I’ve seen desserts made from coconut juice but it has never crossed my mind that the juice can also be used in chinese soups until the husband bought two young coconuts back from the supermarket and I thought I would experiment with one since I was going to cook lotus root soup the next day anyway. Normally I would use carrots and dried cuttlefish to flavour the soup but I omitted them this time since I was going to use coconut water cos’ I wasn’t sure if the combination would work. Amazingly, the soup turned out sweeter and more flavoursome. It was as though the coconut juice was a natural stock. The taste was pretty refreshing. Give it a try!
Coconut Chicken Soup Recipe
Ingredients (serves 2-3)
1 young coconut, reserve juice, scrape out the flesh & set aside
1/2 chicken, remove skin & cut into pieces
1 lotus root, thinly sliced
water
salt to taste
Instructions
1. Place chicken pieces and lotus root in soup pot. Fill with enough water to cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and allow to simmer for about 15 minutes.
2. Add coconut flesh and continue to simmer for another 45 minutes.
3. Pour in the coconut juice and mix well. Bring the soup to a boil again and season with salt.