My family is crazy about soy yogurt. My husband puts it on his breakfast cereal, my daughter likes it in smoothies, and I eat it with fruit, mostly frozen berries at this time of year. But I have a problem with store-bought soy yogurt. The only brand I can find “plain” is Whole Soy, and it’s neither plain nor wholly soy: Organic Evaporated Cane Juice is the second ingredient, and for a supposedly plain yogurt, it tastes very sweet. I find that it’s impossible to use it in non-sweet dishes such as raitas because of its excessive sweetness. To top it off, it doesn’t even taste very “yogurty”—it’s missing the distinctive tang of real yogurt.
So around the time I bought my soymilk maker, I decided to buy an inexpensive yogurt maker. While you can make yogurt in any container that you can keep warm, I’ve found that my drafty house isn’t the most reliable place to make yogurt. The Salton yogurt maker is just a simple device that keeps the yogurt at a stable temperature, and when the yogurt is finished incubating, the container goes right into the refrigerator. No more contributing to landfill waste with those plastic yogurt containers! If you make your soymilk at home, the cost of homemade yogurt is a fraction of the cost of Whole Soy, but even using packaged soymilk, you can save a lot by making your own.
The one big difference between soy yogurt and dairy yogurt is that soy yogurt won’t get as thick as dairy unless you add something to it for thickening. For a while I was adding pectin to my yogurt, as instructed by Bryanna Clark Grogan’s tutorial on soy yogurt (which is, unfortunately, no longer available online). I kept having uneven results, however; for some reason, my yogurt sometimes came out with lumps of pectin in it, but other times, it was fine. I finally decided to try using agar instead, and lately I’ve had more consistent results. I don’t use a lot of agar because I don’t want it to come out jelly-like; instead I use just enough to give it a slight thickness. It’s not as thick as dairy yogurt, but it’s thick enough for how I use it.
The following instructions were written for using packaged soymilk. For best results, select a brand that is not fat-free. (I know, this is that last place you thought you’d hear that!) Different brands produce different results, so be prepared to do some experimenting to find out which brand works well for you. I’ve found that Soy Dream works better than any of the other brands I’ve tried and also makes a whiter yogurt. (Unfortunately, Soy Dream was unavailable when I was making the batch in the photos below; I’m using VitaSoy Complete, which my husband bought on clearance, and it’s off-off-white. Beware of letting spouses shop!) If you are using homemade or unsweetened soymilk, add 1 tablespoon of sugar to it–yogurt cultures need some sugar to feed upon.
Homemade Soy Yogurt
click for printer-friendly version
This recipe will fill a yogurt maker that uses a single 1-quart container.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup plain soy yogurt
- 1 teaspoon powdered agar agar
- 1 quart plain soymilk
Instructions
1. Take 1/2 cup of plain soy yogurt out of the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature.
2. Put a kettle or pot of water on to boil. While it’s heating, gather your materials:
- dinner plate
- 2 large spoons
- 1 whisk or hand blender
- large (non-plastic) microwaveable bowl
- food thermometer
- 1 measuring teaspoon
- agar-agar powder
- 1 quart plain soymilk
- yogurt maker
3. When the water boils, scald the dinner plate first, making sure that the whole surface comes into contact with the water. Then scald the other utensils, including the thermometer, and place them on the plate. Be sure you also scald the hand blender or whisk, the bowl, and the yogurt maker’s container and anything else that might come into contact with the yogurt. You don’t want any stray bacteria growing in your yogurt!
4. Put two cups of the soymilk into the bowl and sprinkle it with a teaspoon of the agar powder. Allow it to soften for a few minutes. Then place the bowl in the microwave and set it on high power for about 4 minutes. Stir every minute until it reaches a boil.
5. When the soymilk reaches a boil, remove it from the microwave and add the remaining two cups of soymilk. Stir well. Put the food thermometer into the milk and wait until the temperature drops to about 115° F. While you are waiting, stir the soymilk every once in a while to keep the agar from gelling.
6. Plug in your yogurt maker to begin warming it.
7. When the temperature of the soymilk drops to 115° F, add the 1/2 cup yogurt. Blend it in very well using either a whisk or hand blender. Pour it into your yogurt maker’s container and place inside the yogurt maker. Plug in or turn on your yogurt maker.
