How to Make Coconut Milk Made from Dried Coconut

Posted on September 25, 2018April 9, 2024by Anne-Marie Bonneau

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I make my own coconut milk for several reasons:

Store-bought coconut milk is packaged in either cans lined with plastic or hard-to-recycle Tetra-Paks that contain plastic
Many of these plastics contain BPA or a replacement that is just as harmful
Store-bought often contains food-like and suspect ingredients
Homemade contains only two ingredients, one of which comes from your tap
Homemade costs little
Homemade tastes good
Homemade is easy
Homemade makes me a rebel with an apron

The short version of how to make coconut milk

Combine 1 part coconut and 2 parts hot water. Let sit for 10 minutes or so, whir in a blender, strain, enjoy.

If you feel more energetic, you can also make coconut milk from a whole coconut. My daughter posted that on her blog several years ago. I will never make this.

The organic coconut for the two cups of coconut milk I made cost a 84 cents. The water was essentially free.
You don’t need a nut milk bag to make nut milk. If you have a bowl, a sieve (which you’ll use for many tasks) and a thin cloth, you can save yourself some money.

The fat will separate from the milk rather quickly. When this happens, just give the jar a shake. If you won’t use the coconut milk immediately, refrigerate it. Once chilled, the fat will harden into solid chunks.If you need a hom*ogenous consistency for a recipe such as ice cream, melt the fat and add it back to the coconut milk.
This will keep for four or five days in the refrigerator or a few months in the freezer.
You can use this coconut milk in recipes that call for canned coconut milk. I made a coconut curry vegetable dish last night with half of the coconut milk pictured in this post. It tasted delicious!

The pulp is quite dry at the end of the process. I didn’t have the oven on the day I made the milk for this post, so I simply spread the pulp out on a glass dish and covered that with a cloth. It dried within a couple of days.
The pulp has had most of its fatty goodness stripped out but it still makes good filler for oatmeal, baked goods, veggie burgers, soup… You’ll find a use for it.

And now some pictures (lots of pictures…).

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Servings: 2 cups

Cost: $1

Place coconut and hot water in a blender pitcher. If you have a plastic blender, you may want to do this first in a metal or glass bowl. (Heat can leach toxins out of plastic and into food.) Let sit for at least 10 minutes.
Blend for approximately 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the blender. Continue to blend for 2 more minutes.
Place a sieve over a large bowl. Line the sieve with muslin, another tightly woven thin cloth or a nut milk bag. Pour the blended mixture slowly into cloth-lined sieve.
After gravity has strained most of the coconut milk, push down on the coconut pulp with the back of a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Gather the edges of cloth together and squeeze out as much milk as possible.
Use your coconut milk in place of canned coconut in a recipe immediately or store in glass jars or bottles and refrigerate for up to 5 days. Separation of the milk from the fat happens quickly. Simply shake the jar to combine. If the fat has solidified and you need a hom*ogenous consistency for a recipe such as ice cream, melt the fat and add it back to the coconut milk.
Refrigerate, freeze or dehydrate the leftover pulp. Use it to add texture to recipes such as oatmeal, granola, quick breads, pancakes and so on.