Recipes

Coconut Yogurt

The richest of the plant yogurts and the best-tasting in my view — but understand what is holding it together, because it is not protein. Coconut yogurt sets by fat solidifying when cold, which means it is thick out of the refrigerator and loose at room temperature, and it will separate.

Fermented · Dairy Free

Coconut Yogurt
Prep 20 minutes
Cook 12–24 hours incubation
Serves Makes about 3 cups
Level Easy

The richest of the plant yogurts and the best-tasting in my view — but understand what is holding it together, because it is not protein. Coconut yogurt sets by fat solidifying when cold, which means it is thick out of the refrigerator and loose at room temperature, and it will separate.

Ingredients

  • 2 cans (about 800 ml) full-fat coconut milk or coconut cream
  • 2 tsp sugar or maple syrup
  • 2 tsp tapioca starch (optional, for body)
  • 2 Tbsp live plain yogurt, or a vegan starter

Directions

  1. Key ingredients
  2. Full-fat CANNED coconut milk — not carton coconut beverage, which is mostly water — sugar, and a starter.
  3. Whisk the starch in cold if you are using it, then heat gently to 180 °F to cook it out and kill competitors. Skip the starch and you will have a looser, more separating yogurt; that is a real tradeoff, not a shortcut.
  4. Add the sugar — coconut milk has little the culture can use.
  5. Cool to 110 °F and inoculate.
  6. Incubate 12–24 hours. Coconut ferments noticeably slower than dairy or soy.
  7. Chill undisturbed for several hours. It firms dramatically cold — do not judge it warm.

Notes

PROVENANCE. Mine. The starch is my concession after several batches that tasted excellent and separated into fat and thin liquid within a day.

IT WILL SEPARATE and that is physics rather than failure. There is no protein gel holding a continuous network; there is fat that is solid when cold. Whisk it back together, or use the starch, or accept it.

JUDGE IT AS ITSELF. Coconut yogurt is a rich, tangy cultured cream. Judged as a dairy substitute it disappoints; judged as what it is, it is excellent. Most disappointment with plant yogurt is a framing problem rather than a recipe one.

THICKENERS AND WHAT THEY DO: tapioca starch (1–2 tsp per cup, clean flavor, my default), agar (¼–½ tsp per cup, sets firm and can go rubbery, must be boiled), pectin, guar or xanthan (⅛ tsp per cup, no cooking needed, slimy if overdone).

The tang is identical to dairy yogurt’s — it is the same acid. Only the structure differs.