8. Check the yogurt after 5 or 6 hours. If it’s as tart as you’d like, you may stop then, but normally it will take about 8 hours to reach the right tartness. (I find that when I use store-bought yogurt as a starter, it takes much longer, often 12 hours, to be ready.) Do not worry if it has separated. When it seems tangy enough, remove it from the incubator and whisk or blend it well with the hand blender. Put it into the refrigerator and chill for several hours. Your yogurt will now be ready to use.
Once your yogurt is made, you can mix it with fresh or thawed fruit, use it in smoothies, or use it in any recipe calling for yogurt. Be sure to save 1/2 a cup to use as your next yogurt starter.
Preparation time: 60 minute(s) | Cooking time: 6 hours(s)
Number of servings (yield): 8
Shirley
January 9, 2012 at 8:17 amI tried making soy yogurt yesterday for the first time and the results were really good. I have a yogurt maker that had been gathering dust since I went vegan back in 2008. What joy to have quality yogurt again thank you for the recipe and detailed directions.
Shirley
January 19, 2012 at 9:12 amMade second batch of yogurt yesterday. 2 quick questions.
1) I can only get agar in little flakes not powder. I have been everywhere and this is all I can find. Where do you all find your agar powder?
2) Has anyone added more agar to get a thicker yogurt?
Susan Voisin
January 19, 2012 at 9:41 amYou could try grinding your agar flakes to a powder in a blender. I buy agar powder in the Asian grocery store where it’s very inexpensive.
You can add more agar. Just be careful not to add too much or you’ll have yogurt jello!
Shirley
January 19, 2012 at 9:46 amI tried milling it down in a coffee grinder, a blender and my food processor and the stuff stayed in flakes. I do have a huge Asian market near me and will try there to find the powder. Thanks again.
Penny
June 5, 2021 at 3:58 pmI add 1/2 teaspoon agar powder to a 1 litre yoghurt mix which gives a good consistency to the finished yoghurt.
Amanda
May 6, 2012 at 3:14 pmI am trying to understand how this is considered healthy since it is cooked in a microwave. What does the process look like without the use of a microwave?
Susan Voisin
May 6, 2012 at 3:20 pmThere is nothing unhealthy about cooking in a microwave (in fact, it can be healthier than other forms of cooking), but anything that can be done in the microwave can be done in a pot on the stove.
Mike
August 9, 2012 at 8:40 pmI have reliably achieved a reasonably thick consistency without agar, tapioca, or xanthan gum by using a soy-oat yogurt recipe I came up with:
Puree 1 cup rolled oats with about 1-1.5 cups water in the blender. Pour into fine mesh strainer and drain. Take the strained liquid (the solids in the strainer can be eaten as cereal later) and add enough water to equal 2 cups.
Combine that 2 cups of oatmilk and 2 cups soymilk and heat everything until boiling (the heating is essential to enhance the thickening power of the oats).
Then, cool to about 105 degrees. Add to yogurt machine or thermos. Add the culturing yogurt (about 1/2 cup). Let sit for 12 hours or more.
Alexandra
August 14, 2012 at 10:34 amI like the idea of trying the oatmilk to create the creaminess. I did try the recipe using homemade soymilk and 1 PB8 capsule as the starter. I was very assiduous in stirring the agar; perhaps too much stirring. My yogurt thickened but was gelatinous. So I am still trying.
Cindy
September 18, 2012 at 4:07 pmWhat recipe do you use to make soymilk ? I have a maker but have found that I have a hard time making soymilk that tastes good to me. can’t wait to try making yogurt and then greek yogurt!
Christian
October 20, 2012 at 10:43 pmDear Susan I have a question please.
As a thickening agent do you think something like arrowroot powder would work dissolved into the warm soy milk? Also can you get cultures from say a health food store to start the process with instead of buying soy yogurt from a market as the starter?
I love yogurt and while I am mostly vegan I do use organic fat free & sugar free greek yogurt from time to time and would love to make my own dairy free. I find soy yogurts too sweet as well. I often use plain yogurt as a base for salad dressings.
Thanks for answering all of our questions your site is the best test kitchen!!!
I can almost smell the recipes through the computer screen!!!
