*Coconut Yogurt* (Vegan, Soy Free)

Ok I had to post this. I have been looking for dairy free, soy free, vegan yogurt. I went to People's Food Co-op the other day and found vegan soy free yogurt made with COCONUT MILK by So Delicious . I try to limit my soy intake, as too much of anything can be a bad thing. This yogurt was soooo yummy! The flavors are vanilla, blueberry, rasberry, strawberry banana, passionate mango, and plain. So I thought....why can't I make vegan coconut milk yogurt? I googled it and found a recipie from Cindalous Kitchen Blues. Great Blog! I have yet to try it, but i will very soon. So here it is.....

~*Coconut Yogurt (half batch)*~

1 can (15 oz.) organic coconut milk or lite coconut

heaping 1/4 t. dairy free probiotic*

Tools Needed:

-2 half-quart Mason jars (I used cleaned salsa jars)large stainless steel spoon

-2 large/medium stainless steel pots (I used a double boiler nested pot setup)

-kitchen thermometer

-a few old clean kitchen towels,

-a large pot and lid (large enough to hold mason jars) OR yogurt maker

*I used Culturaid dairy free probiotic since it is free of many of the common allergens: gluten, dairy, yeast, corn, soy

Instructions for Coconut Milk Yogurt

(Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Corn, Yeast Free and Low Carb/Low Fat)

1.) Sterilize your container(s):I boiled water in my electric kettle to sterilize my yogurt jars and stainless steel pot. After the water boiled, I let it sit for 10 or so minutes while I went onto step 2. When you need two yogurt containers, just discard the hot water.

2.) Pour out the sterilizing water from the pot and pour in the coconut milk. If you didn't shake the can and the milk has separated, just give it a quick stir with a clean/sterilized stainless steel spoon. Turn the milk to medium high heat and keep your thermometer handy. Bring the milk to just boiling with your thermometer in the milk, but not resting or touching the pot (you want the temperature of the milk, not the pot). Continuously stir the milk until it reaches around 160 degrees. I've seen the range of 170-180 degrees for "normal" milk in order to kill the bad bacteria, but the canned organic coconut milk does not suffer bovine growth hormones, animal antibiotics passed into the cow milk, pesticides, or any chemical residues that can hamper regular milk. I am more lax with the temperature for this reason. If you'd prefer to go to the higher temperature, go for it, but make sure to keep stirring so the milk doesn't burn.

3.) Set up your yogurt-making area.
The yogurt culturing area can be a real yogurt maker or this handy type setup shown below. All that is necessary is that the yogurt stay around 100 degrees (or as close as possible). I placed 2 jars in my largest pot with a few warmed towels on the bottom to insulate the jars. I used 1 jar for steaming hot water and the other jar for the yogurt. Here's a cool site for making yogurt by livelonger on HubPages which gives nice pictures and the incubation idea of a cooler and hot water instead of a yogurt maker.

4.) Let the coconut milk cool. Check the milk comes to around 100-110 degrees before adding the probiotic starter. Once the milk has cooled, stir in the probiotic starter. If you were making normal cow-based dairy yogurt, you could use premade/purchased yogurt with live cultures instead of specialty probiotic starter. For dairy free coconut milk yogurt, we can't do this of course- hence the Culturaid.Boil some more water and pour into one of your open jars shown above. The hot water in this jar along with the insulating towels and closed pot will help keep the yogurt jar warm so the cultures can grown during incubation.Pour the inoculated yogurt/coconut milk into the other jar and close the lid to keep it warm. I added a few more towels for jar insulation.

5.) Cover the whole setup or your yogurt maker. I turned my pot to very very low heat (barely on) to keep the setup warm. You may not need to do this depending upon the temperature of your kitchen. It was cold and rainy when I made this (Murphy's law in action). Let the yogurt ferment for 6-10 hours. Mine took more like 10 hours since it was so cold in my kitchen (crazy spring weather). Let the yogurt rest while it ferments.

6.) After the allotted time has passed, check the coconut milk yogurt. It should be firm and more of a yogurt texture. Mine was not as thick as cow milk yogurt (which often has yucky thickeners in addition to the plain old yogurt, especially if you eat the nonorganic kind), but it was definitely thicker. It had a nice slightly sweet-sour yogurt bite to it as well as all those uber healthy (nondairy) probiotics! Now I can down yogurt by the quart like Jon, right? :) Refrigerate the yogurt when it is thick and "finished."

The probiotics in yogurt and fermented foods (kraut, etc) are the "good" guys you want in your intestines to help improve your immunity, keep you regular, build and strengthen your bones, lose weight, and detoxify you.