If you’ve been reading my recipes/ what I eat in a day style content for a while now, you’ll know that I don’t eat coconut. And by don’t, I mean can’t. Or I should probably say couldn’t. My exciting content update is that I recently discovered I can eat coconut, and while that makes very little difference to those reading the recipes, it introduces a whole host of different options for me as the recipe creator (and consumer).
What happened?
I’ve been avoiding coconut like the plague for the entire time I’ve been following a vegan diet (June 2015) as coconut has always given me cystic acne. The kind that takes months to heal, not a silly little spot for a week or so. And this happens when I eat coconut and topical application (coconut oil in skincare and makeup is a firm no). I don’t like coconut, but things like coconut cream/ oil/ milk are used a lot in vegan food as a thickener in desserts, to set cheese etc. So, avoiding coconut has been a lot harder than simply avoiding coconut flavoured things.
But being vegan and gluten intolerant is hard enough without having another extremely common ingredient ruled out too.
About two months ago, I decided it was time to try again. It’s probably been four or five years since I last tried any coconut other than the very occasional dessert that I’ve shared/ eaten a few bites of in a restaurant. With it being something that only impacted my skin rather than an allergy/ intolerance, I thought it was possible that things had changed. And they did!
What I’ve been trying?
The first thing I tried was a vegan cheese. A simple pesto, sundried tomato and vegan applewood toastie for breakfast one morning. And after preparing myself for extreme disappointment when I looked in the mirror the following day, my skin was as clear as usual. So, I had the same breakfast the next day, and my skin was still perfectly fine.
It appeared that coconut oil was now in the clear, excellent progress, but I didn’t want to assume that meant coconut as an ingredient was now in the clear. It was time to try some coconut milk and cream dishes. Over the next few weeks, I sampled some coconut yoghurt, a vegan cheesecake made with coconut cream, and finally trying a couple of chocolate bars that had coconut milk/ oil in that I’d wanted to try forever.
Will there be content changes?
There’ll likely be a few, but they’ll be subtle. I know I can’t be the only person in the world who can’t/ doesn’t eat dairy and has issues with coconut. And I know that I have a few recipes with something along the lines of ‘Vegan X Recipe (no coconut)’ in the title that are popular because of the ‘no coconut’ part, so I’m going to try and keep content that way for the most part. But if I’m ever trying to make something that feels impossible without using coconut, I can finally make it with the coconut rather than skipping the recipe idea completely.
For some things, I may start including a coconut and coconut free version. The coconut free versions inevitably end up being more complicated and often take longer, so a lot of people who have the option of eating coconut products probably skip those recipes and including both versions feels more inclusive.
What do I like?
After seven years on a vegan diet, it felt bizarre to go through the supermarket not knowing where to start/ which brands were good and trying to figure out what I liked from scratch again.
So, here are a few things I’ve learnt about myself in the last few weeks:
- The internet loves Violife cheddar… and I hate it. Seriously, why is this so popular? It’s gross. I do like vegan applewood though.
- Sometimes you can still really taste the coconut even if you’re not supposed to. GU chocolate and vanilla cheesecakes are very much chocolate coconut cheesecakes. Not a fan.
- Flavoured coconut yoghurt is surprisingly nice.
- It’s the little things I’ve been enjoying the most. I thought that I’d be overwhelmingly happy to have the option to eat cheese again and be able to order desserts without worrying about what the creamy stuff is made from, but it’s the simpler everyday items that I’ve been really looking forward to. The Trek Power Peanut Crunch bars are a billion times better than a regular Trek Bar. And the Buttermilk Caramel Nougat bar??? Possibly the best plant based chocolate bar on the market.
After so many years it’s nice to wander down the free from aisles with what feels like brand new eyes and go through the food discovery process all over again. Now if only Ben & Jerry’s could perhaps start making the cookies in the vegan ice cream gluten free, then we really would be on to something…
Is there anything amazing I’ve been missing out on that I really need to try?
Until next time,
Sophie
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