Traditional yogurt is a thing of the past, and plant-based vegan yogurt is on the rise.
Yogurt is not traditionally vegan, but plant-based milk products are becoming more available. This means that vegan yogurts are found in most stores around the world, and it’s even possible to make your own.
This article covers some of the questions vegans may have about yogurt, in their diet. It’s actually one of the more interesting vegan food items out there. You can use it to make all sorts of foods. Including protein drinks, frozen yogurt desserts, among others.
Is Yogurt Vegan Usually
Yogurt comes in many varieties, including different colors, tastes and ingredients, but is it usually vegan and vegetarian?
Traditional yogurt is not vegan because it’s a product derived from milk. In fact, yogurt consists mainly of milk with added ingredients to add taste and texture. It gets its unique sour taste and texture from the fermentation process triggered by added culture.
There are many different ingredients used in yogurt production. These are called the fermentation starters as they trigger the process that makes yogurt what it is. After all, it does take a bit of engineering to turn milk into yogurt.
It’s also possible to use different milks for yogurt, such as cow, goat or even plant-based. The cultures are always vegan, so it really depends on your milk. It’s largely possible to buy and make your own vegan yogurt. You simply need to make sure the base of your yogurt, the milk, is vegan. Items such as almond milk is amazing for this purpose.
Vegan Yogurt Maker
Many supermarkets sell vegan yogurts, and many of those are great. Delicious flavors, texture, and some with added proteins. That’s all good, but making your food is always proffered in terms of health and staying green.
It enables you to know exactly what you put in the yogurt, and thus what comes into your body. Another, even more, amazing reason to make your own yogurt is that you can customize flavor and texture exactly like you want it. You can even add additional vitamins or proteins to the mixture, if you like that type of yogurt.
The easiest way to make your own vegan yogurt is with a yogurt maker. It gives you a straight forward method to make it and ensures the texture you want, with the benefit of taking less of your time, and guesswork.
So I encourage you to have a look at the vegan yogurt maker below, as it’s an amazing appliance at a very low cost. There may be some better and more expensive machines out there, but this is a good option if you are just trying it out.
Vegan Greek Yogurt
Greek yogurt is very much the same as other kinds, but with one big difference. It’s strained to remove most of the whey, which gives a much thicker yogurt. This process makes the yogurt thicker but keeps the sour taste we know from yogurt. That being said, Greek yogurt is not vegan as it’s derived from dairy.
However, you can easily make your own vegan Greek yogurt. All you need is some plant-based milk of your choosing and vegan probiotic capsules. You can take a look at the product I recommend by clicking the link. You may notice that these are capsules rather than pills, and that’s quite important.
You need to buy capsules or powder, because it needs to be dissolved in the plant-based milk, etc. Now, you can make any homemade vegan yogurt into Greek yogurt, all you need to do is use more probiotic. That’s the key takeaway here.
Vegan Frozen Yogurt
Frozen yogurt is definitely one of the great inventions of our time. Smartphones and tablets? That’s nothing compared to frozen yogurt. Sadly, most frozen yogurt is not suitable for vegans, as it’s a dairy product. However, it’s actually quite easy to make vegan, and you can even make it at home.
Many frozen yogurt places have vegan options, so you don’t need to make it yourself to enjoy this fantastic snack. Although, it can be a lot of fun to make. Making yogurt definitely feels like you are a chemist, mixing together ingredients and letting culture grow. The main difference with frozen yogurt being that you get to have a delicious sweet snack afterwards.
Making Vegan Frozen Yogurt
Making vegan frozen yogurt is easier than you may think. All you need to do is either buy some plant-based yogurt or make it yourself. Check out the section above to learn how you can make that yourself.
Once you have the yogurt ready, all you need is a blender, and some fresh fruits or berries. -Well, or anything else for that matter. You can also add vegan chocolate, like vegan M&Ms, or even some vegan brownies. That’s what’s so amazing about frozen yogurt, whether it’s vegan or not, you can customize it exactly to your liking.
After you have selected some flavor, you simply blend it altogether and cool for a few hours, preferable 12 hours.
Make Vegan Frozen Yogurt Fast
Making icecream or frozen yogurt is frustrating at times. You spend maybe an hour making the dessert and then you have to wait… for hours! There’s a reason we make frozen yogurt, because we want to eat it. I for one, don’t like the waiting game.
Luckily, there’s a better way. The fastest way to make vegan frozen yogurt is by using a “Frozen Yogurt Maker”. It cools the yogurt down, in a matter of minutes. That’s possible because it stirs the yogurt around thus exposing it to more cold, freezing it up in no time.
This specific frozen yogurt maker is particularly good, because it’s very cheap. It’s fair to say that this machine costs less than 20% of what the others charge. -And the best thing is that it works just as well. There’s a reason why this is a top seller, and a favorite in my kitchen.
Step By Step Vegan Frozen Yogurt
- Buy, or make your own, vegan yogurt.
- Collect your favorite berries or candies.
- Add everything to a blender.
