Non Dairy Yogurt (Legume, Corn, & Nut Free)
Although non-dairy yogurt has only been around for the last 20-30 years, yogurt itself has been around for 7,000+ years! It has been a staple food for many millennia & is something we like to make almost every week in our house. If you want to know more about the origin of yogurt, you can find where I got my information here.
This yogurt is way better than store bought yogurt and doesn’t contain those extra ingredients like pea protein or dextrose, which many of us can’t have. This recipe is everything you could want! It serves 8-9 cups of delicious mildly tangy plain yogurt! It’s top 9 allergen free and is legume and corn free! It can also be made sugar free!
What I also like about this recipe is how customizable it is. You can easily turn it into vanilla yogurt, berry yogurt, or whatever flavor you want it to be with the addition of just a few ingredients.
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Ingredients & Substitutes
EQUIPMENT:
- Yogurt maker *See notes for oven or crockpot
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 cup gf oats, OR cooked rice. For the bulk of the recipe.
- 8 cups water. To make plant based milk with the oats or rice. The water is key to making this yogurt!
- 6TB arrowroot powder, OR cornstarch. This will help your yogurt thicken up as it cooks and cools in your fridge, give you a nice thick texture.
- 1 tsp agar agar, OR guar gum (if you can have legumes). Agar agar will help emulsify your ingredients together, so that your yogurt will not separate. It will also help your yogurt thicken.
- 2 Vegan Yogurt Starter Culture packets. These have plenty of probiotics to culture your yogurt and it is completely vegan!
- Optional: 1/2 cup rice protein powder (for 5-7g added protein per 1 cup serving). In my opinion, this ingredient is vital to the recipe. Although it can give the yogurt a mildly chalky taste (pea protein is more flavorless if you can have legumes), it gives you plenty of protein to stay energized and full till your next mealtime.
More Optional Add-ins:
- For vanilla yogurt: +3 TB vanilla powder + 4 TB maple syrup -1/4 cup water
- For maple syrup yogurt: 4 TB maple syrup -1/4 cup water
- For berry flavored yogurt: +1/2 cup Maple syrup + 1/4 cup berries puréed – 1/2 cup water. You can also add in a handful of fresh berries to have a chunky texture. Just note your yogurt won’t last as long with the berries in it.
How to Make Non Dairy Yogurt
Blend your oats and water together then drain the oat milk into a medium sized pot through a mesh sieve. (Save remaining oat pulp for smoothies or to dehydrate for flour).
Using an immersion blender or whisk, mix arrowroot powder and agar in the oat milk, till no clumps. Optional: If adding protein powder, mix that in too.
Once mixed, heat the oat milk mixture on low in the medium sized pot. Heat the milk to boiling, blending often with immersion blender. The mixture should thicken quite a lot.
Remove from heat and let this mixture sit for about 1 hour, to come to a lukewarm temperature (104-110 degrees is the perfect temperature for the yogurt starter to react). It should thicken more as it cools.
Once oat milk mixture is at a lukewarm temperature, add 1/4 cup of the oat milk mixture to a new bowl & dissolve the yogurt culture starter packets into the oat milk mixture.
Once the yogurt starter packet is dissolved, incorporate this yogurt into the rest of the oat milk mixture, till smooth. (You can use an immersion blender or whisk to get rid of clumps).
Pour your yogurt into 2 (4 cup) glass jars, and seal with plastic lid.
Place the sealed jars into your yogurt maker.
Pour lukewarm water into your yogurt maker & cover with lid. Set timer to 14-18 hours & temperature to 108. (it takes longer for plant-based milks to become tangy)
Once the 14-18 hours is up, remove the yogurt from the oven and let the jars cool. Once cooled, store the yogurt in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat the yogurt.
Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze for 4 months. Serve in casserole dishes or as breakfast with desired toppings such as honey, vanilla, granola, berries, or chia seeds!
If making in a Crockpot
Directions if using a crockpot:
- Heat your sealed jars on low in this water bath for 14-18 hours. The longer you heat the jars, the more tangy your yogurt will be. The water must remain between (104-110 degrees) for the yogurt cultures to be active. So check the temperature every couple hours and add cold or hot water depending on the temperature.
- Remove from heat and let sit for 20 mins. Then store in fridge. It will be cold enough to eat within 2-3 hours.
- Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze for 4 months. Serve in casserole dishes or as breakfast with desired toppings such as honey, vanilla, granola, berries, or chia seeds!
- **Directions if using an oven:
- While your yogurt mixture cools from the stove, set your oven to its lowest temperature and heat it up for 15-20 mins. Then turn the heat off, but turn the oven light on.
- Incubate your sealed jars in the oven in a hot water bath (104-110F) for 14-18 hours. The longer you heat the jars, the more tangy your yogurt will be. The water must remain between (104-110 degrees) for the yogurt cultures to be active. So check the temperature every couple hours and add cold or hot water, depending on the temperature. You can also preheat your oven to its lowest setting for five mins, every few hours to keep temperatures warm.
- Remove from heat and let sit for 20 mins. Then store in fridge. It will be cold enough to eat within 2-3 hours.
- Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze for 4 months. Serve in casserole dishes or as breakfast with desired toppings such as honey, vanilla, granola, berries, or chia seeds! ENJOY!
