Cooking with coconut milk

Cooking with coconut milk not only tastes and smells great, but it is actually quite good for you!

Benefits

Coconut milk is actually quite good for your heart and heart health. In addition to maintaining proper blood sugar levels, coconut milk also helps in controlling your weight. Coconut milk often gets a bad rap for being high in fat, but because it helps you feel full quickly, this can be very beneficial to those who are trying to lose weight. Because coconut milk is high in potassium, it helps people in lowering high blood pressure. It is also said to lower cholesterol and help people suffering from arthritis and joint pain. Coconut milk will also moisturize and soften your skin! Make sure that you are purchasing a product that does, in fact, contain real coconut milk, and try putting some on a cotton ball and add it to a small area of your skin to test.

Cooking tips

Coconut milk is certainly rich, and you need to balance it out by adding lime juice or even some cilantro or black pepper. Many common ways of using coconut milk include adding it to your chicken (or beef) dishes when you are slow cooking them. You can add coconut milk to a saute pan when you are cooking your chicken, just to add flavor. But in addition to that, you could also add it to your rice. Here are two ways to use it in rice: a coconut rice and a baked coconut risotto . You can also add it to fish to make a tropical-tasting meal out of it, like these ceviche tostadas.

Flavorful addition

Consider adding coconut milk to your pasta dishes, to your sweet potato dishes or in your morning protein drinks. You could also add coconut milk to your oatmeal, stirring it in once the oatmeal is cooked. Try making homemade pancakes or pudding and adding coconut milk in place of milk or heavy cream. If you worry that the flavor will be too overpowering, add half coconut milk and half milk or cream. When you are baking, add coconut milk to your muffins or breads and cakes. Just substitute the liquid called for in the recipe (water, milk, heavy cream) with coconut milk. Add coconut milk in place of heavy cream to your cheesecake recipes, or if you use sour cream, add 1/4 cup coconut milk.

Start small, then think big, and you will find so many ways to add coconut milk to your daily diet for fun and taste, but reap the many health benefits at the same time!

More with coconut milk

Coconut fish recipe
Banana coconut milk freeze
Caramelized leek and chicken coconut curry