This vegan homemade cultured cashew yogurt is a breeze to make and it's got all the goodness and flavor of yogurt made with milk without any of the unhealthy fats. It's thick and tangy and delicious and filled with great-for-you probiotic cultures.
I love this vegan cashew yogurt so much, it has pretty much replaced the quick, non-cultured yogurt I'd blend up in the past to eat or add to various dishes.
I loved yogurt in my pre-vegan days and I've never really been able to wrap my head around storebought vegan yogurts, which just don't taste right and their texture is almost always completely off. Call me picky.
So the last time I bought a cashew yogurt off the shelf that had live cultures, I decided to try making my own. Partly so I didn't have to spring six bucks for a small tub of yogurt, and partly so I didn't have to rush to Whole Foods each time I needed some.
I also wanted a thicker yogurt, and the storebought ones are too thin for my liking.
I loved the result, and I started to make my own, using some of the storebought yogurt as a starter.
This is really a very simple recipe -- all you need are the cashews and the starter (any vegan yogurt with live bacterial cultures will do), a bowl, and a blender, and you're all set. The result is a thick, creamy, tangy yogurt that tastes gorgeous.
I love eating this yogurt by the spoonful, but I especially love stirring in some berries, or using it to top granola. It also works great in Indian curries, raitas and biryanis, when the recipe calls for yogurt.
Try making some today. It takes minutes, and it is, like any homemade yogurt, a gift that keeps on giving. You'll never need storebought again.
You can also make vegan yogurt in the Instant Pot.
Recipes to make with vegan yogurt:
Vegan Yogurt Recipe
Homemade Cultured Cashew Yogurt
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw cashews or cashew pieces
- 1 cup filtered or distilled water (this helps the cultures grow faster than chlorinated tap water would)
- Either 1 tbsp vegan yogurt to use as a starter. Be sure to use one with live, active cultures. Or you can use probiotic pills, see next ingredient
- 2 vegetarian probiotic pills (if not using the vegan starter. I use the Now PB8 Probiotic Acidophilus capsules, which are vegan.)
Instructions
- Place the cashews and water in a blender and blend to a very smooth paste.
- Place the cashew paste in a ceramic or glass bowl. Microwave for 10-15 seconds or until slightly warm. You can skip this step, but I like that it gives the bacteria a head start.
- Stir in the starter or, if using probiotic pills, open the capsules and empty the powder into the cashew paste. Cover the bowl with cling wrap and place in a warm spot, like a cold oven with the pilot light on, or, in hotter temps, on the countertop.
- Let it stand for six hours or overnight. The set yogurt should be very thick and tangy.
I tried this last night in my VitaMix.. It wasn't a paste at all but very runny.. I put it in my cold oven with the light on for a hours and it was still runny when I took it out at 10pm.. I put it in the fridge and it has firmed up a little but not much.. I used Kite Hill plain unsweetened as my starter.. Any suggestions what to add to it to use as a salad dressing? Not sure what I did wrong but I'll try again.. Thanks for any tips or help you can provide.
Hi, was it rather cold where you are? That can slow down the development of the yogurt, even with the oven light on, and you would need it to stay out for longer. I haven't used Kite Hill but if it has live cultures it should have worked. Or try making the yogurt in the Instant Pot, which takes the guesswork out of the equation: https://holycowvegan.net/vegan-instant-pot-yogurt/
To turn it into a salad dressing you can try whisking it with a touch of balsamic vinegar, nutritional yeast, garlic powder, salt and ground black pepper.
I used my homemade cashew yogurt for my starter and now the new yogurt is trying to rise. It still smells good and looks like the first yogurt that I had made. Any suggestions? Do you think that if I get some more store yogurt that it may still work out? I only made it yesterday and so it has only been on the counter for 24 hours.
OMG!!! Is this some kind of sorcery? I made this in an electric yogurt maker and it's fabulous!!! Eating out of the jar with a spoon!