Susan Voisin
October 20, 2012 at 11:08 pmI’m not sure that arrowroot would work because I think it needs to be heated to a higher temperature than the yogurt gets. If you don’t mind a little dairy, there are yogurt starters that you can buy. The only reason I didn’t mention them is because most are grown from dairy cultures so I don’t use them.
Thanks for the kind words and good luck!
Jennifer
October 31, 2012 at 8:44 amThank you so much for this! I didn’t even know soy yogurt existed and I live in a metropolitan area and have looked. I have an 18 month old who is allergic to dairy. Any type of dairy milk breaks her out in hives and causes her intense stomach pain. I’ve been at a loss for what to feed her for breakfast besides fruit and toast and she’s rapidly getting tired of those. So now thanks to you I can make my own soy yogurt for her and make her smoothies! I hope this isn’t a lifelong issue for her but if it is at least I’m slowly learning creative ways to feed her. I just wish there were more information or recipes dedicated to feeding dietary challenged toddlers lol!
Shauna Russ
November 4, 2012 at 4:49 pmHi Jennifer,
Many years ago, I also had to deal with a little one who suffered from several allergy issues and dairy was one of them. We used goat’s milk to substitute for dairy products as it didn’t seem that soy was that popular back then (or we were just not aware of it). Anyway, it’s nice to have as many options as possible. For the past 6 years I’ve had to REALLY learn about allergies since my service dog, a lovable little Staffordshire Bull Terrier, is almost allergic to the world! It was because of her that I even became aware of soy yogurt! Since learning so much about nutrition for her, I’ve started eating better and mostly have a vegetarian diet myself.
Susan, thank you for such an interesting and helpful site, I’ve already spent several hours out here today and look forward to trying many of the recipes. Thanks for all that you are sharing with us!
Fiona
November 15, 2012 at 4:23 amThis is a very helpful post! I have made almond milk yogurt (and pumpkin seed milk yogurt) according to Lexie’s Kitchen Blog but find it to be very fiddly and was sure there must be simpler directions out there. Your directions are definitely simpler! I think I will still heat up my almond milk on the stove because my stove is gas and heats up very quickly, but will otherwise follow your directions! Do you ever put your yogurt in an ice water bath to cool it more quickly to 115? I read on Lexie’s Kitchen Blog that this would cause the agar to start setting, but I don’t see why that would be a problem really. Thanks in advance for your input and for posting these directions!
Joe
January 27, 2013 at 9:35 pmThere is a very, very easy way to make cultured soy (soy yogurt). I had to come up with the following because soy yogurt manufacturers have all apparently gotten out of the business, at once, and it is a staple of mine. The rumor is that you can no longer use the words, “soy yogurt,” on any product because “yogurt” now has legal standing as a product that must contain dairy products. Not sure if that’s true, but I know that Silk is out of the soy yogurt biz, for now. OK, easy: Take a 14 oz. container of silken tofu, throw it in a food processor, add two cups of soy milk (any one you please), blend until it looks like pancake batter, pour into a glass bowl, add contents of three, open, probiotic capsules that contain at least three bacterial species, stir, place in oven with light on to give one-hundred degree temp reading, leave over night. In the morning, pour the now-thickened contents into a lock-tight container and chill in the fridge. In a few hours you will have the best cultured soy you’ve ever tasted. No fuss, no hassle, great cultured soy! Enjoy!
Alexandra
January 30, 2013 at 1:20 pmI made this last night, and it worked like a charm; I used only 2 capsules of acidophilus, and it produced a fairly mild and sweet tasting yogurt. Thank you for this idea/recipe.
Garland
February 3, 2013 at 10:09 pmHi Joe
I live in Australia and was wondering with the oven part of the recipe. Do you mean leave the light on and that will be the equivalent of 100 degrees farenheit (in Australia it is Celsuis). I am assuming overnight is 12 hours.
Many thanks Garland.
Paul in NJ
March 4, 2013 at 8:12 pmHave you updated or changed this recipe since 2007? For example, have you tried adding soy powder, or soy protein, as a thickener? I’ve tried the protein but, as of yet, not the powder.
Susan Voisin
March 4, 2013 at 9:34 pmNo, I don’t use concentrated soy protein, so that would never occur to me to try.
