This healthy Mexican vegan horchata recipe is easy, delicious, and authentic, but with a twist. This dairy-free horchata is perfect with ice as agua fresca, coffee, or tea.
What is horchata?
Horchata is a Mexican drink, a Mexican agua fresca that you will find all over Mexico in taquerías, restaurants, and ice-cream parlors o paleterías. The original Mexican horchata is made with white rice, sugar, and cinnamon. It tastes delicious, but it does not have tons of nutritional benefits. There are even some horchata recipes that use condensed milk in them.
Mexican horchata originally comes from the Spanish horchata beverage made with Chufas (tiger nuts). In other places, horchata is made with barley, sesame seeds, cantaloupe seeds, and many more. As you know, I am a BIG FAN of flavor and nutritional benefits. So I decided to give this dairy-free drink a spin and make it healthier with oats and almonds (affiliate link).
Is horchata vegan?
The authentic Mexican recipe is not vegan, it has milk and some people even add condensed milk. That is why I developed this recipe for vegan horchata, to make it healthy and perfect that follows a dairy-free diet.
How to make a healthy horchata recipe?
- Soak the almonds and cinnamon sticks in a large bowl with two to three cups of water for three hours or overnight in the fridge.
- Rinse and blend with the oats and a sweetener with fresh water.
- Strain with a nut milk bag, cheesecloth, an old kitchen towel, or a fine-mesh strainer.
- Enjoy, pour into a glass with ice, coffee, or tea, and sprinkle some ground cinnamon.
How difficult is it to make dairy-free horchata at home?
TRUTH? I’m going to tell you the truth, it’s straightforward to prepare, but you have to strain it to achieve the perfect creaminess. This is the only “difficult” part of this recipe.
But beyond that, all the other steps for making this vegan and healthy horchata recipe are SUPER EASY.
Which sweetener is best?
We like to sweeten this agua fresca with dates, agave syrup, or sugar cane in my household. My children like it more with cane sugar than with dates.
But if you are going to use sugar, try buying the buy the best you can. I always purchase vegan, organic sugar. Yes, I know, shocking, not all cane sugar is vegan.
Tips for making the best oat vegan horchata:
- Is horchata healthy? It all depends on the recipe you follow, if you make this one it will be.
- It is essential to soak them for at least three hours almonds this step will make your drink creamier
- Use whole rolled oats or regular oats. Do not use instant oats for an oat drink.
- You could or not soak the oats; if you decide to soak them, do not soak them for more than three hours.
- When blending, blend the almonds and cinnamon first; you don’t want to over-blend the oats. They will become slimy.
- You can do this oat drink in batches if you don’t have a high-speed blender like a Vitamix (affiliate link).
This is a very authentic Mexican recipe that pairs with other vegan Mexican dishes like
Other recipes that you may like:
So, here is the recipe for this vegan and healthy Mexican agua de horchata, and I hope you like it as much as we do. Share a picture of it and post it on Instagram, FB or save it for later on Pinterest.
It would also be fantastic and super helpful if you leave a comment and/or ✨5 stars. Please feel free to write suggestions, ideas, or tell me how it went when you made the recipe.
Heathy and vegan Mexican horchata
Equipment
- blender
Ingredients
- 1 cup oats
- 1 cup almonds
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1/4 cup of agave or 3 dates pitted
- 3 cups of water + 2 cups of water
Instructions
- Soak the almonds and cinnamon in water for at least three hours or overnight.
- When they are ready, drain them and blend with the oats and three cups of water.
- If using dates, add them here.
- When everything is well blended, strain this mixture using an old kitchen towel, a very fine sieve or a nut milk bag.
- Put in a pitcher, add 2 more cups of water and sweeten with agave or the sweetener that you like best if not using dates.
Notes
Nutrition
information
Nutritional information of this recipe is only an estimate, the accuracy for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
I have a Profesional Certification in vegan cooking; in the world of cooking based on vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes… in clean, organic and vegan food.
My cookbook is called Yo Cocino Latino..
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