The Spunky Coconut

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Coconut Milk Dairy-Free Yogurt

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Dairy-Free Coconut Milk Yogurt recipe

As you may know, I have been obsessed with making my own dairy-free yogurt for a while now. I was completely satisfied and thrilled with my best Dairy-free Yogurt recipe, but then one day I just had to make a new batch and couldn’t wait until my cashews had soaked to make cashew milk. This version is 100% coconut milk, and I think I might like it even more.

Coconut Milk Dairy-Free Yogurt

Note: Make sure all of your equipment is sterilized.

Add to pot:
3 (13 oz) cans full-fat coconut milk (this is my favorite)
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/8 teaspoon vanilla liquid stevia (or to taste)
the contents of 1 vanilla bean

Bring to simmer. Watch carefully so it doesn’t boil over. Once it begins to simmer turn off the heat.

Whisk in:
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon gelatin (OR 1.5 teaspoons agar powder) that has been completely dissolved into 1/2 cup boiling water.

Pour the liquids into a bowl and put that bowl into a larger one of cold (but not iced) tap water.
(Note: Omit this step if using agar powder, and let it cool down on it’s own so the agar powder doesn’t get lumpy) Whisking also helps it cool down faster.

When you have reached about 92°F add:
The contents of enough dairy-free probiotic capsules to equal about 35 billion. (I use Ther-biotic Complete, by Klaire Labs.)

Ladle into jars and keep warm for about 12 to 24 hours. I put my jars on top of a heating pad, sandwiched between two cloth napkins. A yogurt maker will also work. There will be a clear pool at the bottom while it sits. Make sure the lids are secure then shake the yogurt to mix it in before refrigerating. (Note: For agar option this probably won’t happen.)

Refrigerate for 8 hours.

Makes about 6 cups.

♥, Kelly

This post was updated on July 3, 2014.

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  3. I am planning to spotlight and feature throughout the month of November cookies that vegans can enjoy for the Holidays. These cookies are all made by my blogroll vegan friends.

    I would like to include you as one of my blog guests for that month.

    Every 4 days I will highlight one of my vegan bloggers from my blogroll with one of their best holiday cookie recipes. I will highlight their blog on my blog for 4 days.

    I will post the written information they sent me for the month of November for 4 days. Then I will highlight another blogger friend. Once I have highlighted you, you then need to post it on your blog sending your blogger friends towards my blog to see your guest post.

    Make sure your recipe is not complicated.

    If you are interested to join me on this month of great vegan or raw cookie recipes please email me all the information I have requested by October 20th.

    Your entry must be in writing and sent to me via email. I need you to send me a photo of yourself and a photo of your family. In your summary tell me a little bit about yourself, where yo live, your marital status, your career and of course your recipe complete with a photograph of your cookies.

    scoobynana2@hotmail.com

    Thank you.

  6. just found your blog. we are embarking on the gluten free adventure and need all the help we can get! love your blog. i was looking at your list of lifestyle products- stainless steel drinking straws? who knew!!?? very cool! thanks for all the information you share…joanne

  7. I’ve just made some cashew yogurt recently, w/o the gelatin, using tapioca and I think the gelatin would probably be brilliant, firmer and less lumpy! I just have ONE question. If my probiotic capsule has 50 billion or 80 billion should I use just 1 instead of 9? Thanks so much for the recipe and for making what was going to be my next experiment, cashews and coconut cream. You’re the best.

  8. Agar-agar should definitely work, I just don’t know how much to use.

    I wish I knew about the 50+ billion probiotic substitution. I don’t though.

  9. Kelly – Can’t wait to try your new yogurt recipe. My question – why 9 capsules? I noticed that Solaray sells Multidophilus powder as well as capsules – just trying to figure out how you know how many capsules to use so I can figure out how much powder to use.

  10. Oh My Gosh!! I just figured out how to leave a comment! This is the first blog I have ever joined. I want to thank you so much for your recipes. I just bought your book and am waiting for it to arrive. Having to eat egg, gluten,dairy, night shade, and soy free is such a challenge. I am such a foodie that I spend so much time in the kitchen to make food that everyone will love. It helps so much to have sites like yours. Thanks a bunch!

  13. What a georgous dairy free yoghurt this is!!

    I must make this,..The end result looks fab!

