You only need two ingredients to turn soy milk into Instant Pot yogurt. It could not be easier. Join me, as I spill all of my yogurt-making tricks!
When I got my Instant Pot last year, one thing I was sure I'd never use was the yogurt function. We have so many good vegan yogurts on store shelves, why bother making my own? Oh how wrong I was!
Y'all, I make soy yogurt on a weekly basis now. It is SO much cheaper than store-bought, and my homemade soy yogurt is free of additives. But my favorite thing about it is that it's unsweetened.
Why make Instant Pot soy yogurt?
Store-bought soy yogurts - even most marked "plain" - are all so sweet. I can't handle it. And I like sweet food!
But when you're cooking with yogurt, maybe you're trying to make something savory or maybe you just want to mix in some strawberry jam without turning your breakfast bowl from a little bit sweet to tooth-meltingly sugary.
When you make your own soy yogurt from scratch, it can be truly unsweetened, so you have a lot more control over the sweetness when you're cooking with it.
About this recipe
My recipe is based on my adventures with the soy yogurt recipe in Vegan Under Pressure by Jill Nussinow. At first, I was hesitant to post my recipe, since in some ways it's so much like the one in the book.
But after answering tons of questions from friends, family, and readers about how to make yogurt in the Instant Pot, I felt like it might be worthwhile to share what I'd learned.
There are dozens of amazing pressure cooker recipes in Vegan Under Pressure, and I encourage you to grab a copy. I refer to it several times a week for full recipes and for her bean, grain, and veggie cooking times, which are way more accurate than the booklet that came with my Instant Pot.
The recipe below is what I landed on after a lot of tinkering with cooking times and some technique changes that make it less messy.
I've also included two variations:
- a variation from my friend Erin at Kitchen Gadget Vegan. She does a soy-coconut mix that her family loves.
- instructions for how to make this with probiotic capsules instead of store-bought yogurt
Choose the right soy milk
The key to making soy yogurt in the Instant Pot is exactly what Nussinow says in her book: you have got to use soy milk that's only soybeans and water (sweetener and salt are okay). No gums. No gels. No thickeners. Trust me.
I didn't believe this at first, and I tried using the gum-thickener-gel-ful soy milk from our fridge, and the yogurt it produced was sticky a nightmare floating in a jar of water.
I don't throw food away lightly, and I threw this out after just a couple of bites. There was no way to stir the floaty part and watery part together. It was a total lost cause.
There are two common brands that fit the bill: Eden Foods and Westsoy. I have some ethical issues with Eden Foods, so I go for Westsoy Organic, and it works like a charm. If you can't find it in the store, you can order online.
The great thing about Westsoy is that it doesn't need to be refrigerated, because of how it's packaged.
Trader Joe's also stocks thickener-free soy milk. It comes in shelf-stable boxes and is very affordable.
The starter
A yogurt starter is just what you use to get probiotics into your soy milk. For this recipe, you have two options:
- a small amount of vegan yogurt
- probiotic capsules.
If you're using vegan yogurt, I recommend choosing plain or vanilla. Sometimes, fruity flavors can come through in your finished batch, even though you're only using a couple of tablespoons as your starter.
Prefer probiotic capsules? Easy peasy. Just make sure that you use vegetarian or vegan gelcaps.
You want the kind of probiotic capsules that you can open up and pour powder out of. Solid pills that would need to be crushed up won't work well in this recipe.
I've had great success using Jarro-Dophilus EPS capsules in this recipe. I made the yogurt in the new photos using these capsules, and my seven-year-old loves it!
When you stir the probiotic powder in, it's not going to fully dissolve, and that's okay! See the photo below -- lots of powder floating on top of my jars before they went into the pot. The yogurt turns out just fine.
The cost
One 32 ounce box of soy milk makes two pints of soy yogurt in the Instant Pot. The Westsoy that I linked to shakes out to about $4 per box. That's $2 per pint of homemade, additive free, organic, unsweetened soy yogurt. See? Worth it!
Cooking time
I've seen cooking times for Instant Pot yogurt that vary anywhere from 8 hours to 24. That's a big range, and it took me a lot of batches to hone in on the ideal time.
