Easy Homemade Almond Milk and Almond Milk Yogurt – No Thickeners Needed!

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Whether you spell it ‘yogurt’ or ‘yoghurt’, you’ll love this homemade almond milk and almond milk yogurt recipe which has no fuss, no complicated instructions, no other ingredients – just easy homemade almond milk and starter (such as a little yogurt). You can make this in the Instant Pot, and if you don’t have an Instant Pot, we include alternative methods.


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NOTE: If you don’t have any vegan yogurt handy to use as a starter you can also just break open a capsule of probiotic powder and mix that in!

We had been looking for a vegan alternative to soy yogurt in the Instant Pot for ages (but again, you don’t need an Instant Pot for this recipe). Nearly all of the recipes for non-dairy non-soy yogurt in the IP, however, require the addition of thickeners, and, frankly, are too complicated, often requiring first heating stuff up, blending, etc..

We love the simplicity of making soy yogurt in the Instant Pot (dump soy milk into jar, add some starter, set and forget) and wanted to find an equally easy-to-make, non-complicated, with no other ingredients, no heating first, etc., non-dairy non-soy Instant Pot (or not) yogurt. In short, we wanted it to be exactly as easy to make as soy yogurt, only not be soy.

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vegan instant pot yogurt yoghurt

This led us on a search through various Instant Pot almond milk yogurt recipes, all of which required thickeners or required making homemade almond milk, or both.

At first we rejected the idea of making homemade almond milk just to get almond milk yogurt. It was too fussy and complicated, involving skinning the almonds, straining the almond milk, squeezing the pulp, figuring out another use for the pulp when you were done with it, etc.. Even the most basic recipes for homemade almond milk require you to soak the almonds for hours (some say to blanch the almonds and remove the skins), then blend them with the 4 cups of water, then strain them. Yuck. Still too much effort for us (yeah, we’re lazy).

NOTE: Nearly all of the homemade almond milk recipes use a proportion of 1 cup of almonds to 4 cups of water. Remember that, as we will refer to it again in a bit.

Then we found instructions for making homemade almond milk using the Instant Pot, and we got a little more interested. After all, just about anything you can make (foodwise) can be made easier with the Instant Pot, right?

And then someone told us that they make homemade almond milk (to drink, not for yogurt) without having to strain it at all, by using their Vitamix (although any high-powered blender should do).

And then we did the math on how much it would cost to make a quart of homemade almond milk, from organic almonds and filtered water, as compared to store-bought organic almond milk, and that tipped the balance, and we decided that yes, ok, we could make homemade almond milk and then, in turn, homemade almond milk yogurt. For the record, we get organic almonds at Costco; they are a great price at $17 for 1.7 pounds, but of course you can use whatever raw almonds you like.

So we gave it a whirl (pun intended), and while the almond milk was delicious, and the resulting yogurt was tasty, it wasn’t really yogurt – it was basically kefir, having the consistency of a smoothie (and a thin smoothie at that), not at all thick like even a runny yogurt. We had read that subsequent batches of homemade almond milk yogurt will get thicker with each generation (assuming you are using some of the previous generation as your starter for your next generation), and that may be true, but this stuff was so thin that we couldn’t imagine how long that would take to get to generation X (5 batches? 15?) before it was thick enough to spoon out.

Now, we happened to know from making soy yogurt that there are two brands (and so far as we know only two) that have nothing in them but soy and water, which is the sort of soy milk you need to make soy yogurt in the Instant Pot (if it has anything other than soy and water it may not work). We further happened to know that of those two brands (WestSoy and Eden Soy), the Eden Soy yields a thicker yogurt because it has more protein.

“Hrrrm,” we thought, “if that’s the case, then perhaps having a higher almond-to-water ratio (and thus more protein) would also yield a thicker almond milk yogurt! (Remember that the standard ratio was 1 cup of almonds to 4 cups of water – see, we told you that we would refer back to that!)

In addition to upping the amount of almonds, we did away with removing the peel, did away with the straining, and included the water in which the almonds are soaked. All of this led to a higher protein almond milk and… wait for it… a thicker yogurt! Tah dah! And, of course, it also makes it super-easy! Turns out that the easier the steps, the thicker the yogurt! You have to love that!

