Radiant Coconut Milk Kefir With Pomegranate

Being a holistic nutritionist, I'm a huge advocate of fermented foods as they are an excellent dietary source of probiotics! Probiotics are beneficial to your gut flora, immune system, mental health, vaginal flora, and more!

Traditional kefir is cultured dairy with kefir "grains" and is lightly effervescent. Unlike yogurt, kefir bacterial cultures actually colonize in our intestines! For my science-oriented followers, these strains of bacteria include: lactobacillus caucasus, acetobacter species, and streptococcus. Unlike yogurt again, kefir contains beneficial yeasts that help kill and remove pathogens from our bodies! Specifically Saccharomyces kefir and Torula kefir.

Now, here is the holistic nutritionist dilemma - I'm not an advocate for dairy. Most clients I see benefit from removing dairy from their diet. I myself have been dairy-free for over 9 years!

Up until this year, I've never seen an alternative to dairy kefir, besides water kefir drinks (which I used to make myself for over a year). That is a bit different though...

Coconut milk kefir

This is coconut milk kefir! The water kefir grains are fermented with coconut milk and the natural sugars found in coconut are enough to start the fermentation process.

As soon as I saw this at a local health food store in Ontario, I grabbed it right away! This was made by Healing Spirit Nutrition in Ajax, Ontario! Having coconut milk kefir in my life is such a blessing. Yes, probiotic supplements are great, but I am first and foremost an advocate for fermented foods.

After introducing a teaspoon of this a day into your diet for about a week, you can start enjoying it in larger quantities. And I have just the recipe for you!

Coconut Milk Kefir Recipe

Ingredients:

1.5 tbsp. chia seeds soaked in 2 tbsp. of water  

4 - 5 tbsp. coconut milk kefir  

Seeds of half a pomegranate  

1 tbsp. goji berries (optional: you may soak them in water to rehydrate them)  

3 tbsp. hemp hearts

1 tbsp. cacao nibs

Instructions:

First, start with soaking the chia seeds in water in your serving bowl. Stir and set aside. If you'd like to soak the goji berries to soften them, do that in a separate glass now and set aside.

There's many ways to open a pomegranate, and I'll let you decide your way, but get those antioxidant rich seeds out of that skin in whatever way possible.

Pour the coconut milk kefir on top of the soaked chia seeds, then the pomegranate seeds, hemp seeds, goji berries, and mix well. Garnish on top with cacao nibs (also extremely high in antioxidants), et viola! Ready to eat!

This fermented probiotic-rich kefir is crucial to your gut flora, your immune system, and digestion. Not to mention this superfood combo of cacao nibs, pomegranate, and goji berries for a BOOST of antioxidants. Protein and fibre from the hemp and chia seeds and that's covering all your bases.

Now that's my kind of breakfast! Enjoy this for breakfast and all that red is perfect for Christmas & holiday time.

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