Trouble with making dairy-free yogurt

806 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by Dave in MPLS, Sep 26, 2014

Kiwibird08

Discussion Starter · Sep 22, 2014

Over the summer, I began experiencing hives and unusually "bad skin", which I worked out as a sudden new intolerance to dairy. As such, I cut out dairy 2 weeks ago and those issues have cleared up (not to mention I'm breathing better than I ever have!).

When I figured out dairy was the problem, I ordered a soy milk maker, though I do not generally do soy products. I have been using it to make oat milk, from cooking oats (which is pretty delicious). I am interested in making yogurt, but I've tried twice now with my yogurt maker using oat milk and failed miserably. Not entirely sure where I'm going wrong. I did use a thickener (arrow root) and tried one with soy yogurt as the starter and one batch with packaged starter (yogourmet brand). The one with soy milk did nothing. The one with the starter came out with a kiefer-like consistency (a little runny), but tasted ok once I added berries and chilled it. I would like to know though what I can do to make it more of a yogurt consistency? And what else can be used as a thickener besides arrow root? The man at the natural food stores suggested it, but when added to the heating oat milk, it formed clumps. I'm also not opposed to nut milks or rice milk, if anyone knows for a fact those work better. Just not interested in using soy milk.

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silva

· #2 · Sep 22, 2014

What do you have against soy? You don't say you're intolerant.
I love my soy milk maker, and make the best tofu I've ever had. I've yet to make yogurt though...

Miyoko Schinner in her book Artisan Vegan Cheese uses raw cashews in her homemade yogurt.
2/3 cup soaked raw cashews blended with
4 cups soy or almond milk and
3 tablespoons yogurt for starter

I've never seen or heard of oatmilk yogurt but it does sound nice!

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Kiwibird08

Discussion Starter · #3 · Sep 23, 2014

silva said:
What do you have against soy? You don't say you're intolerant.

A long time ago, I used to eat a lot of the faux soy meat products and I always felt tired and crappy (admittedly, that could be from the processing and/or additives in those products and my overall diet when I first went veg), and when I found out about the "great phytoestrogens" debate, I decided to nix soy as any significant part of my diet and cut heavily processed foods as much as possible. I do eat it occasionally, but I haven't seen (what I feel is) a convincing argument either way of whether or not soy is safe to eat regularly. It's been at least 9/10 years now since I ate a lot of soy and haven't missed it so why start now? And as I re-visit how I eat, I have started reading into the soy argument again and see there is still plenty of conflicting information. Plenty of other non-meat sources of protein that aren't being genetically modified and don't have any safety debates surrounding regular consumption.

Thanks for the recipe though! I will try with cashews. And I can make nut milks in the soy milk maker (I did make hazelnut milk last weekend, it was delicious!), so I'll try almond milk. I LOVE yogurt or kefir with my breakfast, so I want to find alternatives right away. I actually never knew they made such a things as a soy milk maker until I looked into dairy alternatives, but I can already tell mine will be getting A LOT of use. Glad I found it too, the store bought non dairy milks are not cheap!

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Dave in MPLS

· #4 · Sep 26, 2014

Just off the top of my head, I'd think both oat and rice milk would present the same problems - low fat content. I never would have thought of trying oat milk. I just got a yogurt maker today and I have plenty of oats. Think I'll give it a try.

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Kiwibird08

Discussion Starter · #5 · Sep 26, 2014

Dave in MPLS said:
Just off the top of my head, I'd think both oat and rice milk would present the same problems - low fat content. I never would have thought of trying oat milk. I just got a yogurt maker today and I have plenty of oats. Think I'll give it a try.

Interesting about the fat content possibly being the problem. I have made plenty of dairy yogurt before, using whole milk, and never really thought about why it came out right. I have (as mentioned) been making oat milk from cooking oats since I nixed dairy. Absolutely delicious milk alternative, however I never really thought about the fat content (or lack of)! The 'yogurt' came out more like kefir (which I like, but I like yogurt more). I will try a nut milk this weekend and see how something with more fat works

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Dave in MPLS

· #6 · Sep 26, 2014

This page uses pectin. Lots of useful links on that page too.

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