Creamy, delicious, and affordable vegan yogurt. Learn how to make this soy milk yogurt recipe at home in your Instant Pot down below.
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This vegan yogurt recipe requires just 2 ingredients and is incredibly easy to make. This recipe will require an Instant Pot or a different brand of it. You’ll want one with a yogurt setting. This is the Instant Pot we have.*
This recipe is vegan-friendly and free of these major allergens: dairy-free, nut-free, and gluten-free.
Serve this yogurt with your favorite berries, granola, or try with our vegan lemon curd.
What ingredients do you need?
There are several varieties of vegan yogurt you can make at home in your instant pot. For our soy milk recipe you’ll need:
- Soy Milk. You’ll want to get the shelf-stable kind that is sold in a carton. You’ll also want to make sure the soy milk only contains soybeans and water. You don’t want any gums or preservatives in the soy milk or else the good bacteria in yogurt will not properly grow and the yogurt will not set and become thick. The milk we love most for this and are the easiest to come across are either: West Soy soy milk. You can find it at Walmart, your local health food store, or here on Amazon*. If you have a Grocery Outlet or similar kind of store, we would also encourage checking there. We have often found the West Soy brand there at a significantly cheaper price. You can also find this kind of soy milk at Trader Joes among the other shelf stables beverages.
- Soy Milk Yogurt. We love using silks soy milk yogurt. We encourage using plain soy yogurt, but we recently haven’t been able to find it around us, so you can use vanilla or other flavored yogurts. Just know it will flavor the whole batch if you plan on using it for savory cooking at all.
How to make vegan yogurt in your instant pot?
While there are other methods of making vegan yogurt like using probiotic capsules, this method is our favorite since it’s more economical, less temperamental to make, and easier to find the ingredients for.
For our vegan yogurt recipe, the general method is you will mix 2 tbsp of a vegan yogurt with 32 ounces of non-dairy milk. You’ll want to use non-dairy milk that contains just the bean or nut and water. You don’t want non-dairy milk with gums or preservatives in it since the good bacteria in the yogurt will not grow properly and the yogurt in results will not thicken up. Ripple milk is the one exception to this that I’ve seen, but I haven’t made it before to vouch for it.
To make our vegan soy yogurt you’ll want to whisk together the vegan yogurt and soy milk in the Instant Pot. For our recipe we will be making 64 oz of yogurt, so we mixed 64 oz of West Soy soy milk with 4 tbsp of Silk’s soy yogurt. Once the two are properly mixed you’ll need to put the lid on the Instant Pot and seal the valve. Next, you’ll activate the yogurt setting and heat the mixture for 12 hours. After the yogurt is finished cooking, you’ll do a quick release and then move the yogurt into the fridge to set for 6 hours. Do not mix the yogurt before it sets. Doing so would break any protein strands that built while it incubated resulting in the yogurt being on the more runny side rather than a thicker side like traditional dairy or greek yogurt would be. Since this recipe requires 18 hours of non-active cooking time, plan accordingly. My preferred method to make the yogurt is to get the yogurt incubating in the morning between 6 to 9 am. That way I can pull it out at 6 to 9 pm, let it set in the fridge overnight, and then the next day I have yogurt to eat alone, in smoothies or use to make some overnight oats.
How to make vegan yogurt thick?
If you’re after a yogurt with consistency and thickness comparable to greek yogurt, then you’ll need to strain the yogurt. You can buy a designated yogurt strainer like this one from Amazon*. You could also use a nut bag like this one from Amazon* that we also like using for our Oat Milk recipe.
Substitutions:
Soy Milk: For this method of making yogurt you are not restricted to soy milk. You can use any non-dairy milk as long as it’s ingredients are just the nut or bean and water. Feel free to use non-dairy milk like almond, cashew, hemp, or whatever you can find near you.
Silk Soy Yogurt: For this method, you can use any vegan yogurt. You can even save or freeze some of a batch you make at home to start a new yogurt. Also, you don’t have to use the same non-dairy based yogurt that you’re using for the milk portion. We’ve made our soy milk yogurt with Silk’s plain almond milk yogurt and Forager’s cashew milk yogurt as the starters before.
What to do with your vegan soy yogurt?
Some of you may be thinking we’re crazy for somehow using 64 ounces of yogurt, but there are just so many uses for it from savory cooking to delicious desserts. Here are some of our favorite uses:
- Buttermilk replacement. We love replacing buttermilk in savory meals or sweet desserts because it has a similar thickness, creaminess, and tang that one would get with buttermilk.
- Use in smoothies. Make your smoothies extra luxurious and thick by using yogurt instead of non-dairy milk, water, or juice.
- Make a Yogurt Parfait with your favorite granola, fruit or fruit compote. Even try it with our vegan lemon curd.
- Baking. I love baking with yogurt instead of just non-dairy milk as I find it keeps the baked good softer and moister. Here are some of our favorite desserts that we’ve posted that use this vegan yogurt:
- Savory Cooking. We enjoy using yogurt for some of our savory dishes or dips. Here are some savory uses for vegan yogurt we’ve posted already:
If you make this recipe we’d love to hear from you down below in the comment sections. You can also tag us on one of our social media or use our hashtag #vegantheway. You can also stay up to date with our new recipes and post by subscribing to our email notifications.
Thank you for checking out our Vegan Yogurt Recipe and make sure to check out our other vegan recipes like our Vegan Strawberry Lemon Bars, or this health and fresh Tabbouleh Salad.
Vegan Yogurt
Equipment
- Instant Pot
- Optional: Yogurt Strainer or Nut Bag
Ingredients
32 ounces of yogurt:
- 32 ounces Soy Milk
- 2 tbsp Vegan Yogurt
64 ounces of yogurt:
- 64 ounces Soy Milk
- 4 tbsp Vegan Yogurt
Instructions
- Add your vegan yogurt and soy milk to your Instant Pot.
- Mix the ingredients throughly.
- Put the lid on the Instant Pot and seal the valve.
- Activate the yogurt setting and set the timer for 12 hours.
- Once to timer has expired quick release the valve. Put the yogurt in your fridge to set for 6 hours. Do not stir the yogurt yet or you'll break all the protein strands the built resulting in runny yogurt.
- Once 6 hours have passed you are free to serve and portion out the yogurt as you desire. Keep the yogurt in the fridge for 5-7 days.
- Optional: Strain your yogurt in a yogurt strainer or nut bag. You can save any whey if you have a use for it, but otherwise feel free to toss it.