Help -- Coconut Alternatives Please! page

[Marianne]

Hi all -- I'm suffering from a terrible problem for a primal cook: I can't stand anything coconut. Just the smell alone makes me almost gag. Close to the same for bananas btw. Was I frightened by a tiki god statue as an infant??!?

Who knows, but I would really like any ideas folks might have about substitutes for coconut milk, coconut oil, etc. I've valiantly gone out and bought all such stuff, but the containers sit unopened on my shelves because I can't even face opening them....

[j3nn]

Almond, cashew, or macadamia nut milk or hemp seed milk.

Palm oil, especially organic palm shortening by Spectrum is fantastic and tasteless and fantastic for cooking. Extra virgin avocado oil is great too.

[Sigi]

You should be able to find some refined coconut oil (as opposed to virgin) which has no coconutty taste or smell, yet still has a lot of the benefits of virgin coconut oil (MCTs, etc). That's what I occasionally use, as I am NOT a coconut fan, and the smell of virgin coconut oil makes me gag too. But the refined stuff is quite innocuous. Just be careful to select a brand which is organic and uses a natural, mechanical cleaning process (say by using steam and/or diatomaceous earth) rather than chemical refining.

[GoLisaGo]

Yep, the refined stuff has no taste. There is also butter and lard.

[iniQuity]

Third/fourth refined. Spectrum is what I use for the majority of cooking where I don't want coconut taste.

note: try extra virgin on tea. I like it in all kinds, but try them with milder tasting teas like green/white/chamomile you might find the taste blends in better. You can also just let the tea sit a little - but not get cold so the oil doesn't get clumpy - and take it like a shot if you REALLY hate the flavor. I find I don't really taste it in tea though. I can smell it faintly, but even when I add a whole lot of it, I don't really taste it.

[ErinF]

I also hate the flavor and smell of coconut products, so I've recently switched to using Spectrum expeller pressed coconut oil. There's no taste and no smell at all. I've never used any other coconut products, but I regularly use almond flour and tapioca flour when I'm cooking something that requires flour. I have a brazillian cheese bread made from tapioca flour that makes the most awesome pizza crust I've ever tasted. And the best part, no grainy-ness that you normally get from gluten free flours.

Also, I second using coconut oil in tea. I hate the taste of it and smelling it makes my stomach turn, but I can add a tablespoon of it to my green tea or peppermint tea and it's fantastic. I didn't want my nutiva coconut oil to go to waste so I added some to my tea, 1 tsp at a time, and now I'm at 1 TBS and it doesn't bother me. I still cant use the Nutiva for cooking though. Yuck.

[mosin46]

i am glad there are others who hate coconut smell and flavor. any other alternatives? love to hear them.

[Marianne]

Thanks all, for the suggestions! Nice to know there are good coconut alternatives out there so I can try some Thai and curry recipes, and also use for sauteing when my beloved bacon fat just won't work.

And great to know there are other members of the Coconut Makes Me Gag Club! All this time and I thought I was the only one :-)

[mosin46]

are we talking about the spectrum product shown here? says unrefined and doesn't mention cooking,just cosmetic use.
Spectrum Essentials - iHerb.com

[neutral]

The smell of coconut gives me a headache. I'm so glad someone asked this! I'm going to keep an eye out for these alternatives.