Yields: 6 Servings

From The Hodo Kitchen

With the recent closure of Whole Soy operations, we have been deluged with phone calls on selling soy yogurt. Hodo doesn’t make soy yogurt or any fermented soy products. However, we have been advising folks to make their own soy yogurt using our wonderfully rich and creamy soymilk. Our soymilk is made from crushed whole soybeans, and our higher brix (the measure unit for concentration of soy) makes DIY soy yogurt making a breeze. They come out super thick. Our milk has already been heated up to 180F in our production process, so the proteins are ready to be worked on by the yogurt enzymes.  You don’t need to heat it up and cool down, dramatically reducing the active time to prepare the yogurt to literally a few minutes, no kidding!  And by making it yourself you can control the amount of sugar (no thank you!) and thickeners of choice (optional).

In the local Bay Area, you can purchase Hodo soymilk from at our market stand at the Ferry Building.

To make soy yogurt, you would need a culture starter of some sort. This could be a few tablespoons of your favorite yogurt with live cultures, or you can purchase some cultures from places like Cultures for Health. They have different strains of enzymes for different types of yogurt, even vegan ones!  If you are not particular on the vegan culture, you may use the other cultures on soymilk too.

Ingredients

• Hodo soymilk

Instructions

1. Heat soymilk till 110F (use a thermometer). This should take only a few minutes. 110F is the temperature for a nice hot bath.

2. Stir in some culture. (if using the Vegan Starter from Cultures for Health, I use half a sachet for 1/2 gallon milk)

3. Pour into clean glass jars. You may cover the jars.

4. Place in a warm area (about 105-108F) for 6-8 hours to thicken, or less depending on apparatus used*

5. Transfer to the fridge, it will continue to thicken. Yogurt should smell clean, vegetal and fresh.

Some folks who like it super thick would add a thickener – like arrowroot, agar – however, we feel our milks are so thick, it is not necessary, You can also strain the yogurt to make it Greek-like.

* Here are some ideas to create the environment that will make your cultures happy
– use a yogurt maker
– use an immersion circulator (sous vide) like the Sansaire. which you can get from any Sur La Table or even Amazon. It only takes 2 hours this way.
– place it near a pilot light of your stove
– warm an oven on low. Then turn it off. Place yogurt in the closed oven.
– place it near your hot water boiler
– and if you live in a hot place in the summer, place it outdoors
– get a cooler, place your yogurt in there, stuff towels around it, add a hot water bottle to keep everyone warm