How to Make Your Own Coconut Milk at Home

We just can't say enough about how much we love coconut milk and what it does for Eco-Musings Luxury Soap.

We also love it for consumption as an alternative to dairy. Coconut milk is often used by those following a Paleo diet. From a nutritional perspective, it’s an excellent choice. It’s high in saturated fatty acids and medium-chain triglycerides (MCT), which are both easily burned as fuel by the body. 

We drink it plain, add it to smoothies, use it for baking.  We even use it to make ice cream!  

Unfortunately, canned coconut milk, even some organic canned coconut milk may increase your exposure to BPA. The other potential problem with canned coconut milk is guar gum used as a thickener.

So we like to make our own.

It's easy peasy! 

If you want to use a whole coconut, you'll need to extract the meat from the shell to make the milk.  If you've done this before, you know it's no easy task. Although THIS guy made it look like a piece of cake! Or you can use already shredded coconut. We like to use organic shredded coconut that's been dehydrated. That way we know we're avoiding any sulfites or preservatives. 

Add one cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut to a high powered blender. Add four cups filtered hot (not boiling) water and puree 3 minutes or so until smooth and frothy on top.

Pass the mixture through a cheesecloth or nut milk bag. 

That's it! 

It will appear less creamy than store-bought coconut milk because it contains no thickeners (like guar gum.) It's taste is much more naturally sweet and you can actually taste the delightful coconut flavor that seems almost undetectable in canned coconut milk.  Don't forget to save the pulp left in the nut milk bag to add to cereal or yogurt, smoothies etc. Or toast it for toppings! If you have a dehydrator you can make your very own coconut flour for baking! 

Not only is it easy to make, it's economical. Even using organic coconut, our cost was approximately $1.75 per cup. 

If you decide to make your own coconut milk if you're not going to use it right away, be sure to store in the fridge. It it should last 3-4 days. Since there are no preservatives or fillers, the "cream" of the coconut milk will likely separate on the top. Just shake or stir it. Or freeze it in ice cube trays! Plop a cube in your coffee or tea instead of creamer.