan nogs at the store, the amount of sugar in there is just insanity and there’s so much non-food products hidden within. For me, it’s just not worth it, even if just once a year, especially when you can make your own and kill it!
While I prefer to avoid most dairy and have developed a pretty solid vegan eggnog recipe in the past, I realized recently that I was shorting myself on a pretty rad eggnog experience by skipping out on the eggs. Like, why was I doing that? I mean, after all, it wasn’t called “cashewnog” for the last however many decades. Why had it never dawned on me to meet in the middle with my nog, drop the dairy, keep the eggs, sweeten accordingly.
This homemade dairy-free eggnog has the same creamy, richness of a traditional eggnog, with a really, nice, light frothiness that I prefer to a super duper, heavy cream-loaded nog. Thanks to the separated yolks and whites (inspired by this recipe), it’s simple to make but the texture is perfect every time. It’s the perfect balance of creamy and frothy. This is a really solid base recipe and from here you can play with spices and flavorings. Try a Bourbon Maple version, or maybe a Pumpkin Spiced rendition, add in some pumpkin puree and pie spice, maybe cinnamon liquor in the mix. Or Gingersnap inspired with a little molasses and ginger or gingersnap liquor.
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Vegan Eggnog
This time of year I feel like as much as I am craving holiday flavors and traditional recipes, I am also looking to keep things as simple as possible and I really look to and work hard to stay on track with my eating. No reason to throw everything I work so hard for all year long, right out the door for a month of terrible choices. Between holiday parties and gatherings, events, my yoga teacher training coming to an end, mass amount of holiday orders from our websites, gift shopping and everything else, time is of the essence right now. There hasn’t been much extra time to bake cookies or to make homemade everything, like I always try to. When I was approached by Silk about their new Cashewmilk, I was super excited at the opportunity to try it and report back to you guys.
We all know that I am the queen of homemade nut milks, but I am always on the lookout for store-bought alternatives, both for myself when life gets busy, but also for those of you that don’t have the desire or time to make homemade nut milks. For me, the important things I look for look for are brands whose nut milk products are certified non-GMO, certified gluten-free, are minimally processed, free of artificial flavors and preservatives and don’t contain carrageenan. I also prefer unsweetened nut milks, so I can control the amount and type of sugar used.
Silk’s new Cashewmilk is a really great alternative to both homemade nut milks and if you are looking to make the switch, it is a great substitution for regular dairy milk, with 50% more calcium than dairy milk with only 25 calories per serving (25% less than skim milk)*. It’s so irresistibly creamy and delicious, it’s great over cereal, in your favorite recipes or just on it’s own. The moment I poured the first glass and saw just how thick and luscious it was, I immediately was inspired to recreate my favorite classic holiday drink, eggnog.
