Homemade Thick Non Dairy Yoghurt

Yesterday I made my first trial batch of delicious creamy thick coconut yoghurt. Ever since going dairy free nearly 10 years ago I have missed proper thick creamy yoghurt – the type that you can use in Naan breads or in savoury sauces, creamy but not too sweet. I’ll definitely be making a bigger batch next time!

I was guided and inspired by Tasty – Yummies’ excellent post on the subject which is here: http://bit.ly/1yDMEc1 .They do point out that everyone needs to experiment a little and find out what works in their own kitchen. So here is my experience.

You will need:

1 tbsp Agar flakes
0.5 cups cold water
400g thick canned coconut milk
0.5 tsp honey
1 sachet Bio Yoghurt culture
a yoghurt maker – mine is a Severin

Add the Agar flakes to the cold water and heat gently without stirring until it simmers. Simmer for 3 minutes whisking occasionally to make sure the flakes are thoroughly dissolved. Add a can of coconut milk and heat gently until it reaches blood heat then stir in the culture and 0.5 tsp honey to ‘feed’ it. (When I used to make yoghurt with sheep’s milk I always pasteurised it first by heating to boiling point and then allowing it to cool to blood heat. In this case I decided to see what happened if I didn’t heat the coconut milk any more than necessary). Mix the culture and the honey thoroughly into the warm milk and pour into the yoghurt pots. I left mine for about 8 hours before refrigerating. When I removed them from the yoghurt maker it looked as though they weren’t going to set but they did set on cooling. Yay!

Next time I’d probably double up the quantities but keep the same amount of dried culture. I’d also like to see how things turn out if I use a spoonful of a previous batch to inoculate the new batch. Obviously if you are using your own culture then you need to be meticulous about sterilising everything throughout the process in order to keep the culture untainted.

So if you are vegan or need to avoid dairy for health reasons and have missed ‘proper’ thick homemade yoghurt then give this recipe a try!

To find out more about Myrobalan Clinic please visit www.myrobalanclinic.com

About Myrobalan Clinic

I'm Lucy, a registered medical herbalist with a full time high street practice in Castle Cary, Somerset, UK. I combine Tibetan Medicine with Western Herbal Medicine in order to help my patients treat the underlying reasons for their illness, rather than just suppressing the symptoms. I grow or gather around 75% of the herbs that I work with in my practice, and I make every single tincture, capsule, tea blend and topical treatment that I prescribe to patients. I'm an absolutely passionate proponent of self sufficient herbalism for its many benefits; including those relating to the environment, our connection with herbs and for the exceptional quality of medicines that it enables us to produce. My book, 'Self Sufficient Herbalism', published by Aeon Books, explains why as well as providing a detailed step by step guide as to how to go about this way of working. I love my job - it's so rewarding to see people taking control of their health and feeling healthier and more positive.

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1 Response to Homemade Thick Non Dairy Yoghurt

carlabela1 says:

January 7, 2015 at 15:28

Looks rather good!