It feels like summer is here and it’s only spring! With the seasons so whacky, the green coconuts available at our local fresh fruit and vegetable supplier are just the thing for days languishing in the heat…
Of course… never having actually cracked open a coconut before, and not possessing a cleaver – it was quite an effort. I certainly wouldn’t recommend our method – it involved hacking at the fibrous outer core with repeated strokes that could have been part of a bad slasher flick! There is a much better explanation on this Youtube video – this guy takes you through step by step – and he does it so deftly – I now realise that perhaps hacking at the middle part of the coconut was not the breeziest way to go – however – with the help of Dan’s strong arms I did successfully extract the delicious juice, which I poured straight into freezer bags for this granita.
Coconut juice is isotonic, which means it has almost exactly the same amount of salts and sugars as you have in your bloodstream. In fact, people have hooked up IV access lines instead of a saline drip because it can effectively save lives in places where intravenous fluids are not available. Oral rehydration fluids such as gastrolyte are also isotonic – so drinking coconut juice is an excellent way to rehydrate if you are thirsty. Here’s an interesting article about rehydrating with coconut water after exercise. If only the juice was easier to get at…apparantly it changes when it comes into contact with oxygen, and certainly it is no longer sterile, so it’s best drunk straight away, or frozen in an airtight container. Don’t waste the flesh, scrape it out and blend it with soaked cashew nuts for an absolutely delicious alternative to cream, or just eat it as is!
I couldn’t find a GI value for coconut water, but coconut milk has a GI value of 40. Coconut milk is made by compressing the flesh – so is much different to the water. A cup of coconut water contains just 9g of carbohydrates, 3g of which is fibre, and 6g sugars. In contrast, apple juice contains 28g of carbohydrate for the same size serve (240g), 24g of which is sugar – and apple juice has a GI of 41, so presumably coconut water would be lower in GI if it has less sugar. At any rate, the GL would most definitely low (overall carb impact). Full nutritional data for coconut water is available here.
So… Granita…here we come! The taste is superb – salty, sweet, coconut flavoured, and it leaves your breath with a lovely sweet coconut aroma for at least an hour afterwards – I found myself glancing outside to make sure I hadn’t translocated to Penang!
Serves: 2
Preparation time: 1/2-1 hour to freeze the coconut water – plus however long it takes you to crack it open!
Ingredients:
- Water of one coconut
- One Mango
Method
- Crack the coconut
- Freeze the water
- Take from freezer and blend the ice till it looks like a slushy
- chop up the mango and top over the granita
I love your recipes Libby. I am also a Sydney woman, very interested in researching and of course eating low GI foods…great to get more healthy recipes.
Out of curiosity do you eat small, regular meals a day or 3 main meals?
Keep up the good work!
Lots of debate about how many meals a day out there – we eat three meals per day – out of convenience and to keep things regular – along with two small snacks. Glad you are enjoying the recipes, welcome to the site!