How to make soy milk yogurt at home

Soy yogurt made from store bought soy milk.

For this recipe all you need is your favourite store bought soy milk, a dairy-free yogurt starter culture and agar agar to thicken. Be sure to choose a soy milk brand with no additives or preservatives or better still learn how to make your own. You can watch how easy it is to make soy milk from soy beans on Luvele Life TV.  We promise, once you start making homemade soy yogurt, you’ll find yourself never wanting the overly sweetened, and far too pricey supermarket varieties again!

We now have a recipe for making soy yogurt completely from scratch using homemade soy milk. Be sure to check that out before you begin. 

Tub set consistency

While non-dairy milks will culture and produce a sour yogurt-like taste, few methods will naturally tub-set without a thickener. We get a great, spoonable yogurt with agar agar but for alternatives see our 'how to thicken plant-based milk yogurt' post.  

Agar is a plant-based, gel-like substance derived from red algae and is a perfect Vegan gelatin substitute. Add a teaspoon of agar to every 4 cups non-dairy milk before heating. Agar agar must be heated to 190⁰F (87⁰C) and held at that temperature for 5 minutes. 1 teaspoon is a guide only. Some agar agar is a fine powder while others are flakes. Flakes may require more - experiment and add more or less on your next batch to get the consistency you enjoy most. A double boiler will keep the milk from scorching during heating.

Something sweet for the good bacteria.

In traditional dairy milk yogurt, the bacteria in starter culture thrive on the sugar (lactose) content, naturally found in milk. The bacteria populating your soy milk must have something to feed on to allow the culturing process to take place. One teaspoon of sugar or one tablespoon of pasteurised honey is enough to kick start fermentation. Raw honey may have an antibiotic effect and is therefore not suitable for making soy yogurt. 

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