A thickener
A vegan probiotic
Yogurt maker
That's what you need to make yogurt. If your head is spinning because you only have the milk, don't worry, I will lay everything out here.
I bought a vegan yogurt culture starter on Amazon.
I also bought the yogurt maker on Amazon as well.
I bought a box of pectin at Whole Foods and the non-dairy milk is easy. The milk you use must be free from preservatives. So, West Soy soy milk is just organic soybeans and water-this is a great brand to get. You can also make your own milk, which is the best way to ensure that there are no preservatives or anything added to milk.
The pectin box comes with a packet of pectin and calcium chloride. Both are added to the milk to thicken it but I messed up and used all of the calcium in one recipe and didn't have enough for the rest of the pectin-so because I was sooooo impulsive, the pectin that I have is inactive. So, I ended up adding coconut flour to thicken the soy yogurt and it did work out. Real quick, the particular pectin I used is activated by the calcium; other pectin needs sugar to activate it. So, the pectin I bought didn't work in my latest yogurt batch. Read the directions on the pectin you buy.
32 oz of WestSoy soy milk (get unsweetened, plain)
3 tbsp of coconut flour
1 packet of vegan yogurt culture
Sweetener, optional and for later
Heat the milk to 140 degrees or a slight simmer. Stir in the coconut flour (or pectin + calcium). You will see the milk start to thicken. Keep stirring then cool the milk to 110 degrees (the milk will be warm and you can stick your finger in comfortably). Stir in the packet of culture and stir. Pour the mixture into the small jars that come with your yogurt maker. Don't put the lid on the jars, put them in the yogurt maker, put the lid on the yogurt maker and turn it on.
Leave the jars in the yogurt maker for 6-8 hours then take out the jars, put the lids on and refrigerate for 3 hours. When you are ready to eat, you can stir in fruit or a sweetener of some sort. I make yogurt overnight so I wake up to it. When I take the lid off the yogurt maker, I can smell the culture-it smells like that sour yogurt smell-that's how I know it worked. All the yogurt I made was delish; I tried three times because I wanted to get the consistency right but they were all consumable.
Again, this recipe is for someone who has a yogurt maker and the particular yogurt culture I used. I recommend buying a yogurt maker, though, because yogurt has to be made in the right environment.
Yogurt thickeners:
Pectin
Coconut flour
Tapioca starch
Corn starch
My yogurt maker came with 6 yogurt jars so all the jars are filled when I used 42 oz of milk. The more milk you use, of course the more yogurt you get. At first it seems like you are spending alot on the culture and yogurt maker but in the long run, you will be spending less making your own yogurt than buying it.