Fourteen hours seems to be the magic time for making Instant Pot yogurt. You can go as low as 10 hours, but for that perfectly-tangy soy yogurt that's thick enough to eat with a spoon, 14 is ideal.
If you're using probiotic capsules, I'd say 14 to 16 hours is a good range, depending on how tangy you like it.
Timing is everything!
There's nothing instant about making Instant Pot yogurt.
Making that 14 hour cooking time work for you is all about planning. Don't make the mistake I did a few times, starting your batch of yogurt in the morning.
If you do that, your Instant Pot will be tied up all day. It won't be there for you when you want to make rice and steam broccoli for your supper.
Instead, start your yogurt in the evening, so it will be ready for the morning. If you normally get up and have breakfast at 7am, start that yogurt at 5pm. Fourteen hours later, it's ready for breakfast, like magic!
There's nothing like starting the day with a bowl of fresh yogurt that you made yourself. And since most of the cooking happens while you're asleep, it makes the 14 hours seem a little bit more instant.
Thickening homemade soy yogurt
Homemade soy yogurt with no added thickeners is not going to be as thick as the soy yogurts that you're used to eating. That's just science. You have three options:
- Add a thickener. I do not like working with thickeners, so if that's what you want to do, I'd suggest looking at the Vegan Under Pressure recipe. Jill has directions there, if you want to go that route.
- Strain it. You can strain the yogurt through a few layers of cheesecloth to get rid of some excess whey and make a thicker yogurt. This takes longer, and you end up with a little more than half of what you started with, so I don't do it. But you can!
- Embrace it. This yogurt isn't Greek yogurt, but it is freaking delicious. You can eat it with a spoon or treat it like a thick yogurt drink.
My favorite way to eat it is with strawberry jam mixed in. Darrol Henry prefers his with maple syrup. It's also great in any recipe that calls for yogurt or as a replacement for sour cream.
📖 Recipe
How to Make Soy Yogurt in the Instant Pot
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 32 ounce box soy milk Choose a brand that’s ONLY soybeans and water – see above.
- 2 tablespoons plain vegan yogurt of your choice Don’t worry – the small amount of gums in this won’t mess with the final yogurt’s texture! (see note for probiotic capsules option)
Instructions
- Divide the soy milk between two wide mouth pint jars. Add a tablespoon of yogurt into each jar, stirring well.
- Carefully place the jars into the bottom of your Instant Pot (not on the rack – for some reason, it won’t make yogurt if you do that). Lock the lid, make sure the vent is sealed, and press the Yogurt button. Set it for 14 hours.
- In the morning, you’ll have yogurt! Stir before serving, since it does tend to separate. Your soy yogurt will keep for about 5 days in the fridge.
Tim
Hi. Thanks a lot for this recipe! For a while I was buying quarts of soy yogurt at Whole Foods, but for some reason those got discontinued. There were 2 companies that made this, one whose name I've forgotten, and the other was called Pam's. But then they stopped selling the stuff. Someone told me that this practice was shut down by the FDA because there were some health code violations involved. I looked around online for some info on that, but never found any.
So I have been trying for a while to make vegan yogurt at home, and there were always problems. Too thin, not enough fermentation, off flavors, et cetera. I was adding thickeners, like Instant Clear Jel, and that helped, but it still was not what I wanted. Then I tried your recipe once, and it works great! So thank you.
Becky Striepe
I'm so glad it was helpful. YES! I remember that good soy yogurt, too and am blanking on the company name. The one I'm thinking of expanded too quickly and ran out of money. Such a sad time. At least now we can make our own.
Melody
They lost their lease on the factory, bought a new one, ramped up and had a problem - I think it was something with the shipper - where the yogurt was going bad before sale. It was very sad because they were earnest and worked hard at creating a quality product, and of course the guy was ruined financially for things that were out of his control.
Becky Striepe
That is such a huge bummer. They made the best soy yogurt!
Bett
That was Whole Soy brand yogurt! I miss it so much!
I was so sad when they shut down. First, they were having problems in the shared factory where they did their thing. So they built a new factory, but only opened (at long last) for a couple of weeks before going completely out of business. It was too bad, because they had a great product.
