Homemade Yogurt: Making Soy Yogurt At Home

Making yogurt at home is pretty easy. In fact, you can even make dairy free yogurt right at home, whether you prefer a thicker Greek-style yogurt or a thinner yogurt that’s great in smoothies and other tasty blended drinks.

Dairy free yogurt is a great alternative for people who can’t eat dairy products for health reasons. It’s also great for people who choose not to eat dairy products, such as those on a vegan diet. To accommodate both parties, plenty of dairy free yogurts exist, such as the popular almond milk yogurt and soy milk yogurt.

So, can you actually make almond milk or soy milk yogurt home? Actually, you can. In this article, we’re going to take a closer look at soy yogurt and show you how to make soy yogurt at home.

Making Homemade Yogurt: Soy Yogurt

Soy yogurt is yogurt that’s prepared with cultured soy milk. It’s made by heating soy milk and adding yogurt cultures, commonly Streptococcus salivarius subsp, Thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp, Bulgaricus. Many soy yogurt brands also include sweeteners like different sugars and flavorings to enhance its flavor.

This yogurt is suitable for people with dairy intolerant health conditions (like allergies and lactose intolerance) or people who are ovo-vegetarians or vegans.

Of course, you can prepare soy yogurt right at home using the same methods as you would with dairy yogurt. Even though soy milk does lack lactose (milk sugar) needed to promote bacterial fermentation, you can promote the fermentation aspect by mixing about a tablespoon of sugar to every quart of soy milk you use.

And, now for the recipe itself.

Making Homemade Yogurt ~ The Recipe

You don’t actually have to make your own soy milk to produce your own soy yogurt—you can buy your soy milk. And, once you do, don’t forget to get your own ingredients and supplies ready.

We will continue this article with how to make homemade yogurt but this can easily be updated to make soy yogurt with a yogurt maker. Using a yogurt maker will take all the mixing, handling and time keeping away from you and you can even set a timer to have the fresh yogurt ready whenever you want it to be!

As we’ve mentioned in another article about dairy free yogurts, you can use anything that will hold your yogurt safely to produce the treat. The best thing to use for culturing soy yogurt is a crock pot, naturally just the pot and not the heating pan. The lid and the insulation of the pan work well to keep the yogurt mixture warm without having to use extra insulation like a towel. Not to mention, many crock pots are compact, but hold a lot of liquid.

Other ingredients you need include the yogurt cultures and a good thickener, both preferably dairy free and vegan-friendly.

Non-Dairy Yogurt Culture (3 Packets) - For Use with Soy or Rice MilksThe yogurt cultures usually come in the form of a yogurt starter or probiotics powder. You can find it online or in health food stores that usually carry vegan food products. You should mix this starter into the milk right after it’s warm to start the culturing, making sure it’s mixed in well.

The thickener can be mixed in before or after the culturing process. Most people use vegan-friendly gelatin, agar or pectin powder. Mix this thickener with a few tablespoons of water before adding into the yogurt mixture.

Now, let’s talk about the actual cooking and culturing process:

Cooking

The cooking process is pretty straightforward. Add your soy milk to a pan and heat it until it gets lukewarm or to body temperature. Once you sense that it’s warm enough, remove it from the heat, so you don’t let the cultures die off once you add them.

If you’re worried about the temperature getting too hot, have a candy thermometer on hand. You want your milk to get a little over 100 degrees Fahrenheit before removing it from heat.

Allow the mixture to cool before you add in your cultures—let it reach a little under 100 degrees Fahrenheit before adding it in. Once it’s cool, add in 4 tablespoons of your starter to the milk and mix it well until it’s completely incorporated.

Culturing

When you culture the yogurt, it needs to stay in a warm and preferably dry place. Pour your milk mixture into the crock pot, after having rinsed it with boiling water to sterilize, and cover with its lid.

Let the mixture culture for about 5 to 10 hours, depending on how thick and tangy you want your yogurt. Once the yogurt gets thick, separate any additional liquid and move the yogurt to another container to chill.

Thickening

If you feel that your soy yogurt is a little too thin, there are ways to thicken it.

You can add thickeners to soy milk before you culture it with the yogurt starter. Add about 1 teaspoon of agar powder, gelatin or pectin powder to the milk when it starts to get hot. Change the amount depending on how thick you want the milk to get. Some people add extra soy protein to thicken their milk, too.

Making Homemade Soy Yogurt: Closing Thoughts

As you can see, making soy yogurt at home is pretty easy when you see how it’s done. We hope our article will help you make tasty soy yogurt at home. Thanks for reading!

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