How to Make Vegan Yoghurt at Home
Homemade Dairy-Free Yoghurts from Soy, Oats, Nuts, Hemp and More
Sep 15, 2009
You can use any storebought plant-based milk or homemade ones, such as oat, rice, quinoa, hemp, almond, cashew, hazelnut, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds or any combination thereof. Coconut milk also makes wonderful yoghurt, but being very high in fat (nearly 20%!) you will probably want to combine it with something else.
With nuts and seeds you can make the milk simply by blending them with water until smooth. With the exception of cashew nuts, you should also strain it for the smoothest consistency.
You can make a homemade grain milk for yoghurt by cooking the grain (use rolled oats for oat milk) and blending it with water. This will create a thick milk which is not ideal for drinking as is, but works great for cooking and makes a fine yoghurt base. Homemade oat milk and rice milk are extremely inexpensive.
A good and healthy combination for making soy-free, dairy-free yoghurt is oats, hempseed, almonds, cashew nuts and a little sesame seeds.
Making the Yoghurt
You need a temperature of at least 68F/20C, 77F/25C is better if possible. Even a few degrees can add several hours to the yoghurt making process. Try to find a warm spot in your apartment. In front of radiators and behind computers often make good places.
You also need a culture or starter, which preferably comes from a live vegan yoghurt (look for ones that say "probiotic" or "acidophilus bifidus" or "live bacteria"), though you can also purchase the cultures online as powder. Flavored yoghurt is fine as a starter.
Pour the milk into a clean container. If using yoghurt as the starter, stir about one teaspoonful of it into the milk. You can also add the contents of a probiotic capsule or a sachet to make the yoghurt even healthier. Wait for about 8-20 hours.
The yoghurt is ready when it has thickened and tart to your liking. If it smells bad, is bubbly or looks very icky (slight separation into solids and "whey" is normal, but lumps floating in liquid aren't), throw it away. This is unlikely to happen unless your house is very cold or the culture has gone bad.
Results
Depending on your culture and the used milks the yoghurt may be thin and runny or rather thick. This author has noticed that even with the same culture one commercial brand of soy milk makes a thin and sour yoghurt, while another one makes a barely sour but very thick yoghurt.
If the yoghurt is too thin for your tastes, there are various ways to thicken it, such as agar agar, starch and their combination. However, if you want to make thicker yoghurt, the best way is to use some homemade oat or rice milk in addition to other milks.
The less sour yoghurts only keep for 1-2 days in the fridge because of lack of acidity, but the noticeably tart yoghurts keep for up to a week. You can use this yoghurt as the starter for your next batch.
Craving vegan frozen yoghurt? Homemade yoghurt can also be frozen. It should also retain any probiotic activity.
Flavourings
Some yoghurts are barely sour at all, but others can be quite tart. You can use sugar, stevia or other sweeteners. Add fruit and berries, either blended or not, and perhaps some vanilla. Note that some yoghurts get very runny if you blend them, but they return to their original consistency after a little while.
Storebought yoghurts are usually flavoured with fruit and berries, but you can of course go for any flavor. What about ginger, cinnamon, mint, coffee or green tea yoghurt? You decide!
See Also
Protein Sources for Vegetarians
How to Make Christmas Chocolates (vegan)
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