Homemade Cashew Yogurt

3-ingredient Homemade Cashew Yogurt is so easy to make. It's creamy, tangy, and delicious. Plus, this dairy-free yogurt contains probiotics just like dairy yogurt, but without unhealthy fats. You DO NOT need an Instant Pot to make this recipe. It works in an oven, on a countertop in warmer climates, or next to a broiler.

Save This Recipe!

Type your email & I'll send it to you!

Cashew yogurt is my favorite vegan yogurt. I use it in place of yogurt in recipes, or enjoy it plain by the spoonful, or with fruit and granola. However, it's pricey and not widely available. This inspired me to create my own. This Homemade Cashew Yogurt turned out to be the perfect texture. It's thicker than the store-bought cashew yogurt brands I have tried, which tend to be thin and watery. This one is perfectly creamy and tastes amazing. Plus, it contains all clean ingredients - raw cashews, distilled water, and a starter (any yogurt with live bacterial cultures or probiotic capsules).

This homemade cashew yogurt recipe was inspired by my Easy Soy Milk Yogurt recipe. Use yogurt to make my Easy Vegan Tzatziki! It's also ideal for adding to curries and chilis. I add it to my High-Protein Chickpea and Lentil Curry, as well as this Easy Vegan Tomato Basil Soup for extra creaminess and tang.

Jump to:

👩🏼‍🌾 Ingredients
🥜 Substitutions
🥣 Equipment
📖 How to Make Cashew Yogurt
💡 Expert Tips
🛒 Shop Nisha's Yogurt Essentials
🙋🏽‍♀️ Recipe FAQs
🍽 Related Recipes
👩🏽‍🍳 Made this recipe?
Homemade Cashew Yogurt
💬 Comments

👩🏼‍🌾 Ingredients

Milk and a yogurt starter are all you need to make homemade yogurt. For this vegan Homemade Cashew Yogurt recipe, raw cashews and distilled water are blended to make nondairy cashew milk.

Plain yogurt in a carton, one cup measuring cup with raw cashews, and a Pyrex measuring cup with water.

Distilled water works best for making yogurt because it lacks minerals and impurities which can potentially interfere with the yogurt-making process. Plus, it's free from harmful microbes and bacteria that might be in tap water. It also ensures that the yogurt has a clean and pure taste. Plus, distilled water has a stable pH level during the fermentation process. This is important because the live cultures thrive in a specific pH range. While you can use safe tap water, I prefer to use distilled water for the best quality yogurt.
A small amount of commercialized unsweetened yogurt with live active cultures is used as a starter for homemade yogurt. The yogurt starter, or culture, is a specific type of bacteria used to initiate the fermentation process. These include Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. The two bacteria work together to create the right texture, consistency, and flavor. Make sure the starter yogurt starter is labeled as containing "live and active cultures." You can save a portion of your homemade cashew yogurt as a starter for your next batch of homemade yogurt.
Raw cashews are blended with water to make cashew milk for this nondairy yogurt. Typically, for dairy yogurt, cow's or goat's milk is used instead.

See the recipe card for quantities.

🥜 Substitutions

Cashews - instead of cashews use almonds, a different nut, or hemp seeds
Unsweetened cultured yogurt - Use any commercial yogurt with live active cultures. Do not use sweetened yogurt as this will slow down the fermentation process. You can save a portion of homemade cashew yogurt as a starter for the next batch of yogurt. Or use probiotic capsules. (See my preferred brands below.)

Make my Easy Masoor Dal Recipe. It's packed with protein and pairs delectably with cashew yogurt! For more easy and healthy breakfast and snack ideas, visit my Vegan Breakfast Recipes page.

🥣 Equipment

To make yogurt at home, you need a saucepan, blender, bowl, and an insulated container or appliance for fermentation. This can be an Instant Pot, an oven with the pilot light on, a yogurt maker, or a pet-warming blanket! Or place the bowl near your broiler. Keeping the bowl of milk and yogurt starter warm for a consistent period allows the bacteria to convert the milk into yogurt.

📖 How to Make Cashew Yogurt

This is an overview. The full recipe is at the bottom of the post.