Paul in NJ
March 4, 2013 at 9:07 pmWhen Silk stopped offering quarts of soy yogurt I called the company directly. They told me that, yes, they’d discontinued the quarts, but that the product would return as “fruit on the bottom” individual serving packages.
As for the rumor that “soy yogurt” is now forbidden, not so — the dairy lobby has been complaining to the FDA for years about “misleading” labeling, but the FDA is in no hurry to go there. Here’s the link to the article:
http://www.capitalpress.com/newest/CRD-dairy-imitation-021513
Rj Angus
April 19, 2013 at 5:21 pmLooks tasty. Wanna try this out for a change. I consume “cow’s milk” yogurt btw. Can I replace plain soy yogurt with plain cow’s milk yogurt? In recipe.
Susan Voisin
April 19, 2013 at 5:32 pmYes, but you might do better to just use a recipe specific for cow’s milk.
OrganicallyUs
June 29, 2013 at 12:19 pmGood morning! I just finished making some super thick soy yogurt. I use soy protein to make it thicker, which works really well. Especially since I need a higher protein diet. Here’s a post with the picture of how thick it turned out. http://goo.gl/uwkeD. It was started around 9pm last night, and the photo is when it was being released from the salton at 9am this morning (12 hours).
It is not as tangy as milk yogurt, however I am unable to consume milk products regularly. Soy yogurt generally lacks the tangy flavor because it lacks lactic acid. I can, however, add lemon!
Hanifah
June 29, 2013 at 7:19 pmThanks for the recipe. Soy yogurts are difficult to find in any market at this time. I never thought about this happening; what’s next! I better get back to homemade-slow down and do it right.
Thanks again
Hanifah
Deb
July 1, 2013 at 2:54 pmHi Susan!
Is this still your go-to recipe for yogurt? Have you ever tried the vegan starter culture from Cultures for Health? I ordered some, but it won’t be here for a few days. I’m going to give your method with the agar a try (agar should arrive today =).
Thank you for all your hard work in helping us all to eat better!!!
Karin Dietsch
July 23, 2013 at 8:07 pmI made this soy yogurt and it is absolutely delicious. I am wondering if you have ever tried to make almond milk yogurt?
Art Scott
July 25, 2013 at 8:45 pmHi Susan: I’d love to try this, as I love yogurt, and I see a lot of wonderful recipes on your site that use it as an ingredient. My question is, for how long can you save and use the 1/2 c as a starter, how many cycles about? Or do I need to plan on having fresh new starter. Thanks a bunch, Scott
Susan Voisin
July 25, 2013 at 10:10 pmIt depends a lot on the potency of the batch, but I would count on using a new starter every three or four batches.
Ron
August 20, 2013 at 9:33 amThank you for this recipe/process. A couple of times you say things like “you can mix it with fresh or thawed fruit, use it in smoothies, or use it in any recipe calling for yogurt.” You don’t mention just eating it alone. Is it good like this? Is there any sweetness left after culturing?
Also I have a suggestion for sanitizing the equipment if you find using boiling water to be awkward or dangerous–Use a product intended for santizing equipment for homebrewing beer, either StarSan or SaniClean from Five Star Chemicals. Mix with water in a bucket, and drop in your equipment for a couple minutes. Make sure all soil is removed first, and make sure the solution covers all surfaces. This will kill all microorganisms. Do not rinse. As long as the solution is not cloudy, you can use it again. Works best with distilled water because of minerals in some water.
Susan Voisin
August 20, 2013 at 9:52 amRon, I’m sure you could eat the yogurt alone, but it’s not very sweet by itself, and I’m afraid I have a sweet tooth when it comes to yogurt and don’t really like it without fruit. (That goes for any yogurt, not just this recipe.) Thanks for the tip about the sanitizing product. I don’t really like using chemicals, but I appreciate the suggestion.
lee silverstein
October 6, 2013 at 9:49 amI have not been receiving your emails..miss you
M C
March 21, 2014 at 10:56 am“For best results, select a brand that is not fat-free.”
What happens if you use fat-free soymilk?
Susan Voisin
March 21, 2014 at 11:58 amIt just doesn’t get very thick.
belinda
April 2, 2014 at 9:22 amHi! Would I be ok using almond milk instead of soy milk in this recipe? Thanks 🙂
RonAU
June 26, 2014 at 6:53 pmAfter much experimentation (and thankfully never a failure), I’ve found the following works best for me. It produces a thick and tangy yoghurt.
