Greek yogurt is all the rage these days, it seems that most people have started to eat greek yogurt instead of regular yogurt. And you can make greek yogurt at home.
Greek yogurt is thick which is so satisfying when you crave a creamy dessert plus it has that extra protein which is always nice if you’re trying to up your protein intake.
Commercial greek yogurts – why I don’t buy them
With all that being said, I tend to avoid buying greek yogurt from supermarkets.
Why?
Easy! They tell me that it’s all yogurt but when I check the ingredients there is cream and other substances that I can’t identify.
Since making yogurt at home it’s so easy, I prefer to make it myself to avoid some ingredients.
Making greek yogurt is as simple as straining yogurt.
Oops I just gave away the whole post but let’s start from the beginning.
What is greek yogurt?
Greek yogurt is simply yogurt that has been strainer to remove most of its whey.
Whey is that liquid that you see on top of your yogurt, a byproduct from the yogurt making process.
If you strain the whey, you end up with a thicker yogurt which we call greek yogurt.
On the other hand, when you strain the whey, you’ll get less yogurt because it’ll of course decrease in volume.
That’s one of the reasons why greek yogurt is more expensive. You need to make twice the amount of yogurt that you need if you are going to strain it.
Greek yogurt vs regular yogurt – nutrition
Since we’re removing the whey, you can assume that nutrition wise it’ll change. That is correct.
That’s why you cannot eat the same amount of greek yogurt, greek yogurt will leave you full for longer when you eat the same quantities.
For the same amount per serving, greek yogurt lands you with 17gr of protein, while regular yogurt gives you about 9gr of protein.
This difference in protein makes it one of the best things for people who are trying to add more protein to their diet.
What types of yogurt can I strain?
I like to strain my homemade yogurt, whenever I know I’m going to make greek yogurt, I make a big batch in my yogurt maker.
Since I have two yogurt makers, I use the one that allows me to make a big jar instead of individual portion sizes. That way I don’t have to scrape every jar to make greek yogurt. I use my Easiyo and I’m going to go.
Read more: How To Choose a Yogurt Maker
You can read more about making your own yogurt here. It’s one of the things that you can make at home that doesn’t disrupt your routine too much, you can heat up the milk while you’re cooking dinner and just leave your yogurt maker during the night. Some things are more time consuming to make than making yogurt from scratch, that’s why I’ve been doing yogurt for over 10 years.
But if you don’t want to make your own yogurt just yet, you can use commercial yogurt to make greek yogurt. You will be able to save some money this way.
And when you start making greek yogurt, I’m sure that you’ll be curious on how to make your own yogurt.
So now that you know what is greek yogurt and what type of yogurt you can use, we need to discuss strainers because they’ll be your biggest ally when making greek yogurt.
Yogurt Strainers
There are several types of yogurt strainers, the one that you use is up to you and what you have. Here you can find everything you need to know about yogurt strainers.
If you want to skip reading the post (you totally shouldn’t!) my favorite yogurt strainer is nylon yogurt strainer. This one is similar to the one I own – I couldn’t find mine anywhere. However you can use a cheesecloth with the same results. You can even use a fine mesh strainer!
Yogurt strainers just hold the solids of your yogurt and allow you to get rid of the whey which is what’s preventing you from having greek yogurt.
How To Make Greek Yogurt
You’ve your strainer and you’ve got your yogurt, you are ready to make greek yogurt.
Ingredients & Tools
– Yogurt strainer (cheesecloth or nylon strainer)
– Yogurt – don’t forget you’ll have about half in volume after straining
– Bowl
– Colander (optional but handy if you don’t have a lot of space)
Instructions
– Put your yogurt in the yogurt strainer.
– Hang it with a bowl underneath – you can hang it in the kitchen cabinet door knob for example or
– Or you can put the strainer on top of a colander with a bowl underneath, just make sure that the bowl is deep enough that the strained whey won’t touch the colander.
– Let it strain for about 2 hours – I found 2 hours to be the best but experiment with it – leave it less time if you want it thinner and more time if you want it thicker
– Remove the yogurt from the yogurt strainer and move it to glass jars.
How does the greek yogurt look like after straining?
With a small amount of yogurt to strain, I still ended up with a lot of whey. The photo is not the best but you can clearly see the leftover whey plus the change in the volume.
Other than that, the greek yogurt will look exactly how a commercial greek yogurt looks like.
Won’t my yogurt go bad if I let it sit at room temperature?
I personally never had problems with it, 2 hours is not that long to make your yogurt go bad. If you want to strain your yogurt in the fridge feel free to do that but I don’t find it necessary.
If you’re using your handmade yogurt, just remember that when you take it out from the yogurt maker it’s still warm – which means letting it cool down at room temperature is not a bad thing.
Plus it’d be difficult to do in my fridge. I could only do this if I did a small batch of greek yogurt – if I’m making greek yogurt might as well do a big quantity (that’s how I think at least).
Making greek yogurt
As I said in the beginning of the post: strain regular yogurt and you’ve got yourself greek yogurt! It’s really that simple.
Don’t be afraid of trying out, in a worst case scenario, you end up with regular yogurt, talk about no stakes.