But I'm not sad any more! This page helped me finally make good yogurt, and I'm going great guns! (And with Westsoy Organic Unsweetened Plain Soymilk costing $2.19 per quart at Trader Joe's, I can afford to once again introduce lots and lots of yogurt back into my life. Next: making my own soymilk! It'll cost even less!)
Here's how it went: I started with a quart and some older probiotics the other day. Nothing happened, so I went out and bought new probiotics, added them to the same jar of soymilk and started it again, and it went like 60! However I let it go too long and it ended up with not a perfect texture, too sour, and with an odd sort of fruity flavor that I found distasteful.
But I started it draining to see how that would go, and meanwhile began another quart and inoculated it with the first batch, and #2 is AWESOME!
I have now started two new quarts using the second batch as the starter, am draining the rest of #2 for Greek yogurt, and have already used about half a cup of it to make an amazing ranch dressing, YUM!
Thanks so much!!!!!!
Becky Striepe
YES - thank you! I miss Whole Soy - they did a great job. I'm glad to hear you could use batch 1 to make a second one - I never remember to start a second batch in time to try!
Trena
I received my instant pot yesterday and could hardly wait for 5 p.m. to start this yogurt recipe. Years ago I had a yogurt maker and tried many many times with pretty bad results, no matter what I did. This morning I was completely delighted when I open the instant pot and found the most perfectly formed yogurt. And it is DELICIOUS! I used the Westsoy milk as you suggested. And my starter was Almond Dream plain low fat yogurt. I set it for 14 hours. I am sure I will enjoy using my new instant pot for many WFPB recipes...but if I only used it for this yogurt, it would be worth it! Thank you so much for this recipe, and I look forward to exploring the rest of your website.
Becky Striepe
Oh I love hearing this! Enjoy your new IP. We use ours a lot, especially for cooking grains and quick soups.
Roger Day
I've made your soy yogurt week after week, month after month, for well over a year. After some initial experimentation with cook time and amount of probiotic to include, I get great results and consistent results. Your original recipe post used probiotic capsules, now you've shifted to existing non-dairy yogurt as starter.
I need help. The last two or three batches - - unlike countless previous batches - - I'm getting huge separation in all the jars (I use 64 oz Edensoy and three probiotic capsules, about 13 hours in IP), again, unlike many many previous batches using same process and ingredients.
Why is this separation occurring now? Thanks!
Bonnie
I’m newly a plant based eater for health reasons. I got an instant pot with yogurt function just to make this recipe ??? Turned out great and has made plant ? based eating so wonderful. I buy the 64oz Westsoy box at my Walmart in Arizona. The cost is about 3.50 a carton ? Thank you for your video?
Becky Striepe
You are so welcome! Thank you for coming back to leave such a thoughtful comment!
kathy
I don't have yogurt button on my instant pot, can I still make yogurt in it and if so how???? So bummed to see no button on mine.
Becky Striepe
Oh no! I am not sure how to do it without one. Basically, what that function does is maintain a specific temperature for the set amount of time. I'm not sure how you'd do that manually. I'm sorry! :(
Sakshi
Hey Kathy!
India has a long tradition of making yogurt without any Instant Pots. We call it Dahi! The key is to keep the temperature constant like Becky says. I usually make yogurt with dairy for which we just heat the milk and let it too cool to a specific temperature and then add starter yogurt. To keep it warm, I wrap the covered jar/ bowl in tea towels or a throw for 5-6 hours and check after that.
You can also use a heating pad on the lowest setting and keep the jars covered with a thick cloth. Making any kind of yogurt comes with practice and the quality does improve with subsequent starter yogurts with each batch.
I am keen to make vegan yogurt at home soon as a lot of readers on our blog have asked for a recipes. Will try Beckie's recipe soon without an Instant Pot and share results with you guys soon! ??
Cheryl
It worked!! I'm so happy! I love my Instant Pot and use it all the time, but had been a little intimidated to make yogurt, since it seemed too complicated, and I'm a lazy cook. This worked on the first try, and the soy yogurt is exactly the way I like it. Thank you thank you! :)
Becky Striepe
Hooray! You sound like me the first time I made IP yogurt. I felt like a wizard!
Lisa
I have a 3 qt instant pot. Can I make yogurt directly in the liner, or is there a reason why I need to use mason jars. Please advise. Thank you.