2 cartons (2 litres) of full fat soy milk (I use whole soybean milk not the isolate type)
4 Tb of sugar (the sugar gets eaten by the culture during the process)
culture (I buy culture rather than use yoghurt)
Put soymilk in pan, add sugar, heat to 42C stirring all the time to dissolve the sugar. Cool to about 40C, stir in the culture. Add to electric yoghurt and ‘cook’ for 24 – 36 hours depending how much tartness you like.
I’ve tried using thickeners including soy protein powder (makes the yoghurt gritty and very soy-tasting) but find ‘au naturel’ to be the best.
RonAU
June 26, 2014 at 6:57 pmPS Whatever happened to Bryanna Clark Grogan’s website? Any link to it leads a page not found error.
SMJ
July 5, 2014 at 4:32 pmThanks for the tips! When I used agar, my yogurt came out tasting like seaweed. I’ve found the only thickener that works at all for me is pectin (the low- sugar kind), and I need about 1 tsp per cup of milk. Even then, I still have to strain the yogurt or it is too runny and separates. I’ve found that paper basket-style coffee filters work well and quickly for straining, and the strained yogurt falls out cleanly.
Katrina Begg
July 6, 2014 at 11:14 pmThank you for this recipe! I’ve made soy yogurt a couple of times with my yogurt maker and it turned out runny both times. I didn’t know what I was doing wrong. I feel guilty using dairy milk, so I will definitely try soy again.
Any tips for those of us using flakes instead of powder? I can’t seem to find the powder form.
Susan Voisin
July 7, 2014 at 9:05 amYou could try grinding the flakes in a blender. Or you can use them as-is. I think the ratio is 1 teaspoon powder = 3 teaspoons flakes, so you will need 3 times as much.
Emily Massey
September 17, 2014 at 7:45 pmI just put soy yogurt on to incubate, fingers crossed that it a hit. I’ve made dairy yogurt and have been attempting to find a soy yogurt recipe that works in my kitchen! Since this post is from a few years ago, I was curious if the Soy Dream is still your favorite brand for making yogurt? I’m using the one you recommended, since I’ve tried other brands before, Westsoy, Kirkland but did not like the resulting taste/texture with those… love you site, I refer here almost daily, but my first time commenting!
Mary Jurmain
February 6, 2015 at 2:14 pmI have found that making soy yogurt with the okara (pulp) intact works well. After my soymilk maker runs a cycle, I remove the okara and add it, along with flavorings, to a third of the soymilk and run it in my Vita-Mix for two minutes. I add it back to the soymilk and then wait until the milk has reached the proper temperature for adding starter.
I started doing this because I didn’t want to waste the pulp, but I find that this thicker soymilk does not require pectin or agar-agar to thicken to proper yogurt consistency.
The downside is that the yogurt is a bit grainier and less creamy. But the taste is the same.
Try it!
Dixie Benny
May 6, 2015 at 8:51 pmHi there!
Love this site. However, my brother-in-law cannot have even a drop of fat (heart condition) — so I’m counting on fat-free to be fat-free — not even a gram of fat. I would love to make the Choc. Orange Cake without the 1 gram of fat. I suspect that comes from the soy yogurt? Is there a substitute?
Thank you very much,
dixiebenny@gmail.com
james J hicks
February 8, 2016 at 11:27 amdoesn’t work. I have tried everything possible. Doesn’t work.
Judith
October 18, 2019 at 10:04 pmProblem here too, I followed the directions, using Westsoy plain whole soy milk, and it comes out like jello and when you mix it, the consistency is like cottage cheese, taste is off too. Now what?
Ashley
April 7, 2016 at 6:50 amThanks for the recipe! I was wondering if I might be able to combine this method with another I had read about using canned coconut milk in order to make a coconut yogurt. Would you recommend me using half a cup of coconut yogurt instead of the soy yogurt? Or do you think this method would work fine either way?
I also intend to use an easiyo yogurt maker. If you have heard of this, do you think it will work?
Thanks in advance!
