Wow. What a time to be alive where I can make homemade yogurt in my home with no special tools and ingredients, despite what I’ve always heard. Making yogurt from scratch has been a dream of mine. Not, a day dream. I wasn’t writing poems or doodling “Mrs. Yogurt” in my notebooks. It’s just something I’ve always wanted to try. When I took a taste of it though? I might as well have been. Let’s just say this – there’s nothing like that first spoonful of your fresh, creamy, homemade vegan yogurt. Previously, every time I looked it up, I read that I would need this tool, and that tool, and don’t forget a yogurt maker! A yogurt maker? Who wants to buy a whole yogurt maker? I already have like eight other kitchen gadgets I haven’t used in a year. Then, when I turned vegan, the only way to get vegan yogurt at first was through a starter kit and I wasn’t into it. Years later and life simplified, here we are. Making the most mind blowing and creamy vegan yogurt with water, cashews, probiotics, apple cider vinegar and a blender.
So much to say yet so little time before I bore you. Long story short – make this homemade vegan yogurt. It doesn’t just taste like yogurt – it IS yogurt. It’s a near foolproof, cultured, fermented, good gut bacteria loaded yogurt that’ll satisfy both your tastebuds and your stomach. In fact, I had a mild case of food poisoning from a bad batch of beans that nothing would fix. A few tablespoons of this? I felt so much better.
How to Make Homemade Vegan Yogurt
The process is so straight forward, you might think you’re doing something wrong at first. You’re not. Unless, of course you are, which if you follow my directions, you aren’t :). Blend all the ingredients together, then pour it into a glass bowl or tall jar. Emphasis on glass, I’ll get more into that under “tips”. Now add in your probiotics (open the capsules), then using a wooden spoon or a silicone spatula, stir it in for a good 2 minutes (go pull up a Youtube video, that’ll help).
Cover the bowl or jar with a cheesecloth, or in my case since I ran out, paper towel, and a rubber band. Now, it’s fermenting time! Let it ferment in a nice warm place. I live in the tropics, so it’s always warm! So my countertop did just fine. If you don’t, leave it in your oven with the stove OFF and the oven light on. Allow the bacteria to culture and everything to ferment for 24-48 hours. I found my sweet spot was around 40 hours, so I just let it sit for the full 48 hours. Feel free by the way to check on it during this process. Everything should look fine, and after about 24 hours, you should start to slightly smell a light yogurt-y sour (not spoiled) smell. Then it’s like a full blown smell by the time 48 hours comes around. Stir, taste, and use like you want
Tips (including making greek yogurt)
Okay, so there are a few ways you can do this wrong. I’ll try and point them all out here, and will also include them in the instructions down below, too.
Make sure you really blend all your ingredients together. You don’t want any chunks of cashew, in fact, you don’t even want it to look like there was cashew here before, friends. It certainly doesn’t taste like it, so if you blend right, you’ll be on your way to just general amazing vegan yogurt. I blended mine for a good 3 minutes in a high powered blender, so just ensure yours is so blended it already resembles a creamy, no grains, no strains, product. Make sure you’re using fresh ingredients and that you soak your cashews. Don’t use anything that’s going bad because it’ll come out in the fermenting process. Use a great probiotic. I use JustThrive and have been for over two years now and let me tell you – #goals. I can’t do without this probiotic. While this isn’t sponsored, my good friends over at JustThrive let me know that you can get 15% off if you use the code JESSICA15 which um, YES that’s an incredible deal so definitely go use it! I’m pretty sure mine turned out so great because I was using a top notch probiotic that truly works. Do not, I repeat, do not, use metal. Metal can react negatively to the good bacteria and can just kill your entire process. I’ll admit I’ve never tried it with metal and safe to say, just avoid it. That’s why I prefer to add the probiotic powder into the mixture after it leaves the blender, and to use wood and silicone to stir it in a glass bowl. I would also suggest not using a wooden bowl since it’ll seep in and make the bowl smell like yogurt for, well, ever. Don’t disrupt your yogurt in the making too often. I would try not to touch it for at least the first 24 hours, and thereafter maybe check on it only like once or twice. The consistency of this yogurt is nice and thick, but not greek yogurt thick. I did make some greek yogurt from it (my goodness that was delicious) and it’s very easy to make. Just place some or all of the yogurt in a cheesecloth, tie it, and let it hang over a bowl for 2 hours in the fridge. That will get rid of all the excess liquid, making it thicker. Don’t go overnight though, or you’ll end up making cheese like I did. Which, is a whole other post because after I stirred in some nutritional yeast, sun dried tomatoes and some herbs, I was in vegan cream cheese heaven.
Ways to Use Homemade Yogurt
There are so many ways to use this Homemade Vegan Yogurt. Here are a few of my favourite ways:
In a bowl, with maple syrup stirred in, some vanilla extract, and fruits and granola. So good! As an oil substitute in our favourite vegan mug brownie :). I tested this one several times, just for you. In your favourite Indian sauce recipes, such as swirled into my Chickpea Tikka Masala, my Indian butter tofu and my Indian Butter Cauliflower. For a vegan Tzatziki To make labneh Into any assortment of sauces and dips To your favourite veggie burgers Use anywhere instead of sour cream
Okay, my ode to yogurt is over! Enjoy the recipe friends!
