This is one of my favorite probiotic treats. Homemade, dairy-free coconut kefir yogurt maintains a healthy inner ecosystem which keeps my immune system and digestion strong. There are many important benefits of coconut kefir yogurt including relief from sugar cravings, shiny hair, clear skin, bright eyes and a flat abdomen.
While you can make coconut kefir yogurt with kefir grains (and I have many times), I find that you can get a more consistent result, with much less work by using a simple quality probiotic capsule or two.
Makes: 2-3 cups | Preparation Time: 20mins to make | 1-2 days to culture
Tools:
High-powered blender
Sterilized glass bowls
Strainer
Sterilized silicone or wood spoon/scraper
Cheesecloth
Rubberband
Cleaver or large knife
Ingredients:
1-2 quality probiotic capsules (I use Megaflora
3 young coconuts (how to open them)
1-1/2 cups fresh coconut water or pure water
A few tips:
It is super important that you sterilize all materials that will be coming into contact with the yogurt. You don’t want to grow bad bacteria, just the good stuff, so boil, or wash all materials in very hot water, including your hands.
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Avoid using metal of any kind since it has been known to react with the kefir in a way that yields unhealthful elements in your final product. Stainless steel is the most inert metal, but it still does react.
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Glass jars and storage bottles are preferable to plastic since the kefir actually eats away at plastic. If the kefir eats the plastic, you end up eating plastic. Limited contact is fine, but prolonged is discouraged.
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Let your coconuts sit on the counter for an hour or so. You want the water inside and the meat to be room temp. Probiotics won’t get a good start if the coconut meat and water are cold.
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Let’s get started:
Open your coconuts, strain the water and set aside. Place the cleaned meat (little to no brown husk) in a sterilized blender. Add either coconut water or pure water and blend with meat until super creamy like yogurt. Keep adding water until you get the consistency that you like. Remember to pour carefully, as once the water is in, you can’t take it out. Save extra coconut water for use in smoothies or to make Coconut Water Kefir.
The blending process actually ends up warming the mixture to a temperature that the probiotics love.
Pour your coconut yogurt mixture into a clean glass bowl.
Open up 1-2 probiotic capsules and sprinkle into your bowl. Using a non-metal, sterilized spoon, mix probiotics into coconut mixture. You can also add the capsule directly into the blender to skip this step. I am just extra careful about the metal blade in the blender.
Cover your probiotic mixture with a cheesecloth and rubber band. Place in a dark place like a cupboard or pantry for 24-48 hours.
After 24 hours, taste the kefir yogurt to determine if it is ready. It should taste sour like yogurt. You shouldn’t be able to detect sweetness. If there is still too much sweet, give it more time to culture.
Once it’s ready, transfer to the fridge until you eat it all up. You can mix it with chopped fresh fruit, blend it with fruit, enjoy it with homemade Blueberry Cherry Granola, make a potato salad with it. You can also put a drop or two of vanilla extract, banana flavoring or maple flavoring and a pinch of stevia to create a sugar free yogurt if you are trying to battle candida, or lose weight.
Enjoy!
This looks incredible! I do take my probiotic in a chewable from Vidazorb, but I think this little treat looks mighty tasty too! Might just have to make it for Valentine’s Day! TY
This caught my eye on Health Freak Food. I wanted to let you know that they must set your page in a frame, since their URL, not yours, is not the one that is showing. I’m going to mention this to them and express my displeasure. I think it’s a great site (I’ve just discovered it) but they should direct traffic to you fully. (Perhaps you might want to email them?)
Sarah~
I just checked and it looks like they addressed the issue before I had to to reach out. I’m sure it was an oversight, it’s a new website. Thanks for looking out for YU! Let us know if you make the yogurt…
was wondering if I didn’t get megaflora, what else might work—was trying to find something a little less expensive—but willing to go the megaflora route if that’s the one that’s really best/fastest/most beneficial.
Thanks!
Tison~ You can definitely purchase a less expensive probiotic capsule (just make sure it’s a capsule with powdered probiotics inside) and try that instead of MegaFlora, which I know is expensive, but I find it to be the most powerful bunch of probiotics. Let us know if you have success with another kind. Have fun!
If I were to use kefir grains, would I use the milk or water ones? Thanks so much for the easy-to-follow directions!
Hi Becky,
You would use the water ones. I had them for a while and they worked very well. Have fun!
The consistency of mine was more like cottage cheese…. That shouldn’t affect the final result though should it???
Hi Deanna, it shouldn’t make a difference at all. Have fun.
Hi Heather…we share the same last name
. I found your site after googling recipes for coconut milk yogurt. Your recipe look simple. It is different from others i have found. I was wondering what is the sugar that feeds the good bacteria? Most recipes call for 1-2T of sugar. I know sugar is bad for Candida, which I’m healing from…but in this case it is supposed to feed the good flora in the milk while it is culturing. Any thoughts? I did have a naturopath tell me about the 2T of sugar but I was wondering if maybe the coconut water is feeding it? Do you buy yours and if so which brand? I know some cans have BPA or metal that leech and that is why I ask. Thank you for your time. Hoping to get well soon and goat and dairy milk did not work for me. Blessings
Hi there Carrie. I was an instant fan of YU thanks to “we share the same last name,” but I am even more so since you are exploring the world of coconut kefir!
Mother Nature likes to keep it simple, so if you are using fresh, young coconut meat and fresh, unpasteurized coconut water (from the same coconut you open), the probiotics will eat the naturally occurring sugars in both. I have had many batches of success without adding extra sugar. When making kombucha however, you’ll need to add sugar since tea is the base. As you know, sugar is the food for the bacteria and they eat it all (or most of it) up by the time you time you dig in. You can taste your yogurt each day to see the difference… it goes from mildly sweet to sour a bit more each day. Good luck and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any more questions. High-five for taking on healing through food…
if not metal THAN what?
Zosia~
Try sterilized wood or BPA-free plastic.
I am very happy I found your website. I love it and all recipes are amazing. I have water kefir grains and I am desperately looking for a recipe to make non dairy yogurt with them!