Instant Pot Coconut Yogurt Recipe

If you are looking for a dairy free yogurt try making your own with this easy Instant Pot coconut yogurt recipe! It’s rich, creamy and has a yummy coconut flavor. The coconut milk yogurt is a healthy and fun recipe to make even if you are not lactose intolerant.

You might also like dairy free ranch dressing recipe!

This homemade coconut yogurt recipe was one of my very first posts for the blog so it needed a lot of cleaning up.

Originally I made it in a yogurt maker but thought I’d try it out with my Instant Pot instead. Total success! The Instant Pot keeps the yogurt at the proper temperature for fermentation so there is no guesswork.

If you have an Instant Pot and it has a yogurt function I will show you how easy it is to make this Instant Pot coconut yogurt recipe. The nice thing is that you can make a big batch and eat it all week!

Also this yogurt recipe is fairly low carb. The beneficial bacteria feeds on the honey so it doesn’t really add to the carb count. However if you are on a keto diet, you can eliminate the honey completely to make it more keto. 

Should I use a yogurt maker or Instant Pot?

Years ago I broke down and bought a yogurt maker. It came with these cool little jars and it wasn’t too expensive so if you don’t have an Instant Pot you might consider buying one.

The jars alone were worthwhile to have for other things like leftover tomato paste or my low carb tomato bacon jam.

Both the Instant Pot and a yogurt maker will keep the contents at a constant low temperature which is what you need for the fermentation process. But if you don’t want to use either check out one of the millions of slow cooker recipes on Pinterest and I’m sure you will get good results.

You can also make it in the oven but it takes a long period of time and you might not want to tie up your oven that long.

Homemade coconut milk yogurt ingredients and tools.

• canned coconut milk
• gelatin powder (I use Great Lakes Unflavored Beef Gelatin)
• honey
• capsules of probiotic
• candy thermometer or even a meat thermometer
• Instant Pot or yogurt maker
• whisk or hand immersion blender
• microwave or stovetop

Note that you can use real maple syrup instead of the honey if you wish or a can of coconut cream instead of the milk.

Also with the probiotics I was using it took 3 capsules. Each capsule contained 5 billion PFUs. You want to get about 15-20 billion PFUs total in this size batch.

How to make Instant Pot coconut yogurt!

The simple recipe is really quite easy too. Once you get a good batch and figure out how you like it, it becomes easier and easier.  

Step 1: First pour the milk into a glass container. Then sprinkle some gelatin over the coconut milk, whisk to combine and let it bloom for 3 minutes.

Step 2: Put the bowl in the microwave or on the stove and heat to 120°F. This takes my microwave about 2-3 minutes.

Step 3: Whisk the gelatin in well to make sure it dissolves and then let it cool down to 105°F – 110°F.

Step 4: Now you can add the honey and the probiotic powder from the capsules to the coconut milk mixture and mix well.

Step 5: Add 1 cup of warm water into the Instant pot and then the trivet. Place in the yogurt mixture into the Instant Pot bowl and lock the lid. Hit the yogurt function and use the adjust button to set for 12 hours. The fermentation time should take 10 – 12 hours. I usually take mine out after 10 hours but 12 might be better if you want it to be a bit more tangy.

Step 6: Once it’s done give it a good whisk because sometimes it separates, and then put it in the refrigerator to firm up.

Step 7: Once it’s refrigerated for a few hours it might get a skin. If you look below you can see. I just whisk it all together and it’s fine.

How to make it in a yogurt maker.

• Do steps 1 through 4 above. Then put it in the yogurt maker over night. I put mine in at 7:30 pm and got it out at 6:30 am. You can play around with how long it “cooks”. Usually the longer you let it cook, the more sour it will get. You want to shoot for about 10 – 12 hours.
• Once it’s done it might separate but just whisk it and put it in the refrigerator to firm up. After a few hours, if it has a grainy texture or the consistency is jello-y then just whisk or blend it with a hand blender and you will get a creamy, thick consistency.

So this is what mine looked like. It had a slightly sweet taste from the coconut and a yummy, creamy texture.

This recent batch of yogurt was so good with my sugar free blueberry topping .

The thing I like about this homemade yogurt is that it’s so good for you. No dairy or preservatives like store bought yogurt, but rather good for you coconut milk, gelatin, honey and healthy probiotics.

So this is my process to make the coconut milk yogurt in the Instant Pot. I hope you like it as much as I do.  This is just a simple recipe and if you are low carb try that low carb blueberry sauce to top. It’s delicious!

It’s a big hard to calculate the nutrition for this recipe as bacteria feeds on the honey during the fermentation process but just taking the ingredients as is and calculating the nutrition, 1 half cup serving has 122 calories / 9g fat / 6g carbs / 1.8g protein (Realistically the carbs would probably be lower.)

NOTE: If you want to lower the carbs, you can eliminate the honey completely.

You might also be interested in my friend Jessica’s raw milk yogurt recipe!