So, here’s how we did it.

Easy Homemade 2-Ingredient Almond Milk Yogurt – No Thickeners Needed! Also Makes Homemade Almond Milk

1 cup almonds (we use organic almonds from Costco)
1 cup water plus more water for later
2 – 8 tablespoons plain vegan yogurt (any type) as a starter, the amount depends on how many jars you are going to make (we have not tried this with a probiotic or powdered starter)

The Almond Milk

Place the almonds and the 1 cup of water in your Instant Pot, lock, close the vent, and set to manual 1 minute (yes, that’s right, just one minute). NOTE: If you don’t have an Instant Pot you can boil the almonds in water for 5 minutes, although the results may not be exactly the same.

Allow to natural pressure release (NPR) or if you are in a hurry allow to NPR for at least 10 minutes, then quick release (QR).

Now, put the almonds, along with the remains of the water in which you pressure cooked them, into your Vitamix or other high speed blender. Add 1 to 2 cups of water, and blend the bejeezus out of it. With our Vitamix we start with variable speed, slowly cranking it up to the highest variable speed setting, and then from there go to high speed. Blend at high speed for at least a few minutes, to get it as liquified as possible. Then add more water until the total volume is 4 cups (1 quart), and blend just a bit more to get it fully blended.

The almond milk will probably be quite warm, so allow it to cool until it is at most lukewarm, room temperature is even better. If it is any warmer it can kill the starter.

At this point you have a delicious, nutritious, and clean almond milk. You can drink it straight, or do whatever you want with it. Of course, in our case what we want to do is make homemade almond milk yogurt in our Instant Pot!

IMPORTANT NOTE: The higher the almond:water ratio, the thicker will be your yogurt. If you want it thicker, reduce the amount of water; maybe start with a total volume of 3 cups of water rather than 4, and see what you think. Experiment!

The Yogurt

Ok, let’s take a moment here to talk about the jars in which you will make your yogurt. We use these wide mouth 8oz (half pint) jars, for individual servings. While we have typically made soy yogurt in the Instant Pot in 1 quart canning jars, we went to pint jars recently, and then to half pint jars, which is what we have made this almond milk yogurt in. Four of these wide mouth, half pint jars will fit in the bottom of the 6-quart Instant Pot. If you put the lids on them tightly, you can fit 8 of them in the 6-quart Instant Pot by putting four in the bottom, upright, and then placing another four on top of those, upside down (they won’t fit right-side up because then the Instant Pot lid won’t fit, but the jars are just tapered enough at the bottom that if they are upside down they allow the Instant Pot’s lid to go on).

We don’t know how the almond milk yogurt will do in larger jars.

The Half Pint Wide Mouth Canning Jars We Use for Instant Pot Yogurt
empty half pint wide mouth canning jar

We’re going to assume you are using four 8-ounce jars as well. Of course you don’t have to, so if you choose a different type of jar, adjust accordingly. In truth, we only put two tablespoons of yogurt into a 1-quart jar when making soy milk yogurt, and it works fine. But right now that’s not what I’m doing with this almond milk yogurt.

In fact, we fully expect that as subsequent generations of this almond milk yogurt are made, and some of that subsequent yogurt is used as starter for yet another generation, we will cut down on the amount of starter yogurt used in each jar. But for now, we’re not taking chances, and so are using 2 tablespoons of starter yogurt for each 8-ounce jar.

So, assuming you are going to do what we do, put two tablespoons of plain vegan yogurt into each of the 4 jars, and then pour almond milk into each jar until it is nearly full. (Again, the starter yogurt can be any type, it does not have to be almond milk yogurt, so long as it is plain yogurt.) Either stir each jar well, or you can tightly place a lid on each jar, and shake each jar to mix the starter yogurt in with the almond milk. Then you can leave the lids on, or remove them, that is up to you (of course if you are going to stack a second layer of jars onto the first in your Instant Pot, you will have to leave the lids on – otherwise we personally prefer to leave the lids off so that condensation doesn’t form on them).

