When the weather warms from spring into summer, I abandon my warm pumpkin and chai-spiced custards in favor of cool and hydrating treats, vanilla mint ice cream and orange creamsicles. The combination of mango and cultured coconut milk make for one of my favorite frozen treats this time of year – slightly tart, faintly sweet, with a punch of mango in dotted bites, so when I was invited to participate in a yellow- and white-themed virtual baby shower for Pure Ella, I jumped at the opportunity to share this sweet, summertime treat – one I know you’ll love if you make it.
Culturing Coconut Milk
My recipe for these homemade popsicles begins first by culturing coconut milk and coconut water with kefir starter culture (I order it from Body Ecology), as it’s better than culturing coconut milk with kefir grains, which I reserve for making true milk kefir. While culturing dairy milks will thicken them, culturing coconut milk – which lacks the protein found in dairy milks – results only in the same thin-textured liquid made slightly tart. But it’s that lovely tartness that provides these popsicles with such pleasant flavor.
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Cultured Coconut Mango Popsicles
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups full fat coconut milk available here
- 1 cup coconut water
- 1 packet Body Ecology Kefir Starter Culture get it here
- 2 tablespoons coconut nectar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 Ataulfo mangoes chopped into 1/2-inch chunks
Instructions
- Warm the coconut milk and coconut water in a large saucepan until it reaches about 90 F degrees. Remove the saucepan from the stove, and whisk in the starter culture. Pour the coconut milk into a jar, cover it tightly with a lid, and let it sit in a warm spot in your counter for 24 hours.
- After 24 hours, stir the coconut nectar and vanilla extract into the cultured coconut milk, and then fold in the chopped mango.
- Pour the coconut milk and mangoes into your popsicle molds, and freeze for at least 12 hours, or until hardened.
Notes
Nutrition
I love the idea of making these, but I was looking at the starter culture, and if each packet can be reused 7 times, that’s a LOT of popsicles and I’m not sure how to otherwise use the starter. We also are away from home for significant periods of time, so it would be nice to be able to buy just one or two packets (I don’t know anyone else I could share with, and there are only two of us who would be eating anything I made with the culture). I may try doing this with some yogurt to… Read more »
Hi Susan,
I make these only periodically, not regularly, and do not reuse the culture. Just because you can reuse the starter doesn’t necessarily mean you should feel obligated to do so.
I recently made these and ate them through my labor and birth and they were AMAZING! The only thing I could keep down and a terrific heartburn remedy. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
I am interested in making this but from reviewing this recipe and the links, I get that you are using the kefir grains (for the first time?) in the coconut milk. But the kefir listed at body ecology states that it’s a dairy kefir grain. So their kefir starter will grow and be happy in coconut milk?