I fell in love with yogurt years ago. Especially strawberry or blueberry yogurt. When I stopped eating dairy, I went cold turkey on yogurt as well. I would watch my wife eat her Tillamook strawberry yogurt and I would miss it. About a year or so ago I was introduced to SILK yogurt. I liked it. I liked it A LOT! However, it is not cheap at all. It is roughly $2.06 per cup. That got me thinking about making my own, and off to the interwebs I went! There are lots of videos out there on how to make your own soy yogurt at home. I tried a few, and there were a couple I liked better than others that's for sure. Then I came across a video (and for the life of me I don't recall whose it was, sorry) and it showed what I felt was the easiest way to make soy yogurt at home... all you needed was a yogurt starter, soy milk and an Instant Pot. It is literally that super easy!
Homemade Soy Yogurt
Yield: 7 cups (see notes below)
What you will need:
3 32oz cartons of soy milk (non flavored)
1.5 cups of soy yogurt (to be your starter)
How to Make The Homemade Soy Yogurt:
In a clean Instant Pot, pour all 3 cartons of soy milk in. Add to that the 1.5 cups of soy yogurt and stir well. Place the lid on, with it turned to "Venting" and hit the "Yogurt" button.
The amount of time you set it for will determine how tart your yogurt is or so I am told. Mine was set at 13 hours the first time I made it, I liked the tartness of it, so I always use 13 hours. I like to get mine started at night before I go to bed and let it work its magic over night.
In the morning, after the cycle is complete, you can pour out the yogurt into a container and put it in the fridge to chill. As it chills it will thicken up some and be good and yummy!
Tip: The brand of soy milk you use can make a difference. I have found that WestSoy soy milk makes the best as it is pure soy milk, just water and soy beans. The end result is about $1.37/cup. Costco's Soy is actually a 'soy beverage' and has other ingredients in it, so while not as pure as the WestSoy, it tastes great and it comes in at about $0.48/cup! Compare that with store bought yogurt like Silk at about $2.06/cup or cashew milk yogurt at about $3.00/cup! The Tillamook yogurt my wife likes is about $1.89/cup. These prices are based on my yield of 7 cups (see Tip below for how that is calculated).
Tip: I, personally, prefer a more Greek-style yogurt that is thicker than standard yogurt. To get this you need to drain off the liquid (whey) so it thickens up. You can do this a few ways, including with a cheesecloth, but I found that to be a big PITA so I bought one of these and love it: Greek yogurt maker. When a batch is done in the Instant Pot, I take out 3 cups and put it in a container in the fridge. I will eat part of that later, but the last 1.5 cups is the starter for the next batch (just make sure you use it within about 2 weeks), which I will keep in the fridge until needed. Then I pour the rest into the strainer and put it in the fridge over night. It usually takes 1 full day (sometimes a bit longer) to get the thickness I like. After that I put the yogurt into a 32 oz container, and it's so simple cleaning the strainer so it's ready to go next time.
Tip: The yield for a batch like this is 7 cups. However, that is split as 3 cups of regular yogurt and 4 cups of the Greek-style. You will also end up with about 5 cups or so of whey that you can either toss, or use for something else if you want to (like fermenting vegetables). If you didn't make the Greek-style yogurt, and left it all as regular yogurt, you would yield about 12 cups, which would mean it would cost roughly $0.28/cup!
Serving Suggestions: I am a fruit and yogurt kind of guy. I specifically like strawberries, blueberries and pineapple. Often I will sprinkle on 1-2 tbsp of monkfruit sweetener as well. #YUMMY!
Comments