How to make coconut milk

You can make homemade coconut milk in the easiest way. You just need quality coconut (whole or shredded) and blend it with water. That’s how simple it is, although I’ll share some tips. I also bring some ideas to enjoy it.

To make coconut milk you can use fresh coconut or shredded coconut, I’ll now explain how to do it with each type, but it will be important to have a good blender for a good blend and also to do a proper straining. But I’ll talk about that in the preparation.

1) How to make coconut milk with fresh coconut

Ingredients

• 1 coconut

Preparation

1. Make a cut in the coconut where the holes are, and remove the cap. Pour the inner liquid into the countertop blender. Separate the coconut flesh and also put it into the blender.
2. Blend the coconut water with the flesh at high speed (it helps if the blender has a Pulse function for extra blending). You’ll see a kind of thick paste form, due to the mixture of the water, the crushed flesh and the coconut oil it has released.
3. Remove from the countertop blender and pass it through a cotton mesh, filtering and squeezing well and collecting the liquid you extract in a container. You now have your coconut milk.

That coconut milk is very thick, intense. You can use it immediately in your preparations, or keep it in the fridge for a maximum of two to three days.

If you like, you can also dilute it with mineral water to get a larger quantity. Some people mix it with other milks (cow, sheep...).

2) How to make coconut milk with shredded coconut

You can make coconut milk saving yourself the work of opening a coconut. It will be a quality coconut milk, but it’s important to use organic shredded coconut, without added sugars and not toasted.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of organic shredded coconut
• 1 liter of mineral water

Preparation

1. Leave the shredded coconut in a bowl, hydrating for an hour with the mineral water.
2. Put the shredded coconut together with the soaking water into the countertop blender, and blend for 50 seconds.
3. Remove the mixture from the blender, passing it through the cotton mesh to strain it and collecting the liquid in a clean container. Ready to enjoy!

• Store in the fridge in an airtight container, two to three days max.
• You can add a little more water if you like.

How to use coconut milk

• Once your coconut milk is ready, you can enjoy it as is (chilled, it’s very refreshing), or you can use it for baking (cakes, coconut flans...), to make yogurts, to prepare smoothies with fruits or with nuts (with cashews, hazelnuts, with sesame...).

If you decide to drink it right away and enjoy it plain, I recommend:

• Flavor it with cinnamon or cocoa, they really pair well with it, along with a few drops of vanilla extract.
• Use the Juice Expert to make strawberry coulis (or strawberry and banana), which mixed with the coconut milk gives you a strawberry and coconut smoothie delicious.

If you feel like making homemade plant milks, I definitely encourage you to also see How to make almond milk, you’ll also see there how to make hazelnut milk.