— Donna Hanley

So, you know, coconut milk has a very high fat content, and even the reduced fat content is still high in fat. So here's what I do if a recipe, and I can think specifically of the coconut braised chickpea recipe. Um, I make my own, uh, oat milk and, uh, I'll make a, a serving of that. And then I will add some coconut extract. And there are two kinds of coconut extract. One is alcohol based and the other one is glycerin based. And, uh, either either of them will work and they will give you that same exact, um, coconutty flavor that seems to make that recipe pop. I will also say that depending upon the viscosity of the, um, oat milk in this case that you have made, you can almost create a similar texture to, um, what you like to see in the coconut milk. I personally don't cook with coconut milk. And I was, uh, Donna you reminded me that a couple of years ago I was doing some recipe testing for someone who was writing a cookbook. And, uh, they had a recipe that was very similar to the braised coconut garbanzo beans. And, uh, I used, uh, coconut extract and the tastes were just really delicious and the same. So if for whatever the reason you don't use a lot of fat in your diet, um, using a homemade milk with those coconut extracts I think will work really, really well for you.