This Coconut Flavoured Evaporated Milk is a substitute for evaporated milk.
It’s vegan-friendly, dairy free, lactose free evaporated milk.
This recipe is for those who want to learn how to make evaporated milk at home. There are many evaporated milk options available in supermarkets but sometimes they don’t fit our dietary requirements.
Since it’s homemade, you can guarantee that it’s natural and preservative free. Store bought evaporated milk often contain dipotassium phosphate and carrageenan as preservatives and additives. They’re interesting to read about – food for thought!
I’ll be showing you how to make your own evaporated coconut milk from real and natural coconut flavours. With no added preservatives! This recipe is so easy and simple. You literally use only one ingredient that you probably already have in the pantry: coconut milk!
Make this recipe healthier by using low fat coconut milk or coconut skim milk. Low fat and skim have up to 15% less fat content than high fat coconut milk.
What is evaporated milk vs condensed milk? Evaporated milk is unsweetened condensed milk. So if you’re looking for an unsweetened condense milk recipe – this is it. If you’re looking for a sweetened condense milk recipe – check out my plant based recipes!
What are your favourite recipes that use evaporated milk? Let me know in the comments below.
Coconut Flavoured Evaporated Milk Recipe
This dairy free evaporated milk uses coconut milk as its base.
Ingredients
- 2 cans coconut milk (high or low fat)
How to Make Coconut Flavoured Evaporated Milk
- Bring the coconut milk to a simmer over medium heat.
- Once it starts to simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low. Let it gently simmer for 25-30 minutes or until it reduces to half its volume. Stir the milk every 5-10 minutes to prevent milk from burning at the bottom of the pan. Reduce the heat as needed if it starts bubbling too much.
- Let the milk cool completely. Store in a covered jar for up to 5 days.
Scientific Health Benefits
Coconut Milk
Coconut milk is a popular dairy free milk alternative. It has a rich and creamy texture. The tasty milk is also versatile – it’s used in so many sweet and savoury dishes.
Let’s take a look at the nutritional benefits
Coconut milk is calorie dense. It provides 824kJ of energy per 100g. The composition is 73% water, 2% protein, 22% fats and 3% carbohydrates. Saturated fats make up 88% of the fat content.
The fibre content is 17% of an adult’s daily value. Coconut milk is rich in manganese and has moderate amounts of magnesium, iron and phosphorous. Surprisingly to some, it isn’t high in calcium (2% DV). Eat a healthy and balanced diet to make sure your calcium levels are sufficient.
When coconut milk is commercialised and processed, a lot of the nutrients and minerals are lost. However, it’s quite hard to source raw coconut milk if you’re not from a tropical country where coconuts are in abundance!
Now this is where it gets complicated. Many health claims on coconut milk are sourced from the research done on coconut oil. Studies have linked coconut oil to benefit weight, metabolism and cholesterol levels.
This stems from coconut oil containing medium chain fatty acids (MCTs) such as lauric acid. These MCTs are ‘better forms’ of fatty acids. They directly go to the liver for energy use and are less likely to be stored as fats. Studies have also suggested MCTs reduce appetite.
However, MCTs are found in much smaller quantities in coconut milk. Thus the research findings for coconut oil doesn’t necessarily equate to coconut milk.
Furthermore, recent evidence shows that coconut oil is not actually healthy. Coconut oil consumption results in significantly higher LDL cholesterol than non-tropical vegetable oils. This can have adverse effects on heart health. We’ll go through this in another post specifically about coconut oil.
The verdict?
There are few quality studies that support the marketed health claims of coconut milk. Most of these come from extrapolated data on coconut oil and independent MCTs. Nevertheless, there is growing evidence on the adverse effects of saturated fats in coconut milk. Studies have shown that it’s actually bad for heart health.
Certainly, the saturated fats in coconut milk is something to be wary about. I recommend choosing low fat coconut milk. The best way is to source coconut flesh and make coconut milk yourself. However, I know that’s not possible in many countries. Coconut milk should be a minimal part of a healthy and balanced diet.
