A question which struck me today was, what is a coconut? Is it a fruit, nut or a seed? Botanists seem to say it can be all three, regardless the coconut itself is paleo, that much is clear, therefore coconut milk must be as well right…right?

Well I was looking in the cupboard and found a can of coconut milk, thinking “great I could make a nice Thai curry for supper” but then I stopped and read the back and was shocked at what I saw, so much so I jumped in my car and dashed to the local supermarket to look at all the other “coconut milks” they had.

I usually always read the back of packets before I buy them however for some reason I never had done for coconut milk, no idea why, maybe I was thinking “Well what else could be in it?” and boy was I surprised. Firstly there were ten different cans/ways of making coconut milk that I found (and yes I wrote them all down and their contents, I was so shocked after the first one I couldn’t stop, ok that’s the last time I’m going to say shocked). The products they had were as follows (cost may vary depending on supermarket and location):

• Kingfisher Oriental – £2.09 for 400mL
• Blue Dragon Coconut Milk – £1.99 for 400mL
• Blue Dragon Light Coconut Milk – £1.99 for 400mL
• Blue Dragon Creamed Coconut – £1.35 for 200g
• Pride Coconut Milk – 89p for 400mL
• KTC Coconut Milk – 89p for 400mL
• KTC Creamed Coconut – 76p for 200g
• Tropical Sun Premium Coconut Milk – 49p for 150mL
• Dunn’s River Coconut Milk – 99p for 400mL
• Maggi’s Coconut Milk Powder – £3.59 for 500g (aprox.)

Quite a list huh. A lot of them contained Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum, Sulphur Dioxide, Sodium Carboxymethyl Cellulose, Corn Starch, the list goes on. I didn’t realise they had to make coconut milk thicker to sell it to the public, guess we were the thick ones or maybe it’s just me. Seriously all I wanted was some coconut milk to make a curry, nothing more.

So, can I get pure paleo coconut milk from my supermarket? Thankfully you can!

BLUE DRAGON CREAMED COCONUT
Contents (100% Coconut)

Don’t believe me?

Told you!

It was a ray of hope after looking through lists of ingredients which sounded similar to a medical biochemistry lecture not a list of ingredients. All you need to do is add boiling water and it becomes coconut milk (just like the Maggi Powder…except pure). I’m sure there are many other products out there which are 100% coconut but I was limited to one supermarket and 30 minutes of shock and amazement. I know what’s changing on my list next time I shop.