How to Make Coconut Milk {15 Minutes}

Learning How to Make Coconut Milk is super easy, extremely delicious and saves you a ton of money – three of my favorite things in a recipe. If you’ve been wanting to jump on the plant based milk bandwagon, this simple recipe will get you started in 15 minutes.

If you have coconut flakes and a sturdy blender, there is really no reason for you to not try this! It is so fresh and delicious! This recipe only takes about 15 minutes in total to make and that includes gathering everything and clean up.

🍽️ Why This Recipe Works

Fast and Easy – These are some of my favorite recipe terms. This only takes a couple minutes to make and it’s simple. There is nothing complicated about this at all.

Cheap – It doesn’t cost much to make this recipe, especially compared to how expensive buying it can be in the grocery store.

Plant Based – If you are allergic or unable to have regular milk, learning how to make coconut milk and using in your diet is a wonderful alternative.

🥛 Ingredients

Having your own homemade milk is fantastic anytime you need it. This is saved me many times when I’ve tried to make various recipes and didn’t have any on hand.

Unsweetened Coconut: Always use unsweetened coconut. You could swap it for sweetened if you’re making a dish or dessert recipe that requires, but it isn’t necessary.

Agave Syrup: Agave syrup is a great way to add some sweetness without adding refined sugar. If you don’t have agave syrup, substitute it with honey. This syrup is a sweetener that is made from the blue agave plant. The fluid that is extracted from the plant is filtered and heated up to a simple syrup which is concentrated into a syrup.

Vanilla: You’ll just need a little bit of pure vanilla extract for this.

🥥 Instructions

Step One: Add the coconut and water to a high speed blender. Add a sweetener like agave or honey with vanilla extract. Learn how to make vanilla extract yourself.

Step Two: Blend for two minutes.

Step Three: After the two minutes are over, pour the coconut mixture into a nut milk bag over a large bowl. It will flow through the bag very quickly.

If you tried the How to Make Almond Milk recipe, you know that the liquid was very slow coming through the fabric. The coconut is a much finer consistency and it will flow through much more quickly.  Be prepared.

Squeeze out all of the fluid several times with your hands.

Step Four: Pour the new coconut milk into a jar and store in the refrigerator for three or four days.

🥤Storage

Since there are no preservatives in this milk recipe, you will only want to store it in the refrigerator for 3-4 days.

After that you will want to toss out any leftover milk as it can spoil. Store bought coconut milk has a longer shelf life as preservatives were added.

🍨 Differences

Change the taste of your milk just by using sweetened coconut flakes vs the unsweetened. I know you are thinking “isn’t it all the same?”

Sweetened coconut can be found in the baking aisle of your grocery store. You will rarely find the unsweetened there, however. Check your whole foods/organic area of the grocery store for that. You can even order unsweetened coconut flakes online if you can’t locate it locally.

We used the leftover pulp in our smoothies and it was incredible!!!

Recipe FAQ

📌 Related Recipes

How to Make Coconut Milk

Learn the few, easy steps to make healthy coconut milk at home.  This is so easy and very frugal to make. {WW 3 Points, Keto, Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten Free}

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Course: Drinks

Cuisine: American

Diet: Vegan, Vegetarian

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 2 minutes

Total Time: 7 minutes

Servings: 20 tablespoons

Calories: 58kcal

Author: Ginny

Ingredients

• ▢ 2 cups Unsweetened Coconut shredded
• ▢ 4 cups Water
• ▢ 2 tsp Agave Syrup can substitute honey
• ▢ 1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Instructions

• Add all ingredients to a sturdy blender and blend well for 1-2 minutes. Make sure to keep watching it as you will notice it change colors and all of the milk become fully combined. 
• Place a nut milk bag in a large bowl and pour the coconut milk into it to strain away the milk. Keep squeezing until there is just coconut pulp left. 

Notes

Coconut Pulp: Keep the coconut pulp that is left over for smoothies, granola bars, overnight oats or energy balls/bars.I used one teaspoon of the pulp in each smoothie to make very strong tropical taste with mangos and strawberries. To use in overnight oats, add one teaspoon when stirring together. 

Dairy Milk Substitute: You will notice there is a difference in the taste, but it is excellent. I love using it in my coffee as a substitute for half and half. I now prefer it over the heavy half and half. 

Storage: You can keep this in the refrigerator for three to four days. There are no preservatives in this homemade coconut milk, so I would toss it out after that time period if you haven’t used it.

Coconut Flakes: You may need to look for the UNSWEETENED coconut flakes in the health food section of the grocery store. It will not be with the baking items. You can also order from Amazon. 

Nut Bag: If you don’t have a nut bag, feel free to use a cheesecloth. It will work just as well. 

Nutrition

Serving: 1tbs | Calories: 58kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Sodium: 5mg | Potassium: 46mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin C: 0.2mg | Calcium: 4mg | Iron: 0.3mg

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