Homemade Spiced Pecan Milk

It's dairy free, vegan, and it's raw. You can drink it warm, chilled, or with ice; pour it over a bowl of cereal; or have it in place of milk or soy milk over an espresso. What is it? It's Homemade Spiced Pecan Milk.

Pecans are jam packed with antioxidants, proteins and unsaturated fats. The plant sterols in pecan have been shown to lower high cholesterol level. And ladies, listen up: a diet rich in nuts helps lower risk of gallstones in women. Men, save yourself.

Nutrition aside, this is so super cool. You can do the same with other tree nuts and even sunflower seeds. If you intend to use the milk for other purposes, simply omit coconut milk and the spices. If you'd like a smoother beverage, pour the pecan milk through a sieve lined with cheesecloth. You can do a few things with the strained pecan meal: dehydrate it, turn it into flour and throw in to your bread or pastry.

When I made the milk I realized how many unnecessary ingredients there are in commercial non-dairy milk (as the almond milk carton in the refrigerator shows). Not only is there lots of sugar, but also ingredients that I don't recognize. Besides, it hurts whenever Adrian craves for almond milk; it's insanely expensive. I may not have the mathematics worked out, but it doesn't take a genius to figure the cost of making it at home is less than buying from store. I think I'm on to saving big money.

Updated: I made almond milk in pretty much the same way: blend together soaked almonds, water and honey. A few questions:

1. Why the need to drain the soaked water and blend with fresh ones? Why is it ok to retain pecan-soaked water but not almond-soaked water?
   
2. Why the need to add salt in soaking pecan but not with almond?

Anyway I did add some salt eventually: it brought out the otherwise missing nutty flavor in the milk. Speaking of which, do you know the almond we buy are actually mutant from its potentially toxic wild bitter almond? This common, domesticated, delicate almond has evolved from its Mediterranean/ Middle Eastern origin - it grows and matures under much colder horizon.

Back to the milk.

I strained the milk of its almond meals, roasted them in the oven and am looking for ways to use them in future baking. As they baked, they continued to give out sweet smell from the honey - I found myself inhaling deeper each time I tossed them around.

Without wasting time, I immediately put the fresh homemade almond milk to good use: Vegan Chocolate Pudding! Yum Yum Yum =))

Ingredients:
1/4 C pecan
4 C water
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup raw honey
1/3 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Additional honey for sweetening.

1.)Combine the pecans, salt, and water in an air-tight container. Seal and leave to soak in the refrigerator for overnight.

2.) Pour the soaked pecans and the water mixture into a blender. Add the honey, coconut milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Process on high for two minutes or until the mixture is well combined and smooth. Sweeten to taste and store in the refrigerator. This will last one week refrigerated in an air-tight container.