Homemade Coco Yogurt

Vegan yogurt is so hard to find where I live. There are a few options, but none of them are plain/no added sugars. That's when I decided I wanted to try to make my own! Most recipes involved using coconut milk. So I would try to do many recipes - however, they were not as creamy or tasty as I would have liked.

I kept searching for other ways to make some yogurt at home, but I couldn't find any good ones. At one point I even tried making yogurt out of tofu - it did not turn out well ...... 
That's when I was on an Instagram live for one chef, Claire .... , I saw she made her yogurt using fresh coconut meat and a few other simple ingredients. I wanted to know more about this method/recipe so I searched up and found others that also made the coconut yogurt in a very similar and simple way!

Like I said before, I love how simple this recipe is! It also only requires a few ingredients. You can easily customize the flavor/sweetness + add any add ins once the yogurt is done fermenting ( and sitting in the fridge. )  

What can you use this coconut yogurt for/with?

Anything! Whether you eat it alone with some granola, on top of your pancakes with some berry compote, on top of your oatmeal, like a parfait, I put it in my chickpea pancakes to make it extra fluffy, but you can literally use it on/for anything.

When you make the yogurt, if you are cutting the coconut yourself (not buying prepackaged coconut meat), then you want to make sure that when you take it out, make sure to remove as much of the brown skin as possible.

Also, make sure you are using Young Thai Coconut Meat. This recipe will NOT work with normal coconuts.

Finally, I really recommend using a high-speed blender - as you want to make sure you blend all the coconut meat. I used my Vitamix.

Ingridents : 

• 1 Probiotic Capsule
• 2 cups of coconut meat
• 3/4 cup coconut water/filtered water (coco water will make it more coconutty)
• Dash of salt
• A squeeze of lemon juice (optional)*
• Vanilla (optional)
• Sweetener - maple, agave, coconut sugar (optional)

* It will already get that tarty/tangy taste from the fermentation, so you do not need to add this unless you like it extra tarty/tangy

Steps : 

1. Prepare your coconut meat. Be very careful when doing this. Here is a video to guide you to cut the coconut and take out its meat.
2. Sterilize a jar(s) that you will place the yogurt in. You can do this by placing boiling hot water in the jar and pouring it out. Wait for it to air dry/cool.
3. Place coconut meat, liquid (water/coconut water), and probiotic capsule in a high-speed blender. Blend until smooth. This could take a couple of mins.
4. Pour the yogurt into the sterilized jar(s) , do not overfill the jar
5. Cover each jar with a cheese cloth/gauze equivalent and a rubber band to secure it. Place the jars in a dark clean place thats not too cold (I like to place it in the oven) for 8-24 hours. If you live in a warmer area it may need less time to ferment. Also, the longer you ferment it the more tangy/tarty it gets. 
6. The yogurt will have expanded when it has fermented. Take the jars and remove the cloth and rubber band. Mix the yogurt with a clean spoon. Then cover the yogurt and place in the fridge. 
7. Once cold serve however you like and enjoy !