    MMMMMMMMMM,..I really love your unique blog & I made a lot of your tasty recipes & they never fail me!

    Many greetings from Brussels, Belgium!

  14. I made this yesterday. Well I planned to. I had cashew milk but couldn’t find the coconut milk so I used 6 cups of home-made cashew milk; 1 1/2 Tbsp gelatin; but only 1 probiotic capsule because mine have like 80 billion active cultures and I thought 9 of those might be overdoing it. I think I messed up by leaving it in the yogurt maker 12 instead of 10 hours. I do though, have the most thick, gorgeous batch of homemade yogurt which tastes and smells more like buttermilk. Even better is that it’s the perfect thing for cupcakes and coffeecakes and I made it myself! Now I’m just trying to figure out if it got extra tart because of the probiotics or the extra 2 hours? It doesn’t really matter as I will be making this again and again. I used about 1/4 cup this morning in a berry smoothie and felt quite virtuous. Thank you again. Laurel

  16. Omgosh! Thank you SO much for posting this. It is delicious!
    My friend and I made it yesterday and it is definatly going to be a regular in my house. 😉
    LOVE IT!!

  19. Just this week I made an all coconut milk yogurt that was so yummy. 4 cups coconut milk + 3T tapioca starch + 1T coconut yogurt (So Delicious brand) for starter. Now I am going to try yours! Sounds Delish! Thanks

  20. Kelly, My kids and I are crazy about your recipes. Previous to finding you I made all almond flour recipes and they liked them but were not elated over them. I made your banana bread (from new cookbook) for breakfast and they all thought it was the best banana bread they had ever eaten. I felt the same. We love the spunky coconut. Hope you and your family have a blessed holiday. Tessa Sansovich PS Our dog is named Coconut!!

  21. Just tried the cash-coco-yog last night, and it’s delicious! As a dairy, sugar, and soy-free mama, I have really been missing yogurt, one of my favorite foods. From my years and years of making dairy yogurt, a few observations: if you actually boil the yogurt (get temp to 120), it kills bacteria which will squeeze out the probiotic growth. I found that the more sterile everything was, and if I brought temp to 120, my yogurt would set better and be firmer. Also, the longer you let it sit, the more sour it will be.

  22. I Tried making this yogurt twice…and I did not firm up at all…I followed the directions to a the T…do you have any suggestions! Thanks so much! Sarah

  24. I tried the recipe using agar-agar, half and half of each milk, and a different non dairy probiotic, and the results were phenomenal! My mother used to make regular yogourt in an electric “skillet” with a lid, which inspired me to put all the mason jars in my slow cooker with about an inch of water, and it worked great! I turned it off occasionally to make sure it didn’t get too hot. Oh, I skipped the stevia and just put the double amound of coconut sugar, and it was perfect for me.

    Thank you so such a wonderful recipe! I felt so proud when I tasted it this morning, and it was sooo good; I can only imagine how proud you must be for having created the recipe.

    hugs
    Sonia

  25. We have recently gone dairy free in my house for me and my kids. They were milk and yogurt fiends prior to this so I can’t wait to try this! I have been looking for a way to make yogurt that was soy free since I don’t want my kids or me to have too much soy and my husband is allergic to it. Thanks for the recipe!

  26. I’m wondering if anyone has tried straining their dairy-free yogurt to make Greek yogurt/cream cheese. I’m planning to start making yogurt from coconut milk, and I also want to start making other fermented foods, because I’ve been reading about the health benefits in “Nourishing Traditions,” plus I love sauerkraut, and I really love corned beef and pastrami but I don’t like the nitrites that are in commercial cured meats. So all of the recipes for fermented foods either recommend or require whey, and you are supposed to make the whey by making yogurt and then straining they liquid whey from it. Then when you add the whey to the stuff you’re going to ferment, all of the lactic-acid bacteria that it’s starting off with ensure that the fermentation will go well. So I just want to know whether the liquid strained from dairy-free yogurt will work the same way as actual dairy whey. Otherwise I have no way of making some of the recipes without using real whey. So has anyone tried this?

  27. i really loved the flavor of this one, and i left the sweeteners out as well. then i thought about it, and do you need the honey for the probiotics? the texture also came out a bit like jello- was yours like that? i didn’t have that issue with the all cashew version. thanks kelly!

