Coconut Question

[Raene]

I have a recipe that calls for 1/2 cup coconut water and 1 cup coconut meat. I've never bought a thai coconut. How many coconuts would I need for the above recipe?
Thanks!

[rawpriestess]

well the Thai, or young, or white coconuts would give you plenty of the water, but the meat is the challenge. they don't have much meat, or at least in my experience.

So, you may wish to use one for the water, and a brown one for the meat,

or not, it's up to you.

but I've seen most of the young ones only have some jelly, hardly any meat.

the jelly is from them being super young they get more meat as they get older.

[maraw]

I've been using Melissa's Young Thai Coconuts from Walmart. I get anywhere from 3/4 - 1 cup of meat and almost exactly 1 cup of water each time. I agree that it is hard to be absolutely certain, and you never know when you are going to open a bad one. I would buy two just to be on the safe side.

Last week I was making a dish for a raw food potluck. I needed two coconuts, so I bought three. I am SO glad I did - when I opened the second one, the meat was lavender and brown on the inside. I am very glad I had the extra one.

Let us know how it turns out!

[Shivananda]

To what RawPriestess said, I'd add the following... if you use only meat from a brown coconut, or worst case, have no coconut at all but have to use dried, soak the coconut meat first to soften it. If you need coconut water, use the soak water. It's not a perfect solution, but it has gotten me out of a pinch.

[samadhisoul]

maraw-how much does Wal-mart charge for the coconuts?

I have to travel a bit for mine and don't normally visit Wal-mart, but would if it was worth it to request that they carry them locally.

[Boz]

does anyone know the nutrition information for a young coconut? Especially the calories, fat and fiber? is it ok to eat more than 1 per day?

[rawpriestess]

thanks Maraw for the information.

I've never had good luck with coconuts, so I really never use them in recipes.

I use mostly nuts