Coconut Kefir yogurt

This is one of my favorite probiotic treats. Homemade, dairy-free coconut kefir yogurt maintains, and boosts, a healthy inner ecosystem of beneficial bacteria 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 (thanks to strong digestion).

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 (yay!) 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)
Sterilized glass bowls
Strainer
Sterilized silicone or wood spoon/scraper
Cheesecloth
Rubberband
Cleaver or large knife

Ingredients:
Try to buy everything organic. Here’s why.
1-2 quality probiotic capsules (I use Megaflora found in the refrigerated section at my health food store. Use probiotics that are found in the cooler—this means that the beneficial bacteria are still alive.)
3 young coconuts (how to open them)
1-1/2 cups fresh coconut water or pure, un-chlorinated 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.
– – –
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.
– – –
Glass jars and storage bottles are preferable to plastic since the kefir bacteria actually eat away at plastic. If the kefir eats the plastic, you end up eating plastic. Limited contact is fine, but prolonged is discouraged.
– – –
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.
– – –

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!

– – –
Do you like this recipe?

Tell us what YU think on
(I bet some folks out there in the world will be thankful you did).