You know that I'm a huge fan of greek yogurt and skyr. I put it in my smoothies, I make parfaits and I top it on my protein pancakes. But if you're dairy-free, then we have a simple and delicious alternative for you.
AEN Team member Katy has been whipping up coconut yogurt for her own meals for a while, so I convinced her to share the recipe with the community in today's blog post.
Scroll down for the details!
Key Ingredients:
Canned Coconut Milk and Coconut Cream
Canned coconut milk is made from the shredded meat of a coconut. It's high in fat to help keep you satiated and prevent hunger. Just make sure you opt for the canned coconut milk. Coconut milk in a carton will not work for this recipe.
As another side note: This yogurt is much higher in fat and much lower in protein than traditional greek yogurt. All plant-based yogurts will not contain naturally occurring protein. So if you're using this as the base to a meal, it's important that you add in a serving of protein powder. Our unflavored or vanilla protein powder stirs easily into yogurt and tastes amazing!
Yogurt Starter
The "starter" adds good bacteria that has been specifically cultivated to thrive in coconut yogurt. This helps to ferment the yogurt and provide that tangy goodness typical yogurt offers. Plus, it makes it a good source for natural probiotics.
You can either use a packaged yogurt starter or certain premade coconut yogurts. The packaged starter is a great option if you don't have any quality coconut yogurts close to you because the packaged starters are shipped directly to your house.
Beef gelatin
Gelatin is nutritionally similar to collagen. It's used in this recipe to help make the yogurt thicker and not runny.
Scroll down for the recipe!
Homemade Coconut Milk Yogurt
Makes seven 5 ounce jars
Ingredients:
25 ounces of full fat canned coconut milk (or 20 ounces if using a 5 ounce jar of pre-made yogurt as your starting culture)
10 ounces canned coconut cream
1 packet of yogurt starter culture (like THIS brand) or 5 ounces of pre-made unsweetened coconut yogurt (like THIS brand)
2 tsp. grass-fed beef gelatin
Additional Tools:
Yogurt incubator (like THIS one)
Digital thermometer
Blender
Hand frother, optional
When making homemade yogurt, it’s always important to ensure your equipment has been well cleaned and sanitized to prevent any contamination with bacteria. You’ll also want to make sure you read the instructions of your specific yogurt incubator before beginning this process.
Pour the coconut milk and coconut cream into a medium saucepan. Heat the milk and cream over medium heat to 110 degrees F, stirring occasionally. You can use a handheld digital thermometer to help measure the heat of the milk, which should heat fairly quickly, within a few minutes. If you accidentally overheat the milk, simply set the pan aside off the burner and allow it to cool down to 110 degrees F.
Once the milk is at a stable 110 degrees F, pour into a large blender and add your yogurt starter and 2 tsp of gelatin. Blend for 30 seconds at medium high speed until everything is fully incorporated.
Carefully pour the milk into your jars and place them into the incubator, uncovered. Once all jars are in place, close the incubator with the lid and leave your yogurt to sit anywhere from 16-24 hours, depending on how tangy you like your yogurt.
4. Once your yogurt has fermented for at least 16 hours, you can remove the jars from the incubator. You may see some separation of the coconut water and the cream, with a slight skin on top of the yogurt, which is normal.
5. At this point you can refrigerate the yogurt and stir to combine the separated yogurt before eating, but you will have a much better consistency if you use a small handheld frother or fork to gently stir the separated yogurt back together in the jars before refrigeration. This will help the gelatin set the yogurt for a creamier consistency.
*Please note: while homemade coconut yogurt is delicious and a great dairy alternative, it does not contain protein. Therefore, if you will be using the yogurt as the base of your meal (like in a yogurt bowl for example), then you’ll want to ensure you stir in a quality protein powder.
Grab Autumn's Protein Powder HERE and start whipping up delish, protein-packed meals!😋
❤️,
Autumn
Autumn Elle Nutrition
留言