Awesome! 🙂
I love this Yogurt. I make it every week. I leave it for 19hrs in my oven with light on. But this means, for almost 2 days I can't use my oven. The day I want to make the yogurt, I don't turn on the oven, because otherwise, it will end up being too warm. Then of course when I make the yogurt for 19hrs I can't use my oven. I was wondering if I could use a yogurt maker. I found this at Amazon. It doesn't have a time control, but I think it was the cheapest yogurt maker. 🙂
Dash Bulk Yogurt Maker Machine with One Touch Display
I am open to any other ideas. Thank you again.
I made this for the first time in a yogurt maker and it turned out great. Mine is a cheap one I got from a resale shop.
I made this yesterday and let it sit in oven over night, which was close to 20 hours, as I made it early. I think that might have been too long as it tastes too tart. Any thoughts? I can use it in recipes but not with just fruit.
Love your recipes!
Hi Marianne, leaving it in the oven too long will definitely make it tangier. I usually leave mine in the oven with the light on for about 12-16 hours, depending on how warm or cold it is outside. Taste it to see if it's tangy enough for your liking, then refrigerate immediately to stop if from fermenting further.
If your yogurt turns out too tangy, use it in cakes--I love yogurt in cakes and it helps make them really tender and moist. I have a turmeric cake on the blog I just posted last week, and also a white chocolate raspberry cake and a vegan lemon yogurt bundt cake. Search them up using the search engine on the blog. Or you can make a south Indian style yogurt rice, which is quite a treat. https://holycowvegan.net/vegan-cucumber-yogurt-rice/
Finally, a tangy yogurt is great in raita, like this one. https://holycowvegan.net/cucumber-raita-soy-free/
I already made your lemon bundt cake delicious.
But my question is could less time in oven make it taste better?
I think 20 hours might have been too long. Going to try it again.
Marianne
I'm so glad somebody asked about this...I just tried the recipe last night (which looked beautiful btw), put it in the oven to do its magic, and completely forgot about it until now (about 3:30 p.m.). Looks like there might be a bundt in my future...darn!
Hello I’m happy to have found your recipes. 🙂 Is it possible to make this in a crockpot? We don’t have a working oven or anything warmer than room temperature. Thanks
Hi Treena, if you have a multicooker like an Instant Pot, most have a yogurt function. But in a crockpot, at least the one I have, you can't vary the temp except from high to low, and even the low setting on a crockpot would be too high for the bacteria in yogurt. Recipes for crockpot yogurts that I've seen online don't seem to do anything different from what you'd do in a stove--ie. they ask you to heat the milk in the crockpot, cool it, then stir in the starter and leave it in a cool crockpot.
If you don't have a working oven, and if it's cool at room temperature where you are, I'd recommend heating the cashew milk on the stovetop until it until lukewarm (not hot, as that would kill the bacteria). Stir in the starter, swaddle the container in a blanket to keep it warm, and leave in the warmest spot in your house.
can I use any other nuts or ingredient to prepare the yoghurt? I believe too many cashews will add in a lot of calories.
Hi! I would like to say I love this recipe. It’s so easy and it’s tastes amazing!
I just have a question, I made it twice now. The first time I used a cultured almond/cashew yogurt and results were thick and creamy which is what I wanted. The second time I tried using 2 probiotic pills and it came out still runny and a more tangy taste. Do you know why this would be?
Thanks again for this recipe!
Your probiotic may also have contained prebiotic, which does not work for yogurt culturing.
How many billion should the probiotic be? I checked amazon Canada and there are several different ones. I can’t wait to try this.
Thank you!
I checked the bottle of PB8, which is the brand I use and recommend, and it says that a 2-capsule serving has 14 billion.
I usually don’t stop to comment on blog site recipes, but I had to thank you for getting my 2021 off to such an epically yummy start!! 🙂 The vegan yogurts in the stores are so expensive and full of extra sugars, so I’d only eaten them as treats. This actually gives me good protein and helps my stomach. I can’t believe how easy this is, and it’s made my morning smoothies taste so much better!!
