How to Make High-Protein Plant-Based Greek Soy Yogurt

Update: Due to personal preferences, Susan is no longer making this yogurt on a regular basis. ____ It’s surprising how many vlogs I film that actually have nothing to do with the food that I eat. But this week, we are in my kitchen making vegan Greek yogurt. I have searched high and low for a plant-based yogurt that tastes good and is high in protein. But I’ve never found one. So I make mine own, and this week I’m sharing the process with you. Start with a really pure soy milk. I use West Life brand, organic unsweetened vanilla flavor. You need to pick a soy milk that doesn’t have the added vitamins and minerals—that will ruin your yogurt. 2 quarts makes 1 batch, or 4 quarts for a double batch. This is quite a process, so when I make it I make a double batch. And you’ll need a pressure cooker, I use an Instant Pot Pro Plus. With this cooker I don’t have to heat up the soy milk before starting the overnight cooking process. (You can do it in a yogurt maker or even just in the oven with the pilot light but with an Instant Pot you don’t need to heat up the milk, which saves a lot of time.) You’ll also need a starter culture; this is available in a vegan option—one packet per batch, two packets for a double batch. And then you’ll need a Greek yogurt strainer. I add 4 quarts of soy milk and 2 packets of starter culture to the Instant Pot, stir it together, then set the Instant Pot to the yogurt setting. I set it to cook at 110ºF for 8 hours. I typically set this up before bed, and it cooks overnight while I sleep. In the morning, the yogurt needs to cool and set. So you take it out of the pot, cover it with foil and let it stand for two hours. After two hours, the pot of yogurt goes in the fridge for about 12 hours to set. At this point, you have soy yogurt. Then I like to strain it to make it into Greek yogurt. I use the Euro Cuisine Greek Yogurt Maker. Drain off any excess liquid that you can, then pour it into the yogurt strainer. Once the yogurt is in the strainers, let the whey drain off in the fridge for about 48 hours. The yogurt will reduce by about half its weight. Scoop it out of the strainer and into two glass storage containers. Whip it up to smooth out as many lumps as you can. I find that a double batch of Greek yogurt will make 8 days’ worth of breakfast portions, that’s one 8-ounce serving per morning. And a tip: the morning that I open my second container, that’s the day I start making another double batch. If you do that, then you won’t run out, because it does take three days to complete the process of making this yogurt. But honestly, overall, it’s no more time-consuming than doing a load of laundry. It’s just a load of laundry spread over three days. Enjoy! FOR THIS VLOG, PODCASTS, TRANSCRIPTS–and MORE: https://ble.life/CE8gd3