What To Make With What’s On Sale: Coconut Water

This week’s What To Make With What’s On Sale feature is a potentially free item: coconut water! At King Soopers, Naked Coconut Water (11.2 oz) is $0.75 in the Buy 10, Save $5 Mega Event, and after coupon it’s free!

Coconut water is a nutritious, hydrating, and refreshing beverage to have on hand, especially during these hot summer days. The Naked brand has several flavors (like mango and pineapple) in addition to their plain coconut water. If you don’t prefer to drink coconut water by itself, here are some recipe ideas that use coconut water!

Coconut water has a lighter taste and texture than coconut milk and can be added to all sorts of drinks and smoothies. Try Bobby Flay’s Coconut Water Smoothie, or for something a bit more exotic, this Thai Agua Fresca (Coconut Lychee Lemongrass Cooler.) For an easy pina colada-type drink, simply blend equal parts coconut water and pineapple juice, then add a bit of lemon-lime soda!

Thai Agua Fresca: Image from Food Network

If you’re a fan of all things coconut, try this Truly Coconutty Cream Pie. It calls for coconut water, coconut milk, and shredded coconut. Yum!

Here are a few more ideas for using coconut water:

When cooking rice, replace some of the water with coconut water. This is especially good when making Asian-style dishes.

Light, fruity baked goods (such as pineapple cake) can be enhanced with coconut water. Just replace the water or milk in the recipe with an equal amount of coconut water.

Put a new twist on instant or stove-top puddings by using coconut water instead of milk! This works well in chocolate, banana, or vanilla puddings.

Do you prefer to drink coconut water by itself, or rather to use it in smoothies or other recipes?

Be sure to check out the What To Make With What’s On Sale archives for more meal-planning ideas!