Adriane Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 I'm going to start a Whole30 here in the next day or so... basically as soon as I can find enough recipes to get through at least a week. (I've been compliant so far today so maybe I'll claim today as day 1). One thing I have noticed is so many of the recipes call for coconut- oil, milk, flakes, etc. I absolutely hate coconut. I'm not trying to be a baby about it, I just don't want to set myself up to fail for something this trivial in a way. I always have hated any form of coconut- even artificially flavored coconut candies, drinks and such so I know it isn't a texture thing. Is there any substitute for coconut that doesn't ruin recipes? That answer may likely vary depending on the recipe so maybe not an easy question to answer. Also I have no idea what coconut oil tastes like and if you can really tell? Thanks! -Adriane- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rosieelli Posted January 6, 2013 Share Posted January 6, 2013 Coconut oil is really mild and a bit sweet. I got mine from Trader Joes and I really like it. You can substitute ghee in place of coconut oil. I bought some ghee yesterday and tried it. I actually prefer the coconut oil and olive oil instead of the ghee. The ghee has a really strong scent and feels kind of heavy. Does anyone else prefer the coconut to ghee? Hope this helps and wishing you the best in your whole 30! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted January 6, 2013 Moderators Share Posted January 6, 2013 I can smell coconut oil better than I taste it. But Roseelli is right, ghee will take the place of coconut oil in most recipes. There are almost 400 Whole30-compliant recipes at my site, so I'm sure you can find enough for a week. Check the Recipe Index page... http://www.wholelifeeating.com/recipe-index/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adriane Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 I suppose I could just try coconut oil and see if it is as bad as I imagine it will be. I know coconut milk/ shavings/ meat will be a no go- I've had them many times throughout the years and still hate it. The oil might be okay? Does it taste like coconut? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adriane Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 I can smell coconut oil better than I taste it. But Roseelli is right, ghee will take the place of coconut oil in most recipes. There are almost 400 Whole30-compliant recipes at my site, so I'm sure you can find enough for a week. Check the Recipe Index page... http://www.wholelife...m/recipe-index/ Ok, thanks! The recipes will definitely help. I actually realized that I used butter and not ghee today for lunch so I haven't been compliant. Oh well. I'm tempted just to stick with ghee. Is there any health benefit for coconut oil v. ghee? If so I might try it and see what happens, I could be surprised and actually like it. But if there is no real benefit there seems to be no need to force myself to use something that would make the Whole30 harder for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KPopova Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 I'd also like to know if there is a viable replacement for coconut milk. I haven't been able to find any at all in the city where I live right now (middle of nowhere Siberia), and so many of the recipes in the book call for it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lora Friedenthal Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 You might be able to replace coconut milk with cashew cream depending on the recipe. Cashew cream: soak 1 c raw cashews in 3 c boiling water for 30 minutes. Drain, reserving one cup of liquid. Put cashews and liquid in a blender and blend until smooth, adding more water as needed to arrive at desired consistency. All that being said, whether or not I taste the coconut in coconut milk depends on the recipe. In, say, indian food, I can't really taste it. In coffee, it just makes my coffee taste like coconut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terez Posted January 7, 2013 Share Posted January 7, 2013 Adriane, yes, there are health benefits to coconut oil (medium chain fatty acids; lauric acid) but my understanding is that it not necessary to good health. I dislike coconut candy but have developed a taste for good coconut oil. What helped the most for me to acquire the taste was coconut butter (also called coconut manna by Nutiva and coconut cream concentrate by Tropical Traditions). However, I've been "working on" developing a taste for coconut for several years now (because I wanted the health benefit). I don't think I could have started full bore with it. Tropical Traditions makes an expeller-pressed coconut oil that does not taste at all of coconut. I used that for a few years until I read recently (in Deep Nutrition) that it's not good to use expeller-pressed oils. I don't know how bad it is to use them but since I now like regular coconut oil, I just switched to using that instead. I make my own ghee and I love it. I've never had store-bought ghee but from now having made two batches at home, I can see how much the taste can vary (I went browner on the second batch and it has more of a caramel taste to it). You could experiment with just a stick (or less) of grass-fed butter at a time to find the butter that makes a kind of ghee that is to your taste. The recipe I follow is: put unsalted, grass-fed butter in an oven-proof pot. I use an enameled dutch oven. Put in a cold oven (not necessary, just sharing because of the timing) then set oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit for 75 minutes. If using just one stick, I'd say to check it sooner than 75 minutes. KPopova, if you can get unsweetened coconut, you can make your own coconut milk. Here's a link to how to do it: http://www.freecoconutrecipes.com/index.cfm/2009/12/11/homemade-coconut-milk That said, there are plenty of compliant recipes that don't call for coconut milk! I've been using it in my coffee, and last night I used it to tame some overly-spicy chili. But otherwise I haven't used it at all. Terez Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moderators Tom Denham Posted January 11, 2013 Moderators Share Posted January 11, 2013 I'm reading The Perfect Health Diet (2nd edition) by Paul and Shou-Ching Jaminet that reviews evidence of coconut oil being a very healthy choice. I am using ghee more often currently because I just bought a sampler of flavors from Pure Indian Foods, but I am impressed that coconut oil is really good for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adriane Posted January 12, 2013 Author Share Posted January 12, 2013 Thanks everyone for your advice! I'm still edgy on the coconut idea- deciding not to push it for now and just stick with the rest of the Whole30 stuff and introduce coconut oil later down the road. I decided to wait until today to start my Whole30 rather than last week because I was sick all week and rather miserable already... and my fabulous boyfriend wanted to do this with me (without my asking him to!) so I was giving him some time to catch up too. But I'm armed with a good amount of recipes lately thanks to you, Tom. And just make an amazing omelet more for brunch than anything else. I feel like I'm in heaven it was so amazing and I generally am horrible at cooking. This is the feeling I'm supposed to hold on to for when Day 3 or so hits, right? Haha. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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