Susan Voisin
April 7, 2016 at 8:44 amI’m afraid I don’t have any experience making coconut yogurt or using that brand of yogurt maker. Making yogurt is a tricky business, but if you’re not afraid to experiment (and possibly fail) then I think it’s worth a try.
Amy
May 24, 2016 at 12:07 amHello Susan! A while ago I was inspired by this post to start making my own soy yogurt and it’s been great! At least it’s been great until now. How do you know if your yogurt has strayed into the do-not-eat zone? Today time slipped away from me and my yogurt ended up fermenting for about 37 hours (I normally do about 30 hours because I find it thickens up more). When I pulled it out it had some weird green-ish stuff on the top and sides and it looked almost dried out. However once I got past the first layer it looked fine. Any ideas if this is within the “normal” range? Or should I just scratch the whole batch?
Susan Voisin
May 24, 2016 at 8:09 amI’m afraid of any change of color, so even thought it might be ok inside, I would throw out that batch, very regretfully.
Amy
May 30, 2016 at 10:42 pmThanks you for confirming! I ended up ditching the batch as I figured making a new batch was cheaper than going to the doctor.
Susan Davis
September 12, 2016 at 8:32 pmHello,
Thank you for the great recipe! I have a question — do you know how many calories are in this homemade yogurt? I’m hoping to find soy yogurt that’s around 110 calories per cup or less — if it’s possible. Right now I’ve been eating non-fat dairy yogurt that’s 110 calories, but I’m hoping to quit dairy.
Also, has anyone seen any grocery store yogurt that’s low calorie? I can’t find any. I’m wondering if it’s even possible to make soy yogurt low calorie. If that’s true, I wonder why. Thank you again. Your whole site is wonderful!
Susan Voisin
September 12, 2016 at 10:39 pmThe number of calories would depend on the type of soymilk you use. I would make it, divide it up into as many cups as it makes, and divide the calories of the soymilk by the number of cups it make. I think you are right that it’s probably impossible to get it as low as 110 calories.
Melinda
April 5, 2017 at 11:44 amI made my first soy yogurt in the Instant Pot with a batch of homemade soymilk from the Soyjoy maker, 1 Tbsp sugar, 1/2 tsp agar, and Natren yogurt starter. 12 hours on the yogurt setting followed by overnight refrigeration. It turned out lovely. It could be stirred before serving for uniform consistency. It was super easy and the best nondairy yogurt I have ever had (I couldn’t try yours exactly because I didnt have your ingredients). Because the milk was hot out of the soyjoy there was no need to reheat it…just cool and add the ingredients and pop the pint mason jars into the instantpot. Thanks for the inspiration. The agar worked great.
Neva
July 13, 2017 at 10:47 amYour yogurt recipe is from 2007. Is this the one you still use? Any changes at all?
Thanks
Susan Voisin
July 13, 2017 at 11:01 amHi Neva, I haven’t been making yogurt lately, so I don’t have an update.
Elizabeth C
June 9, 2018 at 2:33 pmI have a question. You said you had a soy milk maker. I am wondering why you don’t use the soymilk you made to then make your yogurt? Why would you buy boxed soy milk? The comment from Melinda above indicates that she did so with great results.. However Jill Nussinow, author of the Vegan Under Pressure cookbook, states that she cannot get homemade soymilk to work to make yogurt. She also uses the boxed milk. I don’t understand why there’s an issue. I’ve been lugging home boxes of soy milk from the grocer long enough! I’m wondering what your experience has been please. Or maybe Melinda will see this and add her process. Thank you. Elizabeth
Nichole King
June 17, 2019 at 1:57 amHi Susan,
I just finished a batch of homemade soy milk yogurt this week so thought I would search your blog, which I use nearly every day, for same topic.
There are some details that you might find interesting in a sourdough bread recipe or in soy yogurts too of all things. For a recipe size of 42 oz of unsweetened soy milk:
I blend in a couple of things to add a prebiotic, a healthy food with omega-3 to omega-6 ratio that results in the recipe having O3/O6 greater than or equal to 1, and a healthy food with strong antioxidant.
