Yogurt is an ancient wonderfood, brimming with beneficial bacteria to keep your gut running good ‘n healthy. But standard yogurt is made with dairy milks – blech – which contain hormones and carcinogens and acids and allergens and irritants. Oh my! But no worries, making your own alt yogurt is *super* easy and totally fun. It also saves a small fortune versus buying prepackaged products (which contain a slew of additives as well).

If you already have a yogurt maker you’re super stoked – and you can still use this recipe, but follow your machine’s directions when it comes time to culture. If you’re interested in making lots of yogurt at home, a yogurt maker may be a good investment for you. They’re really quite cheap – especially if you can find one secondhand (check Craigslist!).

But, a yogurt maker isn’t necessary! I make yogurt in my crock-pot, which is one machine that’s worth the money for all sorts of reasons. (I <3 my crock so much!) But even if you have neither a yogurt maker nor a crock-pot, you can *still* make yogurt at home! Just see the note at the end of this post.


Alright, yogurt time! Here’s what you’ll need:

• One batch of homemade alt milk (about 4 cups) (you can try subbing store bought – let me know how it goes)
• 2 heaping tablespoons tapioca starch (available at health food stores, specialty shops, or ‘ethnic’ markets)
• 1 tablespoon organic evaporated cane juice (or sugar; I’ve tried maple syrup with no luck)
• Some sort of culture (If this is your first time you have three options: 1 tablespoon store bought non dairy yogurt, 1 non-dairy probiotic capsule (refrigerated only, as the shelf stable ones are not alive), or a non-dairy yogurt starter.) (Every time you make a batch of yogurt, save some of it to use as a starter for your next batch. this will save you a lot of money!)
• A small pot
• A candy thermometer
• A slow cooker
• Dish rags/towels and a large blanket

Step One
Pour the entire batch of alt milk into the pot, over medium heat. Whisk in the tapioca starch and the sugar. Allow the milk to heat slowly until it reaches 180º F, whisking frequently. Don’t let it boil!


Step Two
When it’s reached 180º remove it from heat. Give it a good whisk, cover it, and set aside to cool. It will take 1 or 2 hours to cool down completely. You may be tempted to expedite the process by putting it in the fridge but I don’t recommend this. It can lead to tapioca lumps! Stir every so often to help prevent the lumpies.

At this point, place your crock-pot in the center of a blanket or big towel and turn it on to ‘low’. Leave the crock-pot on with the lid off while the alt milk mix is cooling.

Also, remove your starter, whatever it may be, from the fridge. You want it to be room temperature when you add it to the mix. I’ve tried various soy and coconut milk yogurts with equal success. Just make sure that whatever you use is plain, unpasteurized, and explicitly says “live active cultures”. If this is not your first batch of yogurt, you should be using the last few tablespoons of your previous batch!


Step Three
The mix needs to cool to below 110º F, but closer to 90º is better. If it’s too hot it will kill the starter cultures. When it has appropriately cooled, add your starter and whisk thoroughly to combine. Don’t add too much! More does NOT equal better – the bacteria need ‘room’ to grow. A full tablespoon of store bought yogurt or a few tablespoons of leftover homemade yogurt, or a single probiotic pill.


Step Four
Pour the entire mixture into a large glass jar. Cover with the lid but do not tighten it. It needs to be able to ‘breathe’.

Turn off and unplug the crock-pot. Wrap the jar in towels and put it in the crock-pot, put the lid on, and then wrap the whole shebang up tight in the blanket!

Now, leave it alone for a good 12-18 hours.


Step Five – Done!
You will know your yogurt has ‘yoged’ if it has a bit of a tang to it. The longer you let it culture, the more sour it gets. Be careful – it can get pretty sour! When it’s done transfer it to the fridge, without stirring or shaking, and let it set up in there for a few hours. It will thicken, but probably not as much as traditional yogurt.

Yay! Enjoy your yogurt! It’s awesome straight up with fresh fruit or nuts, or you can use it to make all sorts of incredible dishes, like . . . dairy-esque dips and dressings, labneh, tzatziki, raita, mango lassi, or frozen yogurt! It’s also delicious in – you guessed it – green smoothies! (Am I predictable or what? Ha!)

So have fun playing with it – it’s just so good for you, you can’t go wrong!

*** If you don’t want to use a yogurt maker or a crock-pot, you can try the heating pad method, or the cooler method

Making your own nut and seed milks is so damn simple, I just wish I’d figured it out sooner. It’s super economical, easily customizable, and you get to avoid all those additives and fillers. But best of all, it TASTES AMAZING. Seriously, a totally different experience. You gotta try it!