Cashews soaking in boiled water in a stainless stele saucepan.

Soak cashews: Transfer the cashews and distilled water to a small saucepan. Bring the water to a simmer over medium-high heat. As soon as bubbles start appearing on the water's surface, turn off the heat. Cover the saucepan with a tight-fitting lid and remove it from the stove. Set aside for 30 minutes.

Cashews inside the canister of a blender with water.

Combine: Transfer the cashews and water from the saucepan to the canister of a blender.

Blend on high until smooth milk forms.

Blended cashews with yogurt starter in a glass bowl.

Add starter: Transfer the cashew milk to a medium ceramic or glass bowl. Add the starter yogurt and mix well to combine. (If using probiotic capsules, empty the powder into the bowl and mix.)

Cashew milk with probiotic starter in a glass bowl inside the liner of an Instant Pot.

Warm Spots for Proofing: Place the bowl inside an unused oven with the pilot light on, or inside the inner pot of an Instant Pot, by a broiler, wrapped in a pet warming blanket, or on the countertop in warmer climates.

For the Instant Pot, press the 'yogurt' button on the right, and set the timer to 10 hours. Otherwise, place the bowl inside an unheated oven with the pilot light on for 8 hours. The set, homemade Cashew Yogurt will be thick, creamy, and tangy.

💡 Expert Tips

Storage: Refrigerate Homemade Cashew Yogurt in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks. If you are using this batch as a starter to make more yogurt, do this within one week of making it.
For a thicker yogurt, use less distilled water (about 1 cup total).
For a tangier yogurt, ferment it for longer before refrigerating the yogurt. Refrigeration stops the fermenting process and the yogurt thickens as it cools.
For a less tangy yogurt, use 1 tablespoon yogurt starter instead of 2 tablespoons.
Do not use sweetened yogurt as a starter. This will slow down the fermentation process. Use any unsweetened yogurt with live active cultures, or probiotic capsules.
Other warming options: Cover the bowl with a dish towel, cling wrap, or reusable silicone lid and wrap it inside a warming pet blanket, or place it on the kitchen countertop in warmer temperatures, or leave it next to a broiler for 8 hours.

🛒 Shop Nisha's Yogurt Essentials

Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Shop Ingredients

Get my tried and true cooking products here.

the goods →

🙋🏽‍♀️ Recipe FAQs

Is homemade yogurt a good probiotic?

Homemade yogurt can be an excellent source of probiotics when made correctly with live and active cultures, such as Lactobacillus bulgaricus and Streptococcus thermophilus. When you make yogurt at home using a starter that contains live bacterial cultures, you are essentially creating a product rich in these probiotics.

Can I use vanilla yogurt as a yogurt starter?

You can use vanilla yogurt as a starter for homemade yogurt if it contains live and active yogurt cultures. A hint of the vanilla flavor will transfer over to the homemade batch. If the vanilla yogurt is sweetened, this can slow down the fermentation process. A small amount of added sugar should not be a problem, but heavily sweetened yogurts are not good starters.

Is it cheaper to make vegan yogurt?

To make four servings of Homemade Cashew Yogurt, you need 1 cup of raw cashews, which costs anywhere from $3 to $6, or sometimes more, when purchased in the United States, depending on whether they are organic, and where you buy them. Buying them from bulk bins in the supermarket is the cheapest option.
Store-bought cashew yogurt is about $2.50 for a single-serve container. Plus, it is not widely available. I also find the texture of commercial cashew yogurt too thin for using it in place of yogurt for recipes that call for dairy yogurt.

How long does a homemade yogurt starter last?

Once you have activated the starter culture and started making yogurt, your homemade yogurt is generally good for eating for up to 2 weeks, when stored in the refrigerator. For re-culturing, use the homemade yogurt within 7 days to make a new batch.

Nisha Melvani in a red sweater sitting with hands crossed over.

👩🏽‍🍳 Made this recipe?

Let me know your thoughts on Homemade Cashew Yogurt by leaving a ⭐️ rating below or sharing it on Instagram.

comment