Now that I can find ORGANIC young thai coconut meat and water in the freezer department of Whole Foods, I’m a yogurt makin’ fool. I can’t imagine my refrigerator without it. Sooooo good. How can I describe it? Hmmm… ummmm… perfect creamy sublime deliciousness. How does that sound? It’s lightly sweet from the coconut, thick, decadent, very nourishing. Total comfort food. Do I have your interest yet?
My excitement stems from how easy it is to make and how nutritious it is (friendly flora, body building amino acids, healthy fats, and lots of exciting nutrients). It’s great for pregnant mamas and breastfeeding mamas alike. The ease of making is from not having to crack open non-organic young thai coconuts and then wondering if your coconut has “good” water and meat inside, not to mention wondering if you have the amounts you need – they all vary.
And, while I’m at it… yeah, it might seem pricy to make. The meat costs me 15 bucks and the coconut water, although I only use about 1.5 cups from the bottle, it costs another 10 bucks for the bottle. But… it’s soooooo good for you and nutritious and mega delicious. Plus, if you think about it, my recipe makes about a quart so I’d estimate that’s about 8 servings. How much does it cost to buy 8 containers of yogurt in the store, which isn’t homemade, fresh and raw?!?! (Besides, when people make mention of some costs associated with certain raw foods, I quickly step in with “I’d rather have fresh raw, health promoting foods than spend $5-10 a day on Starbucks or any other life draining junk. And, do I need to mention that I don’t spend money on illness related doctor visits, drugs, etc.”)
So, bet you’re wondering how to make this awesome raw vegan yogurt! It’s so stinkin’ easy that I make it about every week. Seriously. Why make it so often? Let me share all the brilliant ways to use it!
- Mouwing down on it AS IS! It’s a great middle of the night snack ;)
- Getting fancy with it and adding diced apple, sliced banana, sprinkling of raisins, and some chopped nuts (texture!) – this is one of my favorite ways to enjoy it. You could also add chopped celery instead of nuts for texture fun.
- Add to smoothies for the best smoothie you’ll ever have. Holy heck! I love this in my smoothies. It’s a great way to reduce the fruit in smoothies and bump up the greens because the yogurt settles the greeny flavor.
- Crumble raw cookies or brownies on it. This makes a wonderful dessert. The yogurt serves as the whipped cream.
- Need creaminess in your raw soup? Enter: raw vegan yogurt. Yum.
- Dollop on top of raw cobbler.
- Chocolate pudding anyone? Add raw chocolate powder, raw coconut nectar or agave, and stir it up. Wanna get crazy with your cacao? Add nibs too! (Texture! I love texture.)
- AND…. you can have all of those named above without even flavoring the yogurt. It’s great as is. But(!) You can get fancy with flavors for added variety. Options: sweeten it up with your choice of sweetener (raw coconut nectar, raw agave nectar, date paste, etc). Or, blend in fresh fruit. Add vanilla (or mint, almond, etc) extract. Sky’s the limit!