Cashew Yogurt Recipe

A simple cashew yogurt recipe that's rich, smooth, creamy and naturally delicious. Perfect for your weekday breakfasts topped with fresh fruit.

As a homemade cashew yogurt, making it yourself means there are no artificial sweeteners, additives or preservatives involved. 🙂 It's also cultured, plant-based, raw and vegan.

For other dairy-free recipes check out my easy cashew mayonnaise, raw vegan parmesan, oat milk, almond milk and macadamia cheese recipes.

Jump to:

• Benefits
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Yogurt flavours and toppings ideas
• Storage
• FAQ
• 📖 Recipe
• Food safety
• 💬 Comments

Benefits

Raw cashews are nutritious (source) making this recipe pretty healthy. They're an excellent source of protein, vitamins and minerals  including iron, zinc, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin B6 and vitamin K (source). 

I love making cashew yogurt using a probiotic powder. The probiotics charge it up with healthy live bacteria like you often find in regular dairy yogurt.

Alternatively, check online for well known brands of starter cultures and probiotics specifically for yogurt making. Some people like to use a tablespoon or two of fresh yogurt from their last batch as their chosen starter.

Feel free to choose what works best for you.

Ingredients

Yes, this cashew yogurt recipe uses only 4 ingredients, if you don't include water as an ingredient. Plus is super simple to make! If you're curious then definitely give it a go. I think you'll love it.

When you're looking for cashew nuts at the store, be sure to buy the raw kind for this recipe, rather than salted or roasted ones.

This is a cashew yogurt recipe with probiotics. I like to use an everyday vegan probiotic but it's not essential. I mean, you can make this without using probiotics, it's really down to personal preference so do what suits you best.

• cashews
• lemon
• probiotics (optional)
• vanilla extract (optional)

TIP: If you prefer not to use tap water you could use spring water instead. It's considered best practise to use filtered or spring water for ferments but I don't feel like it's always essential. It depends on the quality of the water in your area and your own personal preference.

See recipe card below for ingredient quantities.

Instructions

There are three steps to making this raw yogurt recipe and it takes only 5 minutes of actual work (hooray!) once the cashews have been soaked. You're basically making gorgeously thick cashew cream, adding a couple of ingredients, then leaving it to naturally ferment.

Here are the three steps:

Step 1: Soak the raw cashews for a minimum of 4 to 8 hours so that they soften.

I like to soak raw nuts and seeds overnight because I find this to be the easiest way for soaking. Leaving them on the counter top means that I'll notice them in the morning, so I won't forget to attend to them.

Step 2: Rinse and drain the raw nuts before adding them to a blender or food processor. Blend them up with the remaining ingredients until their texture is smooth and creamy. 

Pour the mixture into a clean jar and cover with a piece of kitchen paper or cheesecloth to keep it clean and hold in some warmth. Secure with a rubber band.

A high speed blender works best at blending and will give the smoothest result.

If you're using a food processor, you may need to pause mixing several times to scrape the mixture down the sides and into the middle with a spatula. My food processor takes a good five minutes to do this properly. My blender takes about a minute!

Step 3: Leave overnight for the cashew yogurt to ferment. Then chill in the fridge before using.

I love to notice all the tiny bubbles that appear from the fermentation.

Don't forget to see the recipe card below for complete instructions.

Yogurt flavours and toppings ideas

I like to add lemon juice and a touch of vanilla before blending because I love the combination of flavours. The lemon gives the yogurt a yummy freshness rather than a lemon flavour. Feel free to omit those if you prefer making a natural unflavoured yogurt. 

Other ideas you may like:

• Fresh fruits - add flavours with berries like blueberries, blackberries and strawberries
• Seeds - a sprinkling of sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, pumpkin seeds or flax seeds will all add a wonderful crunch and fantastic nutrition to your yogurt
• Jam - a dollop of jam will also add a wonderful fruity sweetness (try my blackberry chia jam)
• Maple syrup or date paste will add that natural sticky sweetness we all adore.

Storage

Store in the fridge to stay fresh for up to 5 days.

FAQ

📖 Recipe

Food safety

Ensure all utensils and work surfaces are clean before using and make sure your hands are always clean when preparing foods.