You can’t get blood from a turnip, but these days you can get milk from all manner of plants. There’s soy, rice, nut and coconut, of course, plus a new wave of dairy-free milks. Flax, hemp and oats now float your favorite cereal.

Teensy, mild-tasting flax seeds are anti-inflammatory and touted to lower cholesterol. They come your way in the first-ever commercial flax milk by Flax USA ($2.89, 1.89 liters). An 8-ounce serving contains 50 calories, 2.5 fat grams, 80 grams sodium and no protein — half the calories and fat of Silk original soy milk, yet deliciously creamy. There’s also a 60-calorie vanilla version. Both are fab and full of flaxen goodness, with 1,100 milligrams of Omega-3 (your hard-to-get essential fatty acid) per serving.

Hemp seeds also boast Omega-3s. Check the nutrition label when sourcing hemp milk — calories and sugar content vary wildly. Living Harvest Tempt vanilla hemp milk (32 ounces, $3.99) offers the best nutritional profile and tastes best, too (though with definite nutty undertones), with 120 calories per 8-ounce serving, 6 fat grams, 135 milligrams sodium and 2 protein grams. It has more sugar and calories than thin, flat-tasting, pricier Hemp Dream ($4.49, 32 ounces), and a third fewer calories and sugar than Pacific’s cloying vanilla hemp milk ($3.99, 32 ounces).

Sweet seems to be Pacific’s style. Its low-fat vanilla oat milk ($2.99, 32 ounces) is silky, organic and mild-tasting but more sugary than necessary. One serving contains 130 calories, 2.5 fat grams, 110 milligrams sodium and 4 protein grams. Being made from oats, it can’t help but give you 2 grams of fiber, too.

Find hemp and oat milk in the shelf-stable milk section at Whole Foods and other natural food stores. And drink up.

This one-bowl-wonder recipe from an old “Fanny Farmer Cookbook” gets a vegan makeover.

VEGAN CHOCOLATE CAKE—Yield: 8-10 servings

1 3/4 cup flour3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa1 cup sugar1 teaspoon baking soda1 cup flax milk or other plant-based milk (not lite)1/2 cup canola oil2 teaspoons vanilla extractPowdered sugar for garnish

Procedure:1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly oil 9-inch round cake pan.2. Into large bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, sugar and baking soda. Stir in flax milk, oil and vanilla. Mix gently just until ingredients are combined and form a thick batter.3. Spoon batter into prepared cake pan. Bake 30 minutes, or until cake springs back when touched. Cool on wire rack.4. To serve, dust with powdered sugar.

Approximate nutrition data per serving: 353 calories (38 percent from fat), 15.6 g fat (1.7 g saturated, 9.6 g monounsaturated), 0 cholesterol, 4.5 g protein, 53.6 g carbohydrates, 3.4 g fiber, 172 mg sodium.

Waster water superintendent Jed Chambers pulls a UV light out of its position while explaining how Colorado Springs Utilites use UV light to disinfect the water before it flows into Fountain Creek Tuesday, July 12, 2011, inside the new facility at the Las Vegas Wastewater Treatment Plant. The UV project was one of the largest west of the Mississippi River. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock) Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE

Christian murdock