I left it closed in my cold oven overnight, but I was worried it wouldn’t come out right b/c there was no light (as mentioned in the instructions...lol I’m new at this). But, it turned out creamy and tangy! Thank you! Will be looking at more of your recipes! HNY!
Hi Sasha, that's awesome to hear! Thanks for letting me know. 🙂
Hi Vaishali,
I came across your page when looking up homemade vegan yogurt, and boy, what a find! Love your blog, and love your pet peeves even more 😀
Question on the cashew yogurt, I have been using forager yogurt, but am trying to recreate something as close to Indian yogurt as possible. Forager is great, but lacks the tangy taste. Any pointers on what can help with that?
TIA
Hi Viji, 🙂 welcome to the blog! I find that leaving the yogurt out at room temperature longer usually makes it tangier--sometimes too tangy, in my experience. 🙂 Have you tried that? I sometimes use both Forager and a probiotic pill and that usually gives me quite a tangy result.
Ah, ok. So when I make it next time, are you suggesting to add the forager (assuming it has live cultures), and a pill or two of the probiotics?
Yes, about a tablespoon of the forager and a probiotic pill would work.
I have made the yogurt twice so far. Put it in my yogurt maker for 8 hours. It’s so thick and tangy. Thanks so much for the recipe!
I was skeptical about this process, but it totally worked! I can't believe I made my own homemade vegan cashew yogurt just putting it into my oven overnight! Thank you for sharing. I'll try 3 capsules of the Jamieson probiotic next time, but my result was very thick and sour yogurt (12 hours overnight). I may never buy yogurt again after learning this!
Hello, I see that you recommend filtered or distilled water, but would it work with regular tap? Where I live, the water is not chlorinated but IDK what else they do to it. Thanks!!!
Hi Amy, I would assume any drinking water that's not chlorinated should be fine.
Hello. I am planning to make this today. Can I substitute the vegan yogurt with vegan sour cream?
What dish are you planning on making?
I understand that you use vegan yogurt as a starter because you are getting this recipe towards vegans, but if a person is not vegan could you make a cashew yogurt by using a regular milk yogurt starter? One reason I ask is that I've been making my own yogurt for a long time but with regular milk and I was curious about making it with cashew or almond milk instead. It would save me having to go to the store to buy a vegan yogurt if I could just use some of the yogurt I already have made with whole milk.
Hi MaryLou, that's a good question. I can't be 100 percent sure as I haven't tried this, but I would assume that any culture with probiotics should work,at least in theory. You could experiment with a small quantity of cashews. If it works for you I'd love to know!
I tried this recipe for yogurt and it’s not tangy or much flavor at all. Is there anything I can do to make it tangy now? I used a starter with live cultures.
It's probably your starter. The probiotic powder I used is amazon.com/gp/product/B01E7R4F48/ and it provided super tangy results. I've made 5 batches so far, subsequent batches were made from leftover yogurt from previous batches. The warmer the location you can let it sit in and the longer you let it sit for the tangier it gets. I wouldn't go longer than 18 hours though, that was much too tangy for me.
I clearly stated PB8 VEGETARIAN capsules which come in the green bottle and do not have gelatin. They make other probiotics as well and you looked at the wrong one.
Hi I want to try this vegan yogurt but I am not getting prebiotic pills and more over I don't have oven can I use gas top for that?
Can you get a small amount of vegan yogurt that’s probiotic to use as a starter? And don’t leave it on the stove! A warm place at room temperature would work.
Hi, Thank you so much for this recipe. I tried it last night in my instapot, and was wondering if you have ever encountered spots of pinkish coloring? I scraped off the top and it looks like it is just in the top layer and so I’m eating the rest. It is tangy.
Hi, do you think it would be possible to use the same strategy with oats?