ellennilsson asked: Hi,
Some time ago you had home-made soygurt to your oat porridge, it sounded like an interesting combination I'd like to try. How do you make the soygurt?

Great blog!

Thanks! Making soy or coconut yogurt is really easy. I found a non-dairy yogurt starter culture on the internet, which lasts for ages in the freezer. You only need a tiny amount each time, and you can use a tablespoon of yogurt from each batch you make to start the next batch.

If you’re in Australia, you can get a dairy-free culture from Green Living Australia, or just search for one in your country.

To make the yogurt, I heat a carton of soy milk (Bonsoy) and a scant teaspoon of sugar* to 44 degrees Celcius, then stir in a few grains of the culture and pour the lot into a sterilised jar. This I put in my incubator (a 20+ yr old yogurt maker I found in an op-shop for $7, but a warmed Esky, some towels and a jar of hot water will do the trick) and leave it overnight. The jar then gets stored in the fridge. Once you have a jar of yogurt made, you can just reserve a tablespoonful in a clean container and store it in the freezer until you need to make yogurt again. You won’t need any sugar this time, just add the (thawed) reserved yogurt to your heated milk.

I’m now experimenting with coconut milk, my first batch wasn’t great but it’ll get better!

* Animal milk contains lactose, which is a sugar the yogurt bacteria feed off, which is what makes it cultured. Non-dairy milk doesn’t contain lactose so you need to add sugar to give those lovely bacteria something to munch on.