Homemade Coconut Milk Yogurt

Homemade coconut milk yogurt is a rich and creamy dairy-free yogurt. Unlike other vegan yogurts (soy milk or almond milk) coconut milk yogurt can be as thick as you want without any additives. Just use a good quality preservative-free coconut milk (affiliate link) that contains some coconut cream.

The thickness of the coconut milk will determine how thick the yogurt is. Personally, I like to use coconut cream or a blend of coconut milk and coconut cream for thick and creamy vegan yogurt.

What to do with homemade coconut milk yogurt

If you’re interested in making coconut milk yogurt, then it’s probably because you already love it! But coconut milk yogurt is not just a delicious vegan alternative, it’s also a great way to get more probiotics into your diet.

1. Mix it into smoothies or popsicles.
2. Have it for breakfast with granola.
3. Serve it with Thai pumpkin curry soup or an Indian Mung bean curry. If you add it after serving, then you won’t accidentally kill the probiotics.
4. Add some fresh berries for a delicious snack!

Culturing coconut milk

Choosing a culture for coconut yogurt isn’t easy. The issue is that the type of fat in coconut oil is naturally antimicrobial. Which means that it naturally prevents bacterial growth. However, I have successfully cultured coconut cream many times. The only trick is that you should start with fresh culture each time you make yogurt. Reusing your homemade coconut milk yogurt will quickly result in a diminished culture.

What is the best culture for coconut yogurt?

Here are a few options for culturing coconut milk, including some advice for each type of culture.

1. Store-bought vegan yogurt: I have tried several different vegan yogurt brands, and they all made delicious coconut yogurt. In fact, I find that vegan yogurt brands work better than dairy yogurt for culturing coconut milk. Vegan yogurts tend to contain thermophilic cultures and will need to be heated to 110 F (40 C) for culturing. If you want to use vegan yogurt, then I recommend dividing the tub of yogurt into small containers and freezing them so you can make lots of batches with a single tub of yogurt.
2. Powdered vegan yogurt culture: Buying a vegan yogurt culture (affiliate link) is the best way to get really active lactic bacterial culture. If probiotics are your main goal, then I recommend this option. And considering the price of vegan yogurt, it’s actually quite affordable.
3. Dairy yogurt culture: I have found that it takes longer for dairy yogurt to culture coconut milk, however, it will eventually sour. Just like regular yogurt, coconut milk will need to be kept at 110F (40C) for culturing.
4. Milk kefir: Coconut milk kefir is really easy to make. I don’t recommend it for your main kefir grains, but if you want to make cultured coconut milk with a kefir baby, you should be able to get a few batches. This is my main way of making homemade coconut milk yogurt because I always have extra kefir grains.
5. Probiotic supplement: Unfortunately most probiotic supplements aren’t full of vigorous strains of lactic bacteria. I’ve tried to culture several expensive brands without much success. Unless you want to test the efficacy of a probiotic supplement, then I don’t recommend using it to make yogurt.
6. Kombucha and other SCOBYs: I haven’t personally tried to use kombucha to make coconut milk yogurt, however, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be able to culture coconut milk. Here’s a recipe if you’re keen to try it.

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