I was just looking through these pictures in preparation for this post and realized I probably don’t even need to write anything. It’s pretty self-explanatory, because it really is that easy. Here’s what you’ll need:

1 cup RAW nuts or seeds (almond, hazelnut, sunflower, hemp, etc)
water
food processor or blender
sprouting bag/cheesecloth/mesh strainer (I use a sprouting bag, you can get one here)
various containers, and a funnel helps


Step 1: Soak 1 cup nuts/seeds in plenty of water. Place in the fridge, covered, for 8-24 hours.

Step 2: Drain and rinse nuts/seeds. Place in food processor or blender with 4 cups of water. Here’s where you can get real creative. Add a vanilla bean or vanilla extract for vanilla flavored milk. Add maple syrup or other sugars if you like it sweeter (though it really doesn’t need it.) Add almond extract or peppermint extract or cocoa. Add cinnamon and other spices for a twist on horchata! The possibilities are endless. Now, Blend blend blend!





Step 3: Line a large bowl with sprouting bag or cheesecloth. Pour entire contents of blender into bowl. If using a mesh strainer, pour blender contents through strainer.





Step 4: SQUEEEEZE





No, really. SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEZE!!!





Now you have a bowl of milk!





Step 5: Pour it into a big jar for storage. Here’s where a funnel helps, though obviously not enough. Try not to spill it all over – like I always inevitably do!





Step 6: Save the pulp. It freezes well. This is a nutritious almond meal that can be used in tons of ways, like thrown into smoothies, blended into dips, dehydrated into raw crackers, and much more. Mine most often becomes the crusts in my raw tarts!





And that’s it! Enjoy your alt milk over cereal, in smoothies, in baking, with fresh berries – anywhere you’d use milk. But the flavor is so divine, I do suggest you go for a glass straight up!

I recently wrote an introduction to fermented foods, in which I mentioned the practice of soaking grains. Many readers responded with interest, curious to learn more about this traditional technique. Yay! You guys make me so happy! And that brings us here: the ins and outs, the whys and the hows, an all-around intro to soaking your nuts, grains, and legumes.


Why Would You Want To Soak?

Nuts, grains, and legumes are each different kinds of seeds. As such, they have evolved protection mechanisms to keep them safe until conditions are desirable for germination. For example, seeds are difficult to digest in order to facilitate seed dispersal – the animal that eats them carries them away, and then ‘drops’ them right into a pile of ‘fertilizer’. How marvelous! But in order to pass through the gut intact, they must be indigestible.

Further, all seeds need to remain secure until they are able to sprout. This stability is maintained via elements that suppress the enzymatic activity involved in germination. These elements – the ones that render seeds difficult to digest and allow them to lay dormant – are termed antinutrients.

Antinutrients are so named because they may ‘take’ more nutrition than they provide. During healthy digestion our own enzymes work to disassemble food into usable molecules. This begins in the mouth with the enzymes present in saliva, and continues in various forms throughout the entire digestive tract. But antinutrients work by inhibiting our digestive enzymes and preventing them from breaking down food, interfering with healthy digestion.

As well, antinutrients bind to precious minerals like iron, zinc, magnesium, and calcium. Essentially, they steal these minerals from our bodies. A diet rich in antinutrient-containing foods can lead to mineral deficiency and may contribute to poor bone density.

One of the most prevalent antinutrients is phytic acid. Grains are relatively high in phytic acid, though it exists in seeds and legumes as well. In situ it’s found bonded to phosphorous, residing in the bran of the seed. The bran is the hard outer layer rich in fiber, protein, and omegas. Phytic acid in the bran prevents premature sprouting. It has a strong affinity for minerals, and any mineral it binds to will become insoluble. This is how phytic acid leaches nutrients from the body.

Other antinutrients include flavanoids, like tannins, starches, and some proteins, such as lectins. All of these may irritate the stomach and interfere with digestion. However some, like flavanoids, are cancer-fighting and have other nutritive qualities. Clearly, nutrition science is complicated and convoluted – more on this at a later date.

SO, soaking seeds initiates germination. That’s the whole point. By ‘kicking off’ the sprouting process, antinutrients are disabled and enzymatic activity increases. Phytic acid is deconstructed and inhibitors are neutralized. The acid used in the soaking medium breaks the bonds that bind important minerals, and they become bioavailable. Thus, the seeds become digestible – and nutritious.

