I just bought this vegan yogurt starter culture, and I'm super excited since I can rarely find plain vegan soy yogurt where I live, only flavored coconut yogurt. I used to make dairy based greek yogurt, but I'm sure theres some nuances to vegan yogurt i should keep in mind. Id love to hear any tips or tricks so I dont have to waste a bunch of milk and starter!
by foofruit13
5 Comments
I make soy yogurt every week. I do 8 hours in the instant pot to keep a constant temperature. After that I will put it in the fridge overnight and then strain with a cheese cloth the next day.
The type of soy milk you use matters. I mainly use the only soy, soy milk from Trader Joe’s. I usually just use 2 of those quarts and need less straining.
I’ll also use 3 of the quart boxes from Costco to make the same size batch but it takes a little more straining because there is additives.
Another tip is after you make the yogurt I reserve about a half a cup or so to use as a starter for the next batch so you don’t need the starter again. I make it every week so this is fine, but you can probably freeze it.
Also I use that same starter that you posted and have had to use two packs before when the starter didn’t work (having to reset after not having an already made yogurt starter).
Good luck on your vegan yogurt journey, I find it so much better than the store bought yogurt
I grind a cup of cooked white rice and a handful of cashews soaked overnight (the more, the creamier, you can adjust how much of each you want) and transfer it to a yogurt maker with 3-4 whole chillies (with their stalks intact, washed and slit about 3/4th of the length) and leave it to ferment for a couple of hours. I haven’t checked exactly how long it takes, but you’ll know it’s ready when there are bubbles. You can remove it from the yogurt maker and remove the chillies and store in the fridge.
The consistency will NOT be like that of store-bought yogurt, but it’s got probiotics, tastes very luxuriant, can be easily made, and has got better ingredients that store-bought ones.
This is going to sound crazy, but it works every time. Get those quart-sized boxes of soy milk that only contain soy beans and water. Open the top. Add in two spoons of an active vegan yogurt (or an opened probiotic capsule, or likely some of your starter). Shake it. Leave it on the counter for 2 to 3 days.
The Happy Pear has this recipe on their YouTube channel too if you don’t wanna take my word for it. This has been my favorite yogurt by far, and it works great as a base to then strain further for Greek style, Icelandic skyr, or labne.
You can make your own starter out of chili stems – the first batches will smell like chili (use them in cooking if you’d like) but after the first 2-3 batches you’ll have a perfectly normal starter that just smells like yoghurt.
I prefer yoghurts made out of cashews mainly, because of their fat content, but I always add a bit of soy milk because of its «coagulation properties» (it thickens the yoghurt). I use homemade cashew and soy milks from a Chefwave soy milk maker.
Good luck! Homemade yoghurt is the absolute best!
EDIT: This blog entry illustrates the difference between pure soy yoghurt and soy/cashew yoghurt:
[https://earthtoveg.com/soy-cashew-yogurt/](https://earthtoveg.com/soy-cashew-yogurt/)
EDIT 2: Here’s my post about my own experiences in vegan yoghurt making so far:
https://www.reddit.com/r/veganrecipes/s/eFBJpqCsNx
Can a skyr-like texture be achieved with soy? Or with other additions like cashews etc?