Homemade Soya Yoghurt

There's a big brand soya yoghurt available in most supermarkets, but it's sweetened and thickened and isn't that nice. It's also no good for making labneh (a sort of yoghurt cottage cheese).

So instead I make my own, it's easy peasy and very cheap.

I measure out half a litre of soya milk (I usually use organic soya milk, so that's about 50p's worth). I heat this until it boils and use a jam thermometer to measure the temperature. When the temperature reaches 40 degrees it's ready. A friend of mine without a thermometer just waits for it to cool a little and then pours it onto to her hand, when it's cool enough to hold she knows it's ready.

While I am heating the milk I fill a wide necked flask with boiling water. When my milk has reached the right temperature I stir in a couple of teablespoons of live soya yoghur, pour the boiling water out of the flask and replace with the milk mixture. I put the flask in the airing cupboard (not really neccesary, but it feels authentic) and wait overnight. The next morning I have lovely yoghurt.

I can keep a mix going like this for ages, but reknew the process with fresh yoghurt every once in a while. I use a good quality soya yoghurt from the health food shop as my starter and when I buy it, I use a couple of spponfuls, but freeze the rest in an ice cube tray to use later on.

Homemade yoghurt, homemade granola and extra raisins

I would like to make some coconut yoghurt, but I don't think you can use soya yoghurt to start it. I'll give it a go sometime and when I do, I'll let you know.