How to Make Coconut Milk {WW 3 Points, Keto, Vegetarian, Vegan, Gluten Free}

There is a huge craze with coconut milk recently. Have you been using it in your recipes? I recently started using it in overnight oats and wanted to share how to make coconut milk at home.  It is super easy, extremely delicious, and saves a lot of money. Those are three of my favorite things!

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.

Start off by adding 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.

🍓 Ingredients

Having your own homemade coconut 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 coconut milk on hand.

Unsweetened Coconut Milk: Always use unsweetened coconut milk. You could swap it for sweetened coconut milk if you’re making a dish or dessert recipe that requires it to be sweet.

Agave Syrup: Agave syrup is a great way to add some sweetness to it without adding refined sugar. If you don’t have agave syrup that’s fine you can easily substitute for honey.

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

Blend for two minutes.

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

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

How Long Does Coconut Milk Last in the Refrigerator?

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.

Can I Double or Reduce the Recipe?

Absolutely. It is easy to cut the recipe in half. We did. There are just the two of us drinking it and we just will waste the excess if we had made a full batch.

The Differences Between Sweetened and Unsweetened Coconut Milk

You can simply change the taste of your coconut 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 the unsweetened. You can even order unsweetened coconut flakes online if you can’t locate it locally.

If you choose to go the sweetened route, omit any additional sweeteners as it is extremely sweet already. I used sweetened coconut flakes as a test for this post and it was delicious as a creamer for my coffee.  I felt it was too sweet to use it in recipes and everyday milk substitute.

On the flip side, we used the pulp from the sweetened coconut milk in our smoothies and it was incredible!!!

Can Coconut Milk be used as a Dairy Milk Substitute?

Absolutely! 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. Jason still prefers the almond milk in his coffee.

Let us know how you liked it! Feel free to reach out to us via comments/email or social media!