** 1 banana as a natural sweetener that feeds the LAB bacteria and is a prebiotic
** 16 g flaxseed meal (some people might prefer finely ground chia seeds instead, but need to increase the amount to about 21 g to equal the 0mega-3 content)
** 8 g finely ground sunflower seeds
I’m still reading about the PUFAs, but here are some references you might find interesting:
“The importance of the omega-6/omega-3 fatty acid ratio in cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases”
by Artemis P Simopoulos
from The Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health, Washington, DC 20009.
Published in Experimental biology and medicine 233 (6), 674-688, 2008
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.559.7506&rep=rep1&type=pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5888138/
…”The PUFAs include two metabolic series of compounds: the n-6 and the n-3 FAs.
Linoleic acid belongs to the n-6 series while
linolenic acid refers to both α-linolenic (C18:3, n-3) and γ-linolenic acid (C18:3, n-6).
Within the body both can be converted to other PUFAs
It is important to maintain an appropriate balance of n-3 and n-6
in the diet as these FAs work together to promote health:
* n-3 FAs have been recognised to exhibit anti-inflammatory and antioxidant
activity, which may contribute to their beneficial cardiac effects [3,8,9],
but also to the prevention of breast cancer [10], and
some n-3 PUFAs, especially EPA and DHA, are major components of brain cells
and crucial for proper development and functioning of the brain and the
nervous system.”…
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29715470
“Omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids: Dietary sources, metabolism, and
significance – A review.”
by Saini and Keum
Life Sci. 2018 Jun 15;203:255-267. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2018.04.049. Epub 2018 Apr 30.
Thanks again for posting your healthy, delicious recipes.
– Nichole
koneko
July 9, 2019 at 3:11 pmHi Susan.
Do you have any updates? I started making soy yogurt and it had strange green stuff. Should I throw it away?
Susan Voisin
July 9, 2019 at 3:43 pmYes, if it has any off colors, throw it away! Better safe than sick.
daniel
May 12, 2020 at 4:16 amThere is a simple way to produce thick soy yogurt without the use of any thickener, the downside: it requires to make your own soy milk.
To make the proper soy milk for thick soy yoghurt, the ratio of dry soybeans and water needs to be: 1: 7, the standard is 1:10 and the store bought soy milk is even more watered down than that.
Also when i boil the soy milk i take care to be very quick about it (so the yuba skin does not form) and and i do not discard the foam which forms on top while cooking,
The result is a very rich and concentrated soy milk, which is also excellent for tofu making.
With this product the yogurt will thicken up perfectly so if you stick a spoon into it, it will stay rock solid in the yogurt!
I have done this 4 times and it always works!
Liezl
January 17, 2021 at 1:39 pmHi, I’d like to try your method for soy milk. Apologies for all the questions, I am a bit desperate here. The 1:7 ratio, this doesn’t include the water for soaking, right? Do you add all the water to the blender or some to the pot after blending and straining? How long do you boil and simmer? How can you make sure the skin doesn’t form?
Nichole
December 20, 2021 at 11:00 pmHi Susan,
A quick note to add details for using coagulation instead of gelatinization in making soy yogurts.
The protein binding in the coagulation version of soy-milk yogurt is from the high protein to fat-ratio combined with high protein content. One can use soy-milks or even silken tofus that do not have anti-coagulants (e.g. the gums that are so helpful in preventing curdling in creamers are present in many bean and nut milks, make those milks unable to curdle in soy yogurt that doesn’t use gelatinization).
If you wanted to make a tangy greek yogurt, an easy way seems to be to use silken extra firm tofu and a yogurt starter (or probiotic pill(s)), but one has to keep the temperature below 100F
(the LAB cultures thrive at 95F, but die off at abut 102F). Most of the tofu ingredients are soybeans and the coagulating salts like calcium sulfate and magnesium chloride, no anti-coagulants.
I personally like to make a diluted soy-yogurt out of unsweetened plain organic soy milk as it makes a great “milk” for breakfast cereals like buckwheat, oat and fruit porridge, etc.
I use 50% water and %50 percent soy-milk. If I use more water than that the fermentation tends to fail.
Nichole
November 13, 2022 at 6:22 pmThis is Nichole again, and I wanted to correct that last post by me: the gums that are so helpful in preventing curdling in creamers don’t prevent the fermentation. I just used an unsweetened soymilk that had Gellan Gum and Organic Locust Bean Gum in it to make yogurt and it worked well.