Consume an Entire Coconut: 9 Products - Zero Waste!

by TecScribe in Cooking > Vegetarian & Vegan

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Consume an Entire Coconut: 9 Products - Zero Waste!

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Consume an Entire Coconut: 9 Products - Zero waste!

Gather Your Materials and Supplies

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You need,
  • 1 coconut
  • 1 plastic bag
  • eye protection / safety glasses
  • 1 grater
  • 1 carafe or jar
  • 1 sieve or strainer
  • 1 large spoon or ladle
  • 1 hard spatula
  • 1 bowl
  • 1 heavy-bottom pot
  • 1 blender or food processor
  • 1 small heat-safe jar

Optionally, you may want to use
  • 1 broad kitchen knife - to loosen coconut stuck to the shell,
  • 1 splatter screen - if you find the fat splattering out of the pot while making oil.

Product #1: Coconut Water

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  1. Wrap coconut in plastic bag, and seal the bag closed.
  2. Hold the nut with both hands, and thrust the nut onto a hard surface until cracked.
    Wear eye protection for this step!
  3. Pierce a hole in one corner of the plastic bag to strain the leaking coconut water into the sieve-covered carafe. The sieve will filter out small debris from the coconut water.

    Recycle the plastic bag.

Product #2: Coconut Shell Charcoal

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  1. Use a knife to separate the nut from the shell - but be careful not to cut yourself!
  2. Remove the fiber strands from the outside of the shells.
  3. To impart a nutty flavor into your food, use the shells as cooking fuel.

    Oil content makes the shells burn like candles, while their fiber content makes them burn hot as coals! I like to cure the shells in the sun a few months before burning. That way, they seem to burn slower.

Product #3: Raw, Roasted and Dried Fresh Coconut

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  1. Use a vegetable peeler or knife to remove the dark, woody husk from the white, savory nut.
  2. Grate the savory nut,
    • toast it (1 hour @325 degrees F) until golden-brown, or
    • let it dehydrate, or
    • simply store it raw in the fridge and use for consumption and cooking.

    Toasted coconut has a nutty flavor, and can be stored without refrigeration.

Products #4: Coconut Milk

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  1. Cut white savory nut into smaller pieces.
  2. Place the pieces in the blender.
  3. Cover the nut pieces with hot water.
  4. Blend -  until the water turns pure white and creamy.
  5. Strain the coconut milk from the husk mixture. Voila - coconut milk!
    Use the
    • milk for consumption and cooking, and/or
    • the curd for oil (Product #8).

Product #5: Coconut Cream

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  1. Let the milk stand for one hour.
  2. Skim the cream off of the top of the milk.

    Refrigerate the milk and \ or cream if you're not using it immediately, or it will spoil.

Product #6: Hydrating Body Rinse

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  1. Use the residual water as a body rinse, or manicure/pedicure soaking solution.

    We freeze bags of coconut body rinse, and refill a carafe kept in the bathroom.
    After washing, we rinse with the coconut water, which hydrates and softens our skin.
    It smells so good!

Product #7: Raw Body Scrub

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  1. Use the leftover husk as a raw body scrub.

    The milk content hydrates and soothes the skin, while the nut gently exfoliates.

Products #8: Coconut Oil

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  1. Set the milk where it won't be disturbed for 24 hours.
  2. Skim the fat off the top of the separated milk into a pot.
  3. Boil the skimmed fat until the it turns brown and the oil runs clear.
    Note: The fat will form a solid patty. My daughter thinks it looks like a hamburger.
  4. Pour off the oil, into a heat-safe vessel.

Product #9: Moisturizing Body Scrub

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  1. Scrape the toasted husk (hamburger) from the pot, and
  2. Break it into chunks.
  3. Cool the body scrub.

    Enough essential coconut oil will remain in the scrub to rehydrate the skin. 
    The mildly abrasive husk exfoliates the dead skin cells.
    It smells good, too!