How to make Greek Yogurt at home | Homemade Greek Yogurt

Greek Yogurt is nothing but plain yogurt that has been strained so that it becomes so creamy and spreadable. 

Making Greek yogurt at home is so easy if you're already familiar with making yogurt at home. Even if you don't make yogurt at home, don't worry!! Here i'm guiding you to step by step methods to make perfect yogurt as well as greek yogurt.

Yogurt culture

First thing first, to make yogurt at home, first you will need yogurt culture. Yogurt culture is nothing but a small amount of plain yogurt. If you have a favorite store bought yogurt, then store a couple of tbsp of that yogurt aside before finishing it off :-) Because we're gonna use that as a starter to make our yogurt at home. 

Make sure to use good quality yogurt as a starter because the yogurt is gonna taste exactly like the starter we're going to use.

Milk

Second, we need milk. For making yogurt , you can use full fat, 2% or 0% milk. Yogurt made from the full fat milk obviously tastes so rich compared to the low fat version. 

If you're making it for growing kids, i would recommend to use full fat milk. Because you can use this as spread(on bagels) or dipping sauce(for patties) or as dessert( with berries and a splash of maple syrup) and kids would absolutely love it. And for adults, you can use whatever the milk as per your diet requirements.

Pro Tips

• Depending on how thick you want the greek yogurt, you can strain the yogurt between 12- 24 hrs. I strained mine around 14 hrs.
• While boiling the milk, make sure that the bottom won't get burnt. So keep an eye and stir the milk now and then especially if you're using the full fat milk because the chances of burning at the bottom is high when using high fat content milk.

Ok, Now let's check out how to make the perfectly creamy Greek Yogurt at home.

How to make Greek Yogurt at home

Preparation Time : 24 hrs | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Diary | Recipe Cuisine: Greek
Homemade Greek Yogurt, Greek Yogurt,How to make Greek Yogurt at home Greek Yogurt is nothing but plain yogurt that has been strained so that it becomes so creamy and spreadable.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients

Milk - 2 cups
Yogurt - 2 tsp

Procedure

Pour the milk into sauce pan, let it bring into boil.

Once the milk is about to boil, switch off the flame and let it cool a bit.  Take the yogurt in a bowl and whisk it well without any lumps and keep it ready. 

Pour the yogurt into bowl which you're gonna set the yogurt, check the milk temperature by placing your finger in the milk. It should be hand bearable but still it's warm, that's correct temperature. Pour the milk into the yogurt culture. 

Mix it all well together and partly cover the bowl with lid and place it in the warm place. I kept it in oven with lights on. 

After 6-8 hrs, the yogurt would be set beautifully.

Next take a colander and line it with cheese cloth. Add the yogurt into that colander. 

Place the colander over a bowl to catch the dripping water and then cover the yogurt with the hanging cheese cloth and keep it inside the refrigerator for 12-24 hrs.

After a day, take the colander out and you can see how much is dripped from the yogurt in the bowl. 

That's it. Delicious and creamy Greek Yogurt is ready to use. For later use, transfer the yogurt to the refrigerator save bowl and store it in the refrigerator.

Related: Homemade Soft Paneer

Notes:

• Keep the yogurt in the refrigerator once it set to avoid the further sourness.
• Cheese cloth works better for straining. But you can't find it near you, use any cotton cloth like idli cloth.
• It stays well in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.

 

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Mint Yogurt Chutney, a delicious and flavorful chutney that goes well with any type of kebab or starter recipes. Mint & coriander leaves give great flavor and the yogurt/curd give the enough creaminess to the chutney and make it perfect as dipping sauce for your starter recipe. This mint yogurt chutney is mandatory in our home whenever i make kebabs !!! It's so similar to restaurant style kebab chutney  and if you haven't tried it before, do give it a try !!!  

Mint Yogurt Chutney | Kebab Green Chutney

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Chutney | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Mint, Coriander,Chutney,Kebab chutney, Yogurt chutney,Restaurant Kebab Chutney,dipping sauce Mint Yogurt Chutney, a delicious and flavorful chutney that goes well with any type of kebab or starter recipes.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Mint - 1/4 cup(tightly packed)
Coriander leaves - 1/4 cup(tightly packed)
Green chili - 2 to 4
Ginger - 1 inch pieces
Garlic - 4 cloves
Curd/Yogurt - 1/2 cup
Salt - to taste

Procedure

Clean mint, coriander leaves and put into the blender along with green chili, ginger & garlic and grind into coarse mixture.Then add curd & salt into it and grind it as smooth chutney. That's it , Tasty & Flavorful Yogurt Mint Chutney is ready. For kebab recipe, check out here and here 

Notes:

• Use fresh curd for great taste
• Adjust the chili as per your liking.
• Squeeze a little bit of lemon juice for more tanginess.

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Pineapple Raita, a delicious and quick to make raita from pineapple chunks. For past few months, ST has started to take curd as side for his lunch box daily, so instead of packing plain curd, sometimes i like to add some seasonal fruits which are available in my pantry at that time. Few are instant hit and like it so much like this pomegranate raita. 

Coming to this pineapple raita, when i had tried this raita for the first time, i packed it for lunch box after given a taste test which was actually really good. At lunch time, ST called me and told me that the raita was too bitter and asked me to discard the remaining.Even i had tasted, it was so bitter.

I was wondering why it turned out bitter after some time ? Then obviously i had searched on google and it says "Raw pineapple contains bromelain, an enzyme that breaks down the protein in your milk/milk product, making it bitter". So it's not advisable to keep pineapple and milk product together for  longer time. 