  28. okay- i seem to have answered my question. you definitely need to the sugar for the probiotics to feed- it came out much better with just a tsp of coconut sugar and a few drops of stevia added. i left it in the oven to sit for almost 14 hours and it came out nice and tart and delicious!

  30. I have a 9-tray Excalibur dehydrator. Do you know if that would work as a warm environment? Thanks!

  33. Hi Kelly!

    I didn’t have the chance to look on your other posts about yogurt……can I sub the cashew milk with almond and get the same results? This recipe is most certainly do-able at my house! Thanks for sharing 🙂

  34. Anyone figure out the amount of agar agar to use in place of the gelatin? The 7.1 tsp in the recipe was confusing to me…. Also cow’s milk yogurt can be fermented for up to 24 hours, longer being better. Does anyone know if the cultures in my vegan yogurt starter can tolerate that amount of time? Thanks. Looking forward to trying this out. 🙂

  35. Hi Kelly,

    I hope you and your family are doing super terrific!

    I am new in the cooking world so this may seem like a silly question. Do I put lids on the jars while it is being warm for 10 hours?

    Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge!

  36. I’m sorry if someone has already asked this question, but it is full-fat coconut milk or can I use So Delicious unsweetened?? Also, can this yogurt be used as a starter for the next batch? Thanks!!!!!

  37. thank you so much for sharing your recipe…my son has to do a six food elimination diet and eliminating milk is the hardest for him…but we also have to eliminate nuts- so can’t use the cashew milk…Can I just use the So-delicious unsweetend coconut milk…if so- how much Agar Agar would I use and how many probiotic caps for a half-gallon container?

  38. So excited to have discovered this recipe via pinterest! I have tried multiple times to produce edible dairy-free yogurt and have failed! Question: the probiotics we take are a powder. Approx how many teaspoons should I add?

  39. Hi Kelly 🙂 first off I have to say I love your recipes… I tried the recipe for yogurt with more coconut milk… but something must have gone wrong because I ended up with 3 layers… the top one all the coconut fat hardened, the middle one very runny yogurt and the bottom one a yellowish liquid… what could have gone wrong????:( thanks a lot in advance!!!

  40. That happens sometimes. Did you put shake/stir and then refrigerate? That’s what I do, and it turns out fine 🙂

  41. Hi Kelly 😀 How long does a batch of your yogurt stay fresh for?
    Thanks so much!

  42. I just ladled my first batch of this recipe into jars and plugged in the yogurt maker…I can hardly wait to taste it when it’s finished, since it tastes so good just the way it is! Thank you SO much for all of your recipes! Those of us with allergies and sensitivities are so very grateful!

  43. Is this yogurt sweet or does the bacteria eat the sugar? I don’t like sweetened yogurt at all.

  44. Do you have to put probiotic in? I have everything but that and would like to make it. Will the taste change if I leave it out??

  45. Hi Kelly,
    Thanks for this! Just a quick question – what temperature, roughly is fine, would you say you are incubating the yoghurt at? Most recipes I’ve seen suggested 6-8 hours incubation so I wonder if yours was 12-24 at a lower temperature.
    Thanks,
    Em

    • I don’t know the temperature. I know some people use an Excaliber dehydrator, so it’s probably close to 120F.

  46. This is awesome. Easy to make, and I love the flavor. I,put in extra kirfir because I like the sour taste. I really wondered if this was possible, so pleased to find it is.

  47. Hi Kelly! This looks amazing! Any idea how much pectin you might sub in for the gelatin? And any tips on adapting this if I wanted to use my cuisinart yogurt maker?
    Thanks!

    • Maybe that would work, but I haven’t tried it. To make the recipe vegetarian I have used agar powder instead of the gelatin.

    • Cultures for Health web site has recipes for nondairy yogurt that work well in the Cuisinart machine. I like mine best with 1 can full fat coconut milk and use cashew milk for the remaining amount. I then follow the rest of the directions on the website. I culture it for 10 hours in the machine. If it separates, I stir it before refrigerating. It sets up firmer in an actual refrigerator. The resulting yogurt is similar to a pudding. I haven’t tried draining it.