Pro Tips:
For reusing the old yogurt in new batches: This product can be expensive if you use a new packet of starter every time you make yogurt, so I recommend setting aside and freezing 1/2 cup of yogurt from your first batch to use as the starter for your next batch. If you want to continue using your old batches of yogurt as a starter, I recommend saving and reusing a 1/2 cup old yogurt for batches 2-10, 1/4 cup for batches 11-20. This is because your active cultures will become more potent and fermented with time, thus you’ll need less of the old yogurt to make more new yogurt. Then, you simply restart the process with a new yogurt starter packet. Also, if at any point your old yogurt tastes bad, restart the process with a new packet of starter. These starter packets can be frozen for up to 1 year. When you reuse old yogurt for your new batch, I also recommend adding a few hours @ least 18 hrs to the yogurt maker to make it perfectly tangy.
Other Favorite Allergy Friendly Breakfast Recipes
Non Dairy Yogurt (Legume, Corn, & Nut Free)
This yogurt is way better than store bought yogurt and doesn’t contain those extra ingredients like pea protein or dextrose, which many of us can’t have. This recipe is everything you could want! It serves 8-9 cups of delicious mildly tangy yogurt! It’s top 9 allergen free and is legume and corn free! It can also be made sugar free!
- Total Time: 14 hours 30 minutes
- Yield: 8 Cups 1x
Ingredients
EQUIPMENT:
- Yogurt maker *See notes for oven or crockpot
INGREDIENTS:
- 1/2 cup gf oats, OR cooked rice
- 8 cups water
- 6TB arrowroot powder, OR cornstarch
- 1 tsp agar agar, OR guar gum (if you can have legumes)
- 2 Vegan Yogurt Starter Culture packets *See notes for making more than one batch of yogurt
- Optional: 1/2 cup rice protein powder (for 5-7g added protein per 1 cup serving)
Instructions
- Blend your oats and water together then drain the oat milk into a medium sized pot through a mesh sieve. (Save remaining oat pulp for smoothies or to dehydrate for flour).
- Using an immersion blender or whisk, mix arrowroot powder and agar in the oat milk, till no clumps. Optional: If adding protein powder, mix that in too.
- Once mixed, heat the oat milk mixture on low in the medium sized pot. Heat the milk to boiling, blending often with immersion blender. The mixture should thicken quite a lot.
- Remove from heat and let this mixture sit for about 1 hour, to come to a lukewarm temperature (104-110 degrees is the perfect temperature for the yogurt starter to react). It should thicken more as it cools.**See Notes to make your yogurt in an oven or Crockpot
- Once oat milk mixture is at a lukewarm temperature, add 1/4 cup of the oat milk mixture to a new bowl & dissolve the yogurt culture starter packets into the oat milk mixture.
- Once the yogurt starter packet is dissolved, incorporate this yogurt into the rest of the oat milk mixture, till smooth. (You can use an immersion blender or whisk to get rid of clumps).
- Pour your yogurt into 2 (4 cup) glass jars, and seal with plastic lid.
- Place the sealed jars into your yogurt maker.
- Pour lukewarm water into your yogurt maker & cover with lid. Set timer to 14-18 hours & temperature to 108. (it takes longer for plant-based milks to become tangy)
- Once the 14-18 hours is up, remove the yogurt from the oven and let the jars cool. Once cooled, store the yogurt in the refrigerator until you are ready to eat the yogurt.
- Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze for 4 months. Serve in casserole dishes or as breakfast with desired toppings such as honey, vanilla, granola, berries, or chia seeds!
Notes
*This product can be expensive if you use a new packet of starter every time you make yogurt, so I recommend setting aside and freezing 1/2 cup of yogurt from your first batch to use as the starter for your next batch. If you want to continue using your old batches of yogurt as a starter, I recommend saving and reusing a 1/2 cup old yogurt for batches 2-10, 1/4 cup for batches 11-20. This is because your active cultures will become more potent and fermented with time, thus you’ll need less of the old yogurt to make more new yogurt. Then, you simply restart the process with a new yogurt starter packet. Also, if at any point your old yogurt tastes bad, restart the process with a new packet of starter. These starter packets can be frozen for up to 1 year. When you reuse old yogurt for your new batch, I also recommend adding a few hours @ least 18 hrs to the yogurt maker to make it perfectly tangy.
**Directions if using a crockpot:
- Heat your sealed jars on low in this water bath for 14-18 hours. The longer you heat the jars, the more tangy your yogurt will be. The water must remain between (104-110 degrees) for the yogurt cultures to be active. So check the temperature every couple hours and add cold or hot water depending on the temperature.
- Remove from heat and let sit for 20 mins. Then store in fridge. It will be cold enough to eat within 2-3 hours.
- Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze for 4 months. Serve in casserole dishes or as breakfast with desired toppings such as honey, vanilla, granola, berries, or chia seeds!
**Directions if using an oven:
- While your yogurt mixture cools from the stove, set your oven to its lowest temperature and heat it up for 15-20 mins. Then turn the heat off, but turn the oven light on.
- Incubate your sealed jars in the oven in a hot water bath (104-110F) for 14-18 hours. The longer you heat the jars, the more tangy your yogurt will be. The water must remain between (104-110 degrees) for the yogurt cultures to be active. So check the temperature every couple hours and add cold or hot water, depending on the temperature. You can also preheat your oven to its lowest setting for five mins, every few hours to keep temperatures warm.
- Remove from heat and let sit for 20 mins. Then store in fridge. It will be cold enough to eat within 2-3 hours.
- Refrigerate up to 3 weeks or freeze for 4 months. Serve in casserole dishes or as breakfast with desired toppings such as honey, vanilla, granola, berries, or chia seeds!
ENJOY!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cool Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 14 hours
- Cuisine: Yogurt