If you are using an Instant Pot, put the jars into your dry Instant Pot (in other words, do not put water in the Instant Pot), lock on the lid, open the vent, and press the Yogurt button. The default time for making yogurt in the IP is 8 hours, however we always do ours at 13 hours, so we don’t know how it will come out if you do fewer than 13 hours. When it is done, your Instant Pot will beep.

If you are not using an Instant Pot, then place them in whatever incubation method you are using (oven, dehydrator, etc.).

Either way, when the time is up, take the jars of yogurt out and put them in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Our Instant Pot Almond Milk Yogurt in the Half-Pint Jar
instant pot almond milk yogurt half pint jar

Plain Homemade Almond Milk Instant Pot Yogurt
instant pot almond milk yogurt

Homemade Almond Milk Yogurt with Dates, Walnuts, and Cinnamon – Yum!
instant pot almond milk yogurt  with cinnamon walnuts dates


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28 thoughts on “Easy Homemade Almond Milk and Almond Milk Yogurt – No Thickeners Needed!

  1. Thanks for this! (left a tip) Quick question, my IP has Low, Normal, and High settings for yogurt – are you just using the Normal?

    1. Hi Mark! Thank you for the tip! ❤️ And yes, the newer IPs have those three settings, and ‘normal’ is the equivalent to the standard “yogurt” setting on the older Instant Pots, which is what we use. So yes, ‘normal’. Thank you again! 👩🏻‍🍳

  2. I love this! It’s a great method for making almond milk without blanching or straining pulp. I made my first plant based yogurt following the instructions and it turned out great – it was a little thin at first but it really thickened up in the fridge over the next few days, and the tangy taste was perfect.
    Question – do you use your almond milk yogurt as the starter for the next batch or just get some new starter? Thanks!

    1. Hi Karen! It really depends… we tend to go by how thick the yogurt is; if it’s nice and thick we just use that as a starter, if it’s on the runnier side we use that but add a bit of probiotic powder (break open a probiotic capsule or buy probiotic powder) to give it a boost. We’re so glad that you love it! Us too! 👩🏻‍🍳

  3. Would a food processor work for blending the almonds? I don’t have a vitamin, I have a regular blender, but didn’t think they could take blending almonds… but I do have a food processor, as well.

    1. Here’s what I would do if it were me: I’d put the almonds in the food processor first, and process them into a slurry (basically an almond butter), then I would put half of that in the blender along with half of the water, and blend it in a couple of batches. I don’t think the food processor on its own will get it smooth enough, but I think doing it this way could work. Let us know if you try it! :~)

  4. So to confirm- you don’t put the almond milk through a nut bag to remove the sediment. You keep that in to make the yogurt?
    Thanks!

  5. Hi! I really want to try and make this, but my instant pot doesn’t have a yogurt button, do you have any suggestions for that?

  6. I don’t have an Instant Pot, or a pressure cooker. And I’ve never made yogurt before, but I have almonds and starter–I’m game! Can you suggest an equivalent time/temp/amount of water (if different) for cooking the almonds to make the milk? And a site for instructions on the oven incubation method for almond yogurt? Thanks!

    1. Hi Karen! I really have no idea as to how to make yogurt in an oven, I’m sorry! I’m also not familiar with any site to which to point you – if it were me I think I would Google “how to make yogurt in oven” or something along those lines. Good luck!

    1. Hi Sharon – the reason this works is because of the high concentration of almond to water, it’s considerably higher than any commercial almond milk. That said, I’d say give it a try, the worst that can happen is you end up with a thin yogurt drink like kefir. :~)

      1. I thought your recipe called for 2T for each 8oz jar???

        Would a food processor work for blending the almonds? I don’t have a vitamin, I have a regular blender, but didn’t think they could take blending almonds… but I do have a food processor, as well.

      1. Sorry, I should have clarified my question. When you put the jars in the instant pot, how much water do you put underneath them? Just a cup again, or does the water level have to cover the yogurt like a water bath?

  7. This is amazing!! I’ve been saying for some time that the reason almond and other nut mills don’t work is because they don’t have enough protein. (Which is a conundrum anyway). I couldn’t figure out how to add more protein in. It never occurred to me to just add more almonds!! Can’t wait to try this!!

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