  48. This sounds wonderful! Going shopping for more coconut milk to try recipe tomorrow. Thank you for sharing!!

  50. I love this coconut milk recipe. I’ve been making my own yogurt for years so I am used to the
    technique so it was very easy. I like coconut milk and the coconut yogurt in the stores is too
    expensive for my budget. This I can manage and I do enjoy it. I don’t have to go dairy free
    but my son does, so this will be a help. It is very good.

  51. Hi – I tired this recipe and am trying to figure out what went wrong. I followed it exactly and used high quality probiotic capsules. But when I opened the yogurt maker after 24 hours there were some gross brownish clumps floating on the top. I strained them out, shaked the layers together and refrigerated, but this morning it separated again and is still runny. What did I do wrong?

    • Those brownish clumps may have been bad bacteria or mold (I would not eat that batch). You’ll need to make sure that your container and utensils are sterilized before making the yogurt. Otherwise, bad stuff will grow along with your good probiotics.

  52. Hi Kelly,
    I so want to try this, I have been looking it at it for a few weeks, but I do not know where or how to get dairy free probiotics. the website you linked to required a code from a doctor or someone and all I have is a naturopathic doctor and a chiropractor. Would something else work for culture? Or is there another brand of the dairy free probiotics that you recommend? thanks so much! I love your recipes

  53. This may be a silly question- but I have Ther-Biotic complete powder. It says that 1/4 tsp. equals 100 billion. So should I add just a pinch of probiotic?

    Also, I don’t have a yogurt maker. Can I use a crock pot?

    • Yes, that’s what I would do.

      I haven’t made it in the crock pot, I’m afraid of it getting too hot, though I know there are crock pot techniques out there. I use the heating pad method described in the post 🙂

      • So it worked! And this is definitely the best dairy free yogurt (and possibly even better than dairy yogurt) that I have EVER eaten. My daughter, who hasn’t been able to have dairy for years, was so happy that I made this, and overjoyed at how delicious it is.

        The crock pot method does work. I ladled my cultured, cooled coconut milk into small mason jars, put lids on them, and placed them in l a crock pot that I had heated on warm as I prepared the yogurt. Then I turned the crock pot off, put the lid on and wrapped it all in a few hand towels. I left it alone overnight, and checked on it in the morning. The yogurt was a little runny, but really sour and delicious. We set it in the fridge, and 3 hours later it was perfect. I like how tart it turned out- it kind if reminds me of Siggis yogurt, which was my kids’ favorite brand.

        Thank you again for such an awesome recipe!

  54. I just made this and had just a wee bit left over that wouldn’t fit into the baby food jars that I used, so I slurped it up. YUMMO!!!!! Is there a way to make this a savory yogurt so I could use it to make tzatziki? 🙂 Just leave out the stevia, vanilla, and maple syrup? I don’t know if those are integral or not to the texture of the yogurt . . . . . . .

    Thank you for this post! I am so so so so excited to wake up tomorrow and check out my yogurt. <3

  55. I think people such as yourself do not get enough credit.
    These recipes are INVENTED after much trial and error, this takes time and dedication.
    Thank you so much for letting us have the results so our lives are improved as quite a lot of us have very specific needs and are prohibited so much that we watch others enjoy.

  56. When I poured the gelatin into the boiling water – it did not dissolve, but clumped into gelatine globs. Time didn’t help. Please let me know if you have ideas about this.

    Also, I could try agar. Do you have any amounts/process for this?

    Many thanks!

  57. WOW! I just tried the yogurt last night and this is the first time since I went dairy-free a few years ago that I feel like I am eating real yogurt. Nice thick consistency. Lovely taste!!! Thank you so much. I got so excited about this yogurt that my husband thought I was going crazy…That’s how good it is!! I made sure to sterilize everything beforehand and use a glass bowl and a wooden spoon to stir the coconut milk after putting the probiotics in because I’ve heard that they are reactive to metal…
    Thank you so much for this great and simple recipe, Kelly!

  58. I made this recipe with just the coconut milk cream (I used the cream and the more watery milk that settles in the can), probiotics, and gelatin. It ended up tasty but not very thick (more like drinkable yogurt). How can I make it thicker, add more gelatin? Is it a problem that I did not add the maple syrup? There was a watery later on the bottom which I assume was the culture, so I think it worked, I just want it thicker