Yoghurt features heavily as a key (but not essential) ingredient in a lot of the main overnight oats recipes. It helps to provide healthy amounts of probiotics, vitamins and calcium, making it a great (and tasty) addition to the overall mix. What I find with some of the purely vegan overnight oats recipes is that dropping yoghurt/vegan yoghurt alternatives altogether can, in my opinion, detract from the overall taste of some of the overnight oats recipes. It’s always personal preference at the end of the day, so if you find you like the recipes by simply leaving out the yoghurt, leave it out!
I always like to give some options so you can decide for yourself, and it’s always a good idea to experiment with overnight oats recipes and tweak them to your preference.
So what Vegan Yoghurt alternative can I use in place of dairy?
Well, the general vegan hack for recipes containing dairy yoghurt is to substitute it for one of the many suggested vegan yoghurts currently available, or drop it altogether. They come in a variety of options that can be a very healthy and delicious alternative to dairy. Instead of dairy milk, most are derived from other sources such as coconut milk, almond milk and soy milk. Here in the UK, we’re a little behind the US with vegan yoghurt choices, but two main distributors/suppliers form the bulk of the list: Planet Organic (UK) and So Delicious (US).
There are a lot to choose from in the US, which can make the choices a little bewildering to those trying them for the first time. As a general rule, I suggest avoiding those that have added sugars and have listed a few based on taste, nutritional profile, variety and price!
Check them out, and even if you eat dairy, why not try them out to see if they give you something else to play with!
Heard of a supplier/distributor that’s offering almond milk based vegan yoghurts in the UK, we’d love to hear about them!
UK (from Planet Organic)
Coconut Collaborative (coconut milk based) – they make natural/plain yoghurt and 3 additional flavours (strawberry, blueberry, and mango and passion fruit). All (except blueberry) sit below the magical 5g sugar per 100g product threshold recommended by the NHS Live Well website. Even then, blueberry comes in at 6.4g. All sugars are naturally occurring from the base ingredients, i.e. not added in.
CoYo Natural (coconut milk based) – as above with the bonus of zero sugar!
Health Note: when it comes to flavoured yoghurts, you can always make your own flavours using natural fruits, cocoa powder (for chocolate) or vanilla extract (for vanilla) to flavour, with some added stevia to sweeten. Remember though, a lot of OO recipes account for sweetness with other ingredients anyway, so you’ll only need plain yoghurt in most cases.
US (from So Delicious)
So Delicious (coconut milk based) – only marginally higher in sugar than the UK equivalent (around 6g sugar per 100g for the natural/plain). The flavoured versions (blueberry, chocolate, vanilla, mango and passion fruit, strawberry, and raspberry) come in a little higher again, but see the side note above regarding flavoured yoghurts.. Extra bonus, most are gluten free, soy free and non GMO.
So Delicious Greek (coconut milk based) – as above, but designed to have the same thickness as dairy based Greek yoghurt, perfect for overnight oats! The protein content is lower than with dairy Greek yoghurt, but you can always supplement with any number of protein powders on the market such as Revolution Foods Raw Vegan Plant Based Protein Powders.
So Delicious Greek (almond milk based) – as above with the other So Delicious yoghurt alternatives, except the use of almond milk is great for those looking for an alternative with lower saturated fats.