Becky Striepe
You can do that. I use the jars because they are also the jars I store them in. Less clean-up!
Becky Striepe
I have never done that.
Jim Beerstecher (Jim B)
Thanks so much for this recipe! It's so wonderful to get info that is devoid of plugs, underlying profit motives, and consumerism. I've been making soy yogurt for some time, since about the time I read your blog!
Before I found your recipe, I'd read countless articles and blogs about the bad soybean, special ingredients necessary to make soy yogurt, and health warnings.
It's wonderful! It's simple! It's real food! And it makes a whole bunch for a half cup of organic, non-gmo soybeans and less than half a teaspoon of probiotic powder.
I've made the Greek yogurt style several times, too, but gave up on it in favor of the delicious liquidy yogurt!
Your post is one of the many that have helped me break free of the consumer mentality toward food and health and get my life back on the road and running well. Thanks!
Angela McKee
Hey Becky. I can't believe how easy this sounds. I do like a thicker yogurt texture. What would you think adding a bit of chia would do to the processing?
Thanks for doing all the groundwork for us all ?
Becky Striepe
Ooh interesting! Like ground chia? It’s worth a shot! It does gel up. I think the trick would be getting it smooth enough to not make the yogurt gritty maybe.
Angela McKee
I started my first batch today with your basic ingredients but I'll try the chia and let you know. Wasn't thinking of ground though.
Becky Striepe
I can’t wait to hear what happens!!
Pam
Hi
Thanks for the clear recipe!
It came out really thin?
Did I do something wrong?
Pam
Becky Striepe
No, it is on the thin side unless you use thickeners.
Zahava
Looks great! Does the yogurt need to have live cultures or will any vegan work?
Becky Striepe
It definitely needs to have live cultures.
Heather
Thank you so much for this great recipe! I have been searching for a dairy free recipe that was easy to make. It turned out absolutely perfect just as you said. I love the taste and the texture. Thank you so much for sharing.
Becky Striepe
You are so welcome! I’m delighted to hear it.
Rakefet
I stock up on the Westsoy boxes at our local Austin Trader Joe's. It's $2.50 a box, the cheapest I've found it anywhere. Thanks for the recipe! Can't wait to try it!
Becky Striepe
Ooh I need to heck tjs here!
Jess
So I made this today and it looks like it turned out perfect. However it was done around 9:30 *14 hrs after I set it* but I didn't get home until 1pm. I thought for some reason my IP would stay on but it didn't. Is it bad now? Or will it be safe to eat? I have a toddler and I'm about 11 weeks pregnant so I want to be safe!
Becky Striepe
Oh man. I am not 100% sure. I hate to waste food but I wouldn’t risk it. I’m so sorry!
Jay
Just to be super clear, is the lid off on the pint jars you place in the instant pot? Yogurt making newb here lol
Becky Striepe
Yes, leave the lids off. Happy yogurt-making!!
Linda weinberger
Hi Becky. I alway thought I just have to use the West Soy Organic unsweetened soy milk to make the yogurt in my yogurt maker but yesterday I used the organic unsweetened vanilla soymilk and both my husband and I said it was the best ever. It just has natural vanilla flavor and others natural flavors (not sure what they are)
Linda
Becky Striepe
Ooh this is great to hear! Was it the West Soy brand still or another brand?
Linda weinberger
It was the West Soy brand that I bought by mistake from Wegmans. Didn’t even realize I used it until we tasted it. I thought it tasted a little vanilla but when my husband commented it tasted a little maple, I checked the recycle bin and sure enough it was the West Soy unsweetened vanilla soy milk
Becky Striepe
Ooh a little vanilla and a little maple? Don’t mind if I do!
Linda
Hi Becky
By mistake today I used the Westsoy Organic Original plain soy milk but it wasn’t unsweetened. It has brown rice syrup and sea salt. My yougurt is usually done it 10 hours but I don’t believe it is working because it just take sweet and is not getting tart at all and has not thickened. I’m disappointed. Last week it also did not work too well. Maybe I had the wrong soymilk last week as well. I’ll have a to be more careful. Frustrating since it usually comes out great
West
Becky Striepe
Oh dear! You used the same starter as you usually do?
