Young coconut meat with chili and lime
This simple, nutritious dish is commonly found in markets and roadside stands in Mexico and is often called Cocos Preparados. It would be easy to make at home as well, as long as you have access to young coconuts and a way to cut them open. It's filling and tasty, combining the four flavors, sweet (coconut), sour, piquant and salty.
Young coconut meat is low in calories, an 11-ounce serving contains only 65 calories. That same serving size contains 50% of the daily recommended dose of manganese, which assists in blood clotting and connective tissues. One serving also contains 15% of the daily recommended allowance of potassium, which helps to keep your muscles and digestive system healthy. A serving will also supply you with 6% of your daily recommended dose of magnesium, which is vital to healthy functioning of kidneys, muscles and energy production. It's also important in maintaining mineral and vitamin levels.
Be sure to drink the coconut water from the young coconut too. It's a mega-hydrating superfood.
Ingredients:
1 young coconut
1 lime
Chili powder
Sea Salt (Pink Himalayan, Celtic Sea Salt, etc)
Instructions:
Cocos Preparados: Coconut, chili and lime
Cut open the young coconut and pour off the water. Coconut water is outstanding for hydration, so be sure to drink it.
Scrape the meat out of the coconut with a spoon and put into a bowl or back into the coconut shell if you want to serve it in the shell. It helps to cut the coconut meat into bite-sized pieces.
Cut the lime in half and squeeze the juice from both halves over the coconut meat. Add chili powder to taste. Add good quality sea salt, such as Pink Himalayan or Celtic Sea Salt, to taste. Here I've used one of my favorite salts which contains sea salt, chipotle pepper (a flavorful smoked hot chili pepper used especially in Mexican cooking) and roasted cacao bean.
Gently toss coconut, lime and seasonings to mix and serve. It's great all by itself, or can be added to a green salad to add a nice flavor and make it more filling.
Serves 1-2.
References:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/539875-nutritional-value-of-young-coconut-meat
THIS sounds awesome and I have coconuts in my yard………WHOOHOOOOOO……
Kari, you are blessed!!! I’m at least blessed enough to have many roadside coconut stands down the road from me. There’s the added blessing that I’m not the one who has to wield the machete to get into them too! If I had a tree however I’d be out watching and learning from the experts so I could harvest my own and safely use a machete. I’m glad that the young Thai coconuts found in stores already have the outer husk peeled down so that they are fairly easy to open. I was just reading last night that coconut trees produce 100 or more coconuts a year each! Do yours produce that many?
This sounds great, but the pictures are confusing. Where is all the pink coloring coming from? I understood that any pink in a young coconut is bacteria and renders the coconut toxic. Would love to hear otherwise? Any advice? Thanks
Thanks Patty, that’s a good question because you’re right about the pink bacteria that can grow on young coconut. The pink coloring here is from the chili, the red from the chili mixes with the white from the coconut meat and oil and stains it pink. Thanks for your important question and asking for clarification!