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How
to Use Young Coconuts for your Vibrant Health!
(article courtesy of www.rawfoodists.com)
Includes a variety of step-by-step photos!!
We've made many steps for clear-cut (no pun
intended) Clarification and Entertainment
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Coconuts
taste GREAT!
Besides the incredibly amazing experience one can have when eating coconuts, there are
many other reasons to eat this wonderful delicacy! In fact, the young coconut is one of
the most important fruits within the tropics because of its potassium and mineral rich
water. |
| Preferably, the water and meat from
young coconuts is used as opposed to the meat of older coconuts which tends to be very
hard (as well, older coconuts typically have less water...if any.) |
Medicinal
Value
Besides being highly nutritious, young coconuts have also been exceedingly revered as
having medicinal qualities for heart, liver and kidney disorders. In fact, the coconut has
recently been reported to reduce the viral load of HIV (click HERE for additional
information.) |
Where to find
Young Coconuts?
The difficult task is finding young coconuts. Most stores don't sell them, let alone even
know what one is when asking for them. When one finds coconuts on the ground in Hawaii,
they often are older coconuts with very little water and a hard meat. Fortunately, we've
found a great resource of organic young coconuts.
To find additional information about young coconuts, such as purchasing, please email YoungCoconuts@RawFoodists.com or go to www.YoungCoconuts.com. |
Step 1 -
Making a Simple Coconut Smoothie
One of the easiest recipes for eating a young coconut is to make a tasty smoothie. The
smoothie is simply the water from the young coconut blended with the soft jelly like white
inner meat. The picture on the right is of a young coconut after it has been removed from
its hard outer green shell. The coconuts we sell look like this picture - they've already
been removed from the hard outer shell for your convenience. |
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Step 2 - The
Tools
Often, people become frustrated with coconuts and give up on eating them because of the
challenge often presened in trying to open them. What we've found useful to use is either
a machete or butcher knife. You might want to make sure you have a cutting board, or some
other hard surface to lay the coconut on that's safe to cut on. You'll also need a blender
if you want to make a coconut cream (not pictured yet). Else, you can simply drink the
coconut water with a straw, and scoop the white coconut meat out and eat by itself as
well. |
Step 3 - The
Angle to Cut
One can drill wholes into the coconut, hit it with a hammer, or toss it out the window.
We've found it easier to lay the coconut on its side so that we can safely cut the top off
without losing much, if any, water. |
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Step 4 -
Leverage and Safety
For safety sake, we don't hold the coconut when we do the initial cut - we value keeping
our fingers intact. Our advice to you is to do the same if you feel comfortable. The
coconuts rest very well on their sides. So, upon letting go of the coconut, we hold the
butcher knife up high so as to help us get the necessary leverage needed to cut into the
shell. |
Step 5 - The
Cut
With a swift downward strike, the knife cuts into the top of the coconut. If done
correctly, the knife will break through part of the inner hard shell! This is what you
want. If you didn't succeed on the first try, don't fret. Just try it again, rotating the
coconut if necessary. |
 |
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Step 6 -
Different View
We'll usually set the coconut up straight after the initial cut just to make sure we don't
lose any water. This picture hopefully gives you a better idea of how far the knife can
sometimes go with the initial cut - there's no real need to pull a Hercules-like-blow
cutting entirely through the coconut in one shot. In this picture you'll notice that the
coconut has unfortunately lost some water upon the cutting board. Yes - it does happen. |
Step 7 -
Drain the Water
Drain the sweet coconut water into a blender. If the top of the coconut isn't removed, as
in this picture, then we'll use the knife to help leverage/pry the top of the coconut in
order to allow the water to freely pour into the blender. |
 |
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Step 8 -
Remove the Top
Cut the top of the coconut off using the knife. If you want, you can pull it off by hand,
but this can sometimes get messy. Pour any extra coconut water into the blender. Notice
the soft white coconut meet on the inside - it's great stuff! |
Not a Step...
If you don't want to make a smoothie, you can put a straw in the coconut (okay, you'll
need to make sure the coconut water is in the coconut, and not in a blender) and drink it
as is. You can then scoop out the soft white coconut meat and eat it by itself. We wanted
to add this picture to show that there are many possibilities :-) |
 |
 |
Step 10 -
Remove the Meat on Top
Using a spoon, scoop out the white meat on the top part of the coconut that was cut off,
if any. Put the coconut meat within the blender. The softness varies from one coconut to
another. |
Step 11 -
Scoop out the Inside of the Coconut
Use the spoon to scoop the soft white coconut meat from inside. Place the meat into the
blender. Notice the darker, hard inner shell that has to be broken through with the knife
within this picture. |
 |
 |
Step 12 - Add
the Coconut Meat to the Coconut Water in Blender
For the sake of making a smoothie, add the coconut meat to the coconut water within the
blender. |
Step 13 -
Ready to Blend
Once you've scooped out all of the white meat, you're ready to blend. One point we wanted
to mention is that while scooping out the coconut meat, don't worry if some of the meat
has some thin, non-hard, inner shell coating on it. In fact, the lining from the inner
shell adds a sort of cinnamon taste to the smoothie! |
 |
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Step 14 -
Blend Away!
We'll let the blender spin it's magic for two minutes. We use a FiberMania Juicer at its
medium setting (only choices are high, medium and off). |
Step 15 -
Pour and Enjoy
Once finished blending, pour and enjoy!! We would have put in additional pictures of us
drinking the liquid nirvana for you to view - but it tasted too good to put down to take
pictures :-) |
 |
What Next?
The possibilities are limitless with what one can do with the coconut! Instead of drinking
the smoothie by itself, we've often used it as a base for soups. For a nice variation to
the smoothie, try using Juliano's recipe by adding an avocado, carob powder and maple
syrup (we substitute dates for the maple syrup) - blend, serve and enjoy! |
Thank You!
We hope you enjoyed our pictorial step-by-step guide on how to open, use and eat young
coconuts. As well, we encourage you to add more coconuts to your diet - especially if
you're a RawFoodist - even if only on occasion. If you wish to purchase cases of young
coconuts, please email YoungCoconuts@RawFoodists.com
or visit www.YoungCoconuts.com.
Thanks,
Steve & Tricia Zenone
( www.RawFoodists.com ) |
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