Linda
Yes same culture but I’m sure this time it was because I bought the sweetened soy milk. It also has sea salt. I’ll try again tomorrow.
Becky Striepe
That is so interesting! Keep me posted for sure!
Linda weinberger
You are not going to believe it but after about 18 hours, I got
Yogurt. Because I bought the sweet soy milk by mistake it much sweeter then we are used too but we’ll eat it anyway.
Becky Striepe
I’m glad it worked out, at least somewhat!
Dee
This is wonderful and I’m so excited to make some vegan yogurt for my daughter who has a severe casein/dairy allergy! I’m just confused because I’ve seen so many people who say that the probiotics need sugar to feed on in order for the process to work (this would be the lactose in dairy) and unsweetened soy milk would need to have sugar (honey, maple syrup or whatever) added in order to work. I guess I can try it first without it, but I’m just baffled because that information seems reasonable, but then this recipe seems to work for lots of folks, so....? Strange! Anyway- will try both ways and see! Thank you!
Roger
Nice connection you’re making, Dee. Remember that sugars occur in various forms. I use Westsoy organic plain (nothing but water and soybeans). A 1-cup serving contains 4 grams carbohydrates, 3 grams of which are sugars. It’s there. No need to add.
Natalia
I am not yogurt lover. I made this first batch from your recipe since my three kids and husband love yogurt on their fruit in the morning. I wanted to report that it is fantastic. Thank you so much for putting this recipe together. I am now using it on my fruit as well!!
Becky Striepe
Oh my gosh, I love to hear that! Thank you, Natalia!
Christine L
Can you use the homemade yogurt as the starter for the next batch? Do you know how many times you can do this?
Becky Striepe
I haven't done this., because I've never been able to time it right with finishing one batch and making the next. There are some comments below suggesting that it won't work, though.
Jill, The Veggie Queen
I have used my yogurt as the starter just once as I often don't want the next batch until the first is done. You use 2 tablespoons per quart. Some people freeze the yogurt to use as starter.
They say that you cannot use the previous batch of yogurt but it seems to work but sometimes it loses strength.
Best idea is to freeze 2 tablespoons in ice cube trays and defrost and use.
Becky Striepe
I knew you'd have the answer, Jill!
Jacqueline
My first try at this and I just checked it (at 9 hours) almost completely liquid still. I hope these last few hours are going to do the trick. I used Westsoy and two tablespoons of So Delicious plain coconut milk yogurt. Going to look for some starter. Maybe I could use Culturelle? Thoughts on how much in each pint jar?
Roger Day
Jacqueline,, my best results have been with Westsoy Plain organic (nothing but soy) and a capsule/powdered probiotic. I've tried from 12 to 18 hours in the IP. The longer the time, the more tangy the yogurt. Please continue to share your results!
Becky Striepe
That's interesting! I usually do 12-14, but it should have thickened up some at 9. The final yogurt is still on the runny side, but it's definitely noticeably thicker than the soymilk. Did you by any chance use the little metal tray that comes with the IP? It will not work if you elevate the jars from the bottom of the canister.
Jacqueline
Update:
Some 15+ hours later I had pretty thin, but set yogurt. I strained and it's creamy and delicious. (Froze the "whey" for smoothie, assuming there's some nutrition in it?) BUT....all that time albeit hands off mostly for essentially one pint of yogurt.
Trying second experiment with one pint of Westsoy + 1 Culturelle capsule. - it is setting but thin, too. I think I'll have to strain as well.
Becky Striepe
Yeah, it's definitely thinner than storebought. Your other option is to add a thickener. I don't use thickenrs, but if you go through the comments on this post, some folks who do talk about how to use them to make thicker yogurt.
Lisa Bartlett
Hello: What thickener would you use? I'm still waiting on my IP (back ordered) and we found out 2 weeks ago my daughter is allergic to milk, so I'm hoping to make this when I get my IP (DUO 8Q). I hope it's not too big).
Becky Striepe
I know a lot of folks use afar agar. I’d definitely do some research on how and when to add it, though. You can also strain through a few layers of cheesecloth for thicker results.
Lisa Bartlett
thank you!
Becky Striepe
You are welcome!
