If you look at coconut milk in the store, you will notice that pretty much every brand contains carrageenan. Even the organic brands. So the only other option is to make it yourself. The good news is that homemade coconut milk is so easy to do. It only takes a few minutes. The best part about homemade coconut milk is that you can flavor it however you like. I like to add a couple dates for sweetness, but you can also add in some chocolate for a sweeter treat. 🙂 This homemade coconut milk would be great in my coconut vanilla chia pudding or my raspberry coconut smoothie.
All you need is 3 ingredients. Only 2 if you want to omit the sweetener.
Homemade Coconut Milk
So easy, you will never need store bought again!
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
- 3 cups water
- 2 medjool dates pitted (optional)
- 1 tsp ground vanilla bean or vanilla extract (optional)
Instructions
- In a blender , combine the coconut and water and blend for 2 minutes.
- Set a fine mesh strainer on top of a bowl.
- Set a cheese cloth over the fine mesh strainer .
- Pour the blended mixture onto the cheesecloth .
- Once you see a lot of milk in the bowl, you can gather the cheesecloth up in your hands and squeeze the excess milk out.
- Keep squeezing until all the milk is in the bowl.
- If you would like to add vanilla or dates for sweetness, pour the coconut milk back in the blender with the dates and vanilla, and blend for 1-2 minutes.
- Pour into a jar. I like to use glass mason jars.
- The leftover "pulp" can be dried out and used as coconut flour.
- To dry out the pulp, set the oven to 200 and cook for 2 hours.
- Then blend into a fine powder.
- Store the pulp in the fridge.
Recipe Notes
The coconut milk needs to be stored in the fridge. Use it within 3-4 days. NOTE: This coconut milk will not be able to replace the full fat canned coconut milk, but it can replace all boxed coconut milk. It's just not thick or rich enough to take the place of the canned coconut milk.
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