- Blend it until smooth, or chunky.
- Cool, in a freezer, for 4 hours or more.
Vegan Yogurt Brands
There’s actually quite a lot of vegan yogurt brands out there. Many believe that making vegan yogurt is impossible, and mostly not available. However, the truth is that many larger brands have vegan versions.
These are just as delicious as the real kinds, but made for humans, and not little baby cows, which is something I can appreciate. Vegan yogurt is often a more delicious option because the main ingredient, i.g almond milk, coconut milk, etc, tastes amazing in itself.
Of cause it does. It’s made of tasty ingredients, in contrast to milk -which in all honesty is a fluid for making baby cows grow fast. Meaning you also avoid nasty hormones and such.
Chobani
The Chobani brand is build around making quality products, with natural ingredients. Now, they have options that are not vegan, and these should be avoided. Products like their milk creamer does have milk, so it’s not an exclusively vegan brand.
That being said, they have plenty of vegan options, and the one above is a good example of vegan yogurt. It’s based on coconut milk, and added vanilla for flavor. These 2 ingredients alone should give you an indication that this tastes much better than traditional yogurt.
Forager Project
Forager is an exclusively plant-based brand making it perfect for vegans. Mainly because many vegans avoid brands with any association to the animal industry. At least they try to. It can be very hard to avoid these companies, as animal products are everywhere.
So there’s really no shame in sometimes having to buy products from a brand that sells non-vegan products. -As long as the products you buy are vegan, obviously.
They sell many different vegan yogurts, with lots of flavors. The plant-based cashew milk yogurts probably being the most popular. This type is available with 6 different flavors, including strawberry and lemon.
There’s also a few vegan protein yogurts, unsweetened and vanilla. These flavors may not be as exciting, but only one serving has 8 grams of protein! Have a look at this brand, if you are looking for some vegan protein yogurt.
Kate Hill
Kate Hill is also a plant-based brand, and makes vegan versions of otherwise non-vegan products. These include cream cheese, dips, sour cream, Greek yogurt, and regular yogurt. It’s one of those brands that are just great examples that vegans don’t need to miss out on certain products.
I mean, you can get most products in vegan versions nowadays. Even things that were originally products made entirely of dairy. Kate Hill yogurts are usually sold in Ralphs Stores in the US, although can also be purchased online. Take a look on Amazon if you don’t have a Ralphs store anywhere near you.
Nancy’s Yogurt
You may know Nancy’s yogurt from varies stores like Ralph’s and even farmers markets. But did you know they have vegan yogurt options?
The brand is definitely not exclusively vegan, and most of their products are not vegan. That being said, they have quite a few vegan yogurts. Their selection consists of 8 different oatmilk yogurts with different flavors. You can choose anything from strawberries, vanilla, blueberry and even just plain yogurt.
Have a look for this vegan yogurt next time you are shopping, or view them on Amazon. You may find some flavor you can’t live without.
Silk Yogurt
Silk is an enormous brand, and can be found in most of the world. They sell products in most parts of the world, including the US, middle east, and Europe. So it’s no surprise that Silk has vegan yogurt options, and they have quite a few.
Their alternatives to traditional yogurt include almond milk, soy milk and oatmeal based yogurts. These all come in multiple different flavors to choose from.
You can also choose to make your own vegan yogurt, with the help of Silk. They have many plant-based milks, including the popular Almond Milk.
So Delicious
So Delicious is one of those brands all vegans love. The selection is entirely vegan, and contains many different products. They have all kinds of plant-based milks, creamers, beverages, and even frozen deserts. That’s right, they have vegan ice cream. There’s even frozen mousse and ice cream sandwiches available.
Most of the products are also widely available, in the US. This includes Target, Vons Market, Smart and Final Extra. These are just some examples of where to get them. You may want to visit So Delicious’ website to view their stores.
Where To Buy Vegan Yogurt
There are many places you can find vegan yogurt. It used to be that plant-based yogurts were rare to come across. That’s far from the case now. In fact, most stores have at least a few vegan yogurt options. Not every store have all the brands, but at least one, or a few.
It’s a bit more tricky if you are looking for the more special options. Traditional yogurt consists of so many different flavors, including outright weird ingredients. An example of this is liquorice. These can be hard to find in vegan versions.
If you want to buy vegan yogurt with crazy flavors, then you need to buy online. Probably the best store to find interesting new products is Amazon. So click the Amazon link to see some crazy vegan yogurt flavors.
Conclusion
Plant-based yogurts are everywhere, which is amazing news for vegans. It’s rare to find stores that don’t have a single vegan yogurt option. So it’s really not that difficult to eat yogurt as a vegan anymore.
The brands I listed above also show that there are many different flavors. These can also be used to make vegan frozen yogurt, and other delicious desserts.
Hey, I’m Gus! I have been vegan for quite some years now, and have collected a lot of knowledge about the subject in this time. My goal with this blog is to spread the vegan message and make it easy to know exactly what’s vegan and what’s not.