Pamela
Yeah, mine is always thin too. Some people like it like that but I always strain mine and end up with 3 cups yogurt when all is said and done. I actually have a YouTube video that will be released this coming week showing the entire process.
Jacqueline
Keep us posted! I have a Pinterest Board "My InstaPot Adventure" I'm pinning this there and other finds and recipes.
I strained them and wound up losing about 50% to liquid BUT the Westsoy cultured with So Delicious was fab after straining. The Westsoy cultured with Culturelle - flavor was not as nice. Used it up in a curry.
I'm making another batch tonight with Westsoy (my new favorite soy milk, btw) and a lovely new to me nondairy yogurt: "CoYo" free from carageenan, non gmo, vegan, soy, dairy, and gluten free, no added sugar..it's tasty and thick. High hopes for batch #2.
Thanks for all the advice and responses. Even though it's a good chunk of time, it's mostly hands off and the results are so much better than the commercial ones. Though this CoYo is pretty bangin'.
Cheers!
Jacqueline
Keep us posted! I have a Pinterest Board "My InstaPot Adventure" I'm pinning this there and other finds and recipes.
I strained them and wound up losing about 50% to liquid BUT the Westsoy cultured with So Delicious was fab after straining. The Westsoy cultured with Culturelle - flavor was not as nice. Used it up in a curry.
I'm making another batch tonight with Westsoy (my new favorite soy milk, btw) and a lovely new to me nondairy yogurt: "CoYo" free from carageenan, non gmo, vegan, soy, dairy, and gluten free, no added sugar..it's tasty and thick. High hopes for batch #2.
Thanks for all the advice and responses. Even though it's a good chunk of time, it's mostly hands off and the results are so much better than the commercial ones. Though this CoYo is pretty bangin'.
Cheers!
Becky Striepe
Oh wow! I've never seen CoYo. Let us know how it goes!
Jim Beerstecher
Thanks for the tips! I make my own soy milk with organic non-gmo beans. Half cup of soy beans makes over a liter of soy milk in about 15 minutes. I've been making my soy yogurt with it in a small yogurt maker. I can make it thin like your recipe and often I make a thick batch using some agar agar. When it's done, I filter out the whey with cloth. Then I get the thick yummy Greek yogurt style, great for desserts... a few berries on top and WOW!
Will the agar agar clog up the yogurt like those over-the-counter soy milks, with added thickeners do? I didn't see anyone commenting on home made soy milk, so I figure I'll try a batch and see... just got my instant pot today! Any feedback would be appreciated!
Becky Striepe
Ooh that's a good question. I'm not sure how it would work out adding the agar when it goes into the IP, since I don't use it. Your homemade soymilk should work just like the boxed one I buy, since they're the same - just water and soybeans. Definitely report back on what you try and how it goes - I love how the comments on this recipe are becoming a great resource!
Lisa
Hi :) do you add water to the bottom of the IP once the jars are in?
Becky Striepe
No water needed!
WikiPamela
I'm wondering if this would work in a slow cooker set on warm too. It came out amazing in my instant pot, but I really hate tying up my instant pot (even overnight) when it could be doing so much more!
Becky Striepe
I don't think it would. Vibrant Wellness Journal has oven directions, though! May be worth checking out!
Jill, The Veggie Queen
I like to make my yogurt at night when i am not usually cooking which works very well. Nothing like waking up and finding that you have yogurt. I put it on at 8 or 9 at night for 12 hours and it works great.
Becky Striepe
Same here. I do 14 so I start it around 6, so it's ready for breakfast!
Jesse
I'm used to making dairy yogurt in my smart pot, I'm curious about if the boil step is OK to skip with the soy yogurt?
I've noticed too,at least with dairy yogurt making, that sanitizing the smart pot's stainless pot with a cup of water, and 1 min on the manual mode (vent closed) seems to give a good clean slate for the cultures to develop.
Becky Striepe
I have never made dairy yogurt, so it's tricky for me to compare and contrast. The steps listed above are all I do to make our soy yogurt, though. I hope that's helpful!
Roger Day
No need to boil, Becky.
Becky Striepe
Thank you! Wasn't sure if that was something that happened in the pot while I'm sleeping. :)