care for your gut--and the earth--with homemade non-dairy yogurt

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While I was in the throes of traveling back and forth to help care for my mom in another state, I went through a lot of grab-and-go food. Which meant a sad belly—and a lot of extra trash.

So I made a promise to myself when we moved to Vermont full-time that I would do everything I could to choose more whole foods and reduce my physical footprint on this land. I vowed that, when I was on the road, I would up the ante of my refillable travel mug and reusable shopping bags. And then a pandemic hit, and the only way to enjoy healthy food made by someone else was when it was inside a tossable container.

Yeah, so I (like everyone else) had to shelve some of my plans for a year. But in the meantime I perfected a few easy DIY recipes that help keep some plastic out of our local landfill, proving to myself that I can enjoy good-for-you food without the extra garbage.

The probiotics in yogurt can enhance good bugs in the digestive tract, which can help stave off tummy trouble and rev the immune system. So it’s a smart choice for breakfast or a snack.

I always thought making your own yogurt took some kind of alchemy. But finding this recipe—from a microbiologist and fermentation expert, no less—was a game changer … and no temperature-taking needed! I made a few slight tweaks to make it more workable for me. So after months of finessing, here’s the recipe I’m using now:

yogurt.jpeg

easy organic coconut-almond yogurt

  1. Make 3 2/3 cups almond milk from JOI organic nut milk base in your blender
    I loved the ease of Kaitlynn’s original recipe (which called for a full quart of nondairy milk), but by the time I was ready to get the blended yogurt into the incubator my Vitamix was overflowing and I had to scramble to find extra bowls. So now I make a slightly smaller batch of her recipe. I love JOI nutbase for all kinds of recipes—you can tailor the creaminess, it comes it lots of different varieties, and it reduces your waste significantly (especially when you buy it by the pail, like I do). I usually use a heaping tablespoon for each cup of water in my blender, but there’s no need to be militant about your measurements here. If you are using a pre-made nondairy milk, you don’t need to blend it (obviously)

  2. Pour into saucepan over medium heat, and stir regularly until it’s just simmering—don’t let it burn

  3. While that’s heating, whisk together
    * a scant 2 Tablespoons of maple syrup
    * the juice from 1/2 lemon
    * a scant 1/4 c boiling water
    * 1 1/2 teaspoons powdered agar agar
    Here’s another place you can adjust things to your liking. The syrup and lemon juice are mostly for flavor, so you can adjust those if you choose. I initially followed Kaitlynn’s original recipe using agar flakes, and the texture of the final product was perfect. But when I switched to powdered agar, I ended up with super-firm yogurt gelatin—so into smoothies it went, where the weird texture was whirled away. I recommend starting with a smaller amount of agar at first—and you can try consulting the label on your package as she recommends, although I’ve found that those recipes refer to gelatin so that wasn’t really helpful. When I use powdered agar this mixture doesn’t appear to thicken much at all—that magic happens later, when everything’s blended and warming. But when I used too much powdered agar, this mixture stiffened up immediately … and gave me a much-too-firm finished yogurt. Check out Kaitlynn’s original post for the science behind nondairy yogurt.

    4. Put the warm milk back into the blender with the agar milxture and blend on low for 60 seconds.
    I put a towel over the top of my blender while I do this to avoid errant splashing from the vent holes

    5. Carefully open the vent in the blender top (or slightly open the lid) to allow the mixture to cool for about 10 minutes.

    6. Add the following to the mixture in the blender and whiz until incorporated
    * Two 5.4 oz cans of Native Forest organic coconut cream
    * a scant 2 Tablespoons of non-dairy yogurt OR 1 packet of vegan yogurt starter culture
    Kaitlynn recommends the culture or store-bought yogurt for consistency’s sake, but I have had luck using a previous batch of yogurt as my innoculant a couple of times.

    7. Pour into yogurt-maker jars and incubate (without the individual lids) for 12 hours.
    My incubator has seven jars, so I pour the leftover mixture into a small heat-proof bowl and set it in my Excalibur dehydrator on the lowest setting. I don’t mind having a little extra yogurt—I prefer that over having leftover ingredients. I’ve made great yogurt in the winter just by setting the bowl near our woodstove, and I imagine you’d have a similar result in a super-low oven (please do your research as that’s not a method I use).

    8. Stir each each jar, top with lids, and store them in the fridge.
    The yogurt will firm up more as it cools—I allow for at least a couple of hours.

I like my yogurt blended with berries (wild black raspberries in season, or frozen raspberries at other times), topped with a sprinkle of cinnamon and cacao nibs, along with toasted coconut shreds and sliced tiger nuts—a prebiotic that promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria in the digestive tract. And if your meal has to have wheels, the portion-controlled jars make that doable. So much to love about this breakfast!

Let me know if you give this recipe a try. And a big thank you to Kaitlynn for all her research into this delicious topic!

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