How to make cruelty-free (i.e. vegan) curd, yogurt and buttermilk?
It is time for change! dairy products becoming unsafe, cruelty on animals, toxins to humans. don’t worry you can easily replace with safe and nutritious milk, curd / yogurt. Surprisingly many vegan sources: nuts (cashews, almonds), rice grains, coconut, soy and more. Vegan curd comes out best using milk made of either peanuts, cashews, almonds, soy beans, rice or coconut.
Making plant based milk
To make vegan curd, first we need to get the milk ready. The basic steps to prepare plant based milk a
re (almost) the same, as follows:
- Soak 1 cup beans/nuts/seeds for 8 to 12 hours (3 hours for cashews).
- Drain the water.
- Blend them adding some water in your blender, until it becomes smooth paste.
- Add the rest of the water to achieve milky consistency. (Generally about 3 to 4 times the quantity of beans, nuts or seeds)
- Strain the liquid. What you get out of this is milk.
Note: To make curd with coconut milk, just skip step 1 above. Blend fresh coconut pieces. Soak the pulp in hot water (equal amount). Strain with thin cloth after water cooks down. Repeat the process again with half amount of water and you get the milk after which, the method of turning it into curd is just similar to above.
Making the curd starter
Take small quantity of milk to make the starter for the first time. If using peanut milk, rice milk or soy milk, boil them for 2-3 minutes and let the temperature come down until you can safely insert your figure into it. For cashew/almond/coconut milk, just warm the milk. Once this is done, either use the old vegan curd starter saved from the previous batch, or use one of the 3 options: 10 green chilly stems or 10 peaces of okra or 10 seeds of Methi. keep it still for 12 hours to set.