Sunny Coconuts

Coconut [koh-kuh-nuht, -nuht] - The most awesome thing to ever come out of the tropics, and that includes the bikini.


I woke up this morning to this sight beaming in my bedroom window. Holy crap - were is the camera?!


After a ten minute photo shoot with the clouds I made my way downstairs and thought "well... there is only one way this morning can get better, and that is if I make coconut yogurt".

On a recent trip to Calgary I picked up 8 coconuts (the ones that didn't have mold on them at the little Asian market). The first 4 I used to make chocolate coconut pudding (from Sarma's 2nd book "Living Raw Food"). The last 4 I used this morning to make lemon coconut yogurt.

I was lucky with this batch of coconuts because all of the meat was white and pretty thick (but not too thick). I have bought coconuts before that were off (all pinky/purple inside). What a waste. The water inside these ones was not totally light and clear, it had a bit of a yellowish/brown tinge, but it tastes ok, and I'm not going to waste it...

If you want to know how to open a young coconut, follow this link: http://www.rawguru.com/html/openyoungcoconut.html
I like to use the back of a spoon to pry the meat from the shell.


Lemon Coconut Yogurt:

Meat from 4 young Thai coconuts (about 4 cups)
1/4 cup water from young coconuts (add more if your meat is really thick and hard, or less if your meat is thin and slimy)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
a piece of lemon rind (size pictured below)
1/8 tsp sea salt
2 drops vanilla liquid stevia (I didn't want it too sweet, you will probably want to add about 1/8 - 1/4 cup of raw agave nectar and either a bit of vanilla extract or some vanilla bean inside scrapings)
3 Bio-K dairy-free probiotic pills



Place everything in the blender except the probiotics and puree until smooth and creamy. Then:

Break open the Bio-K probiotic capsules and pour the powdery contents into the blender. Turn blender on for a couple seconds to incorporate the powder into the coconut cream.
Pour coconut yogurt out into a glass bowl and allow to sit on counter for 4-6 hours to activate the probiotics. Give the yogurt a sniff every once in a while to see how fast the probiotics are culturing the coconut cream. When you feel it is ready, place it in the fridge with a lid and cool. Eat!

Coconut yogurt w. red heart plums