Soaking also begins to ‘pre-digest’ the seeds. For example, soaking and sprouting can break down certain proteins, such as gluten. This can facilitate digestion as well – some people with gluten sensitivity can eat soaked and sprouted glutinous grains. Phytase is the enzyme that is responsible for cleaving phytic acid from phosphorous and other minerals. Probiotics are a critical source of phytase, so eat your beasties!


Well, How Do You Soak?

There are four simple components that go into soaking seeds: liquid, acid, temperature, and time. That’s it!


To soak the whole seed, like almonds or rice or oatmeal or lentils . . .

1. Cover with water, enough to allow the seed to swell.
2. Add an acid, either lemon juice or vinegar, about a tablespoon per cup of water (rough estimates are okay).
3. Allow to sit at room temp for at least 7, but ideally 12-24, hours.
4. If possible, drain and then proceed as normal.

~OR~

1. Cover with an acidic cultured liquid, like kombucha or water kefir (for nuts, whole grains, legumes) or yogurt or ‘milk’ kefir for (for oatmeal, porridge).
2. Allow to sit at room temp for at least 7, but ideally 12-24, hours.
3. If necessary, drain and then proceed as normal.

To soak flour for use in a recipe . . .

1. Mix the flour with whatever liquid is called for in that recipe, plus the sweetener (if called for) and the fat (if called for)
2. Add 1tablespoon of acid, either lemon juice or vinegar, per cup of liquid.
3. Allow to sit at room temp for at least 7, but ideally 12-24 hours.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and proceed as normal.

So that’s it – the why and the how of soaking seeds (nuts, grains, and legumes). I hope it helps to clarify things, and maybe even inspires you to tackle this traditional, nutritive technique.

BONZAI

Ahhh, tomatoes, the ruby gems of the garden treasure chest. Fresh-from-the-yard tomatoes are one of summer’s true delights, the crowning jewel in countless warm-weather dishes. If there was only one thing I could grow, it would easily be tomatoes. Hands down. No questions.

And you can too! No matter where you are in the northern hemisphere, it’s not too late to grow your own little slice of the red heaven. You might not be able to start them from seed, but you can certainly get some seedlings planted. Just don’t delay! You’ll want to get these babies into the ground ASAP.

And if you want the strongest, hardiest, most fruit-bearing transplants ever, here’s what you’ve gotta do:





Begin with your tomato start (hey, is that a tp roll?). With very sharp scissors, cut off each leaf ‘branch’ at the base, leaving only the leaf cluster at the very top.





In your garden bed dig a long shallow trough. If you have it, lay some compost along the bottom. Then lay the tomato plant on it’s side in the trough (atop the compost). If you don’t have compost that’s fine.





Carefully cover the tomato plant, roots and stem, so that only the top leaf cluster is exposed. Pat the soil down firmly and water the transplant into its new home. Voila!

The stem will send down shoots at each of the trimmed nodes, ensuring a sturdy root system capable of maximum mineral extraction. Thus, tomatoes transplanted in this manner tend to have a much higher yield.

Good luck in the garden!

It’s late spring and hopefully your gardens are beginning to take shape. If you sowed your seeds directly to soil, now is about the time to thin out your rows. It’s important to overplant in case some seeds are sterile, but then it’s just as important to remove the excess, preventing competition. Sad for the little ones that don’t get to stay, but that’s the way it’s got to go.

The pac choi, very well groomed

I was in the middle of this process last weekend – pulling up seedlings and flinging them onto the compost heap – when it hit me. Hey! These are totally edible! Of course I felt like an idiot as soon as I made the realization (think of all the greens I’ve wasted!) Just because they’re not fully matured, doesn’t mean they’re not ripe for your kitchen. In fact, sprouts and seedlings are nutrient powerhouses!

The pac choi carnage. I had to pull up a lot of starts.

You can save and eat all sorts of seedlings, from lettuces (of course) to hardy greens (like collards or kale) to brassicas (like broccoli or cabbage) to beets. Sprouts are touted by raw foodists and other health aficionados as awesome, enzyme-rich and nutrient-dense little wonderfoods. So don’t make the same mistake as me and discard these garden treasures! Bring them inside, clean them up, and put them to work nourishing your body.





You can pretty much use them as you would use their older counterparts, aside from steaming or sautéing by themselves (they’re too tender for that). Make a fresh salad, or throw them into a stir fry, pack them into a hummus wrap or top off a sandwich, cook them into a scramble or just munch them by the handful. Or, you can do like I do and blend them into a delicious, delectable green smoothie!








So, how are your gardens growing? Will you be thinning the beds any time soon? What will you do with your sprouts?

Green smoothie for life!!!!