Sunday, June 28, 2009

Coconutty Fruit Salad

I've been enjoying coconut lately (as you can see from my coconut milk ice cream!), and I came up with this yummy application the other day. I hardly eat fruit at all in the winter since everything is out of season but apples and pears, so when summer comes around I like to have a little fun. I've used a specialty ingredient in this fruit salad, which is coconut butter. It's just like any other nut butter in that it's the whole nut ground up into a paste. The kind I get is Artisana raw coconut butter, which is ground at low temperatures and supposedly retains all the coconutness of the coconut (you know, enzymes, vitamins, fiber, etc). I don't even know if any other companies make coconut butter. Anyway, if you can't find this stuff, I would substitute some unsweetened shredded coconut and maybe a few tablespoons of coconut milk (or even better, if you get the kind of coconut milk that separates in the can into a thick cream and a runny liquid, use only the thick cream).



COCONUTTY FRUIT SALAD

ingredients:
2 heaping cups mixed fruit (pictured is a heaping 1/2 cup each of blueberries, strawberries, red grapes and pineapple)
2 T raw coconut butter
1/4 cup toasted almonds

Cut your fruit any way you want it. Roughly chop the almonds. Gently warm the coconut butter until it becomes runny, then immediately toss with the fruit and nuts. The coldness of the fruit will make the coconut butter harden back up and stick to it like a shell. Dig in and enjoy! I've had this as breakfast, snack, and dinner side dish in the past few weeks. :)

5 comments:

Lauren said...

Looks like such a simple, refreshing sweet dessert for summer! Is that Artisana coconut butter worth the price tag? I am sooo tempted to splurge after seeing your yummy fruit salad, Elizabeth! How else do you use it?

Alisa - Frugal Foodie said...

mmm, that sounds nice and rich!

Elizabeth said...

Lauren - The coconut butter is really good. It's so expensive though that I try to use it sparingly. I so eat it just off the spoon sometimes when I need a snack. I've also been thinking of trying to make a raw fudge using the coconut butter as part of the base, or using it in a halva type of thing. I bet you could come up with all sorts of delicious ways to use it, you being the master evil dessert genius. :)

Alisa - Thanks!

Sarah Schatz - menus for limited diets said...

This looks delicious and I love finding more recipes to use coconut butter in! thanks!

RS Gold said...

I so consume it just away the spoon occasionally when I phone for just about any snack
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