If you're making this, i would suggest to finish it off at once or if you're planning to have it later, to avoid the bitter taste, you can pre cook the pineapple and then add into the curd.  Otherwise it's such a delicious raita to finish off the meal, do give it a try and let me know how you like it. 

For the past few days, i have been listening to some of the videos from food blogger submit conference on various topics like SEO improvement, instagram engaging, how to make videos and the list goes on. After listening to all this, it was really overwhelming. 

With every inventions, there are equal amount of opportunities and challenges. If you want to excel in grabbing those opportunities, you have to face all the challenges first and over come it. Like Google search, it showcases your interest to the world(if you have page) whoever search on that particular topic, but in order to be on the top result, you need be a SEO expert first.

For me, there are days that i really want to make my page on that top list. And there are other days that i don't even care about a single thing about the blogging. So the really challenge is  always find balance between these two extreme ends and being consistent. 

Hope this is applicable to various life scenario not only blogging. But is that even possible all time? I don't know, guess even google can't answer 😜  Thanks for reading all the way to the end of my random thoughts scribbled. Now let's check out the recipe.

Pineapple Raita | Raita recipe

Preparation Time : 2 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 1 
Recipe Category: Raita | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Pineapple raita, raita,yogurt,curd Pineapple Raita, a delicious and quick to make raita from pineapple chunks.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Curd - 1/4 cup
Pineapple - 1/4 cup(cubed)
Salt - a pinch
Paprika - 1/8 tsp
Cumin Powder - 1/8 tsp
Mint leaves - few

Procedure

Take the curd in a bow and whisk it smooth, cut the pineapples into small pieces.

Add the pineapples,salt,paprika,cumin powder into the curd and mix it all together.

Tasty Pineapple raita is ready. Add some mint leaves on top before serving.

Related : How to make Cucumber Raita

Notes:

• Use thick curd for better taste.
• I have used fresh pineapples, but you can use caned ones also
• For extra spice,instead of paprika, you can use red chili powder.
• Cumin powder for flavor, but it's optional.
• Keep it longer time make it bitter, so it's advisable to serve it immediately.
  

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Pomegranate Raita | Pomegranate Yogurt | Raita Recipe

Pomegranate Raita, a refreshing and delicious yogurt/curd with pomegranate.More than a recipe this post is just a idea for making delicious yogurt. All you need to do is put everything together and your delicious yogurt is ready in minutes. It can be served as room temperature or as chilled, both way it tastes amazing. Coming to pomegranate, here it's bit difficult to get the good quality pomegranate. Mostly they are too sour and doesn't suit to our taste. But fortunately for the last few times, we got good pomegranate from the local store here.  Apart from eating as it is, i have been adding pomegranate seeds in raita, fruits salad & curd rice. My personal favorite is raita/yogurt, the mild pink color is really inviting and the yogurt is mildly sweet with fantastic pomegranate flavor. If you like pomegranate and have the habit of eating curd/yogurt, do give it a try!!

I didn't grew up eating curd/yogurt as it is, in our home we used to have it with rice, mostly curd rice is the way to end our meal. If there would be more curd/yogurt left after the meal, then we sprinkled some sugar on it and had it. I got introduced to all those fruit flavored yogurt when we were in US especially from the hotel breakfast. When i was new in the foreign land, apart  from the cereal & bread, the fruit flavored yogurt was my savior in the hotel breakfast menu especially when we travel and stayed in hotel. It was yummy and really liked them a lot. So after that i used to make flavored curd at home, but instead of adding awful lot of sugar like the commercial ones, i would make them without sugar like Indian Raita recipes., the natural sugar in the fruits in just enough for us. Similar to this pomegranate raita/curd, strawberry , raspberry raita can also be made, that too tastes good. It's definitely a healthy choice for dessert !!! But today, i have served this raita along with our meal. Now let's checkout on how to make this simple yet delicious raita.  

Pomegranate Raita | Pomegranate Curd

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 0 mins | Serves : 1 
Recipe Category: Raita | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Curd, Healthy, Pomegranate Raita, Raita, Fruit Yogurt, Pomegranate Raita, a refreshing and delicious yogurt/curd with pomegranate.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Curd - 1/2 cup
Pomegranate seeds - 1/2 cup
Salt - a pinch.

Procedure

Take the curd in a bowl, add the salt and whisk it smooth without lumps.Take the pomegranate seed, gently mash half of the pomegranate with hand motor & pestle.Add the mashed pomegranate into the curd, mix well and then add the remaining pomegranate as it is.Tasty Pomegranate Raita is ready to serve. 

Notes:

• I have used the juice and seeds from the mashed pomegranate, if you don't like the seeds, you can discard that and add juice alone.
• Adding pinch of salt helps to balance the taste.
• If you want more flavor, you can add a pinch of chat masala or garam masala powder.
  

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How to make curd at home in cold place | Home made Yogurt

Home made Curd is very easy to make and tastes so creamy and delicious. Back in India, in our home, Amma makes curd every day as fresh. In the night, after finishing all the chores of the day, she adds a little bit of leftover curd to the lukewarm milk and the next day, the curd sets so beautifully without much effort because of the warm temperature. 

When in summer, she used to make the curd in the morning only, within 4 hours, it sets beautifully and ready for our midday meal. So if you're in a warm place, making curd at home is such an easy task. 

But if you live in a cold place like me, I'm not gonna say that it's hard to make curd at home, but you need to take care of certain things to set the curd properly, otherwise it will turn slimy with some weird smell.

I don't have that much energy like amma to make curd everyday, so usually i make curd once a week. Once it sets, I will keep it in the refrigerator and use it as needed.   

Though I have shared my daily meal platter in Instagram, it's been a while since I have posted anything here, so today morning itself, I was so determined to sit, write and post a recipe. I have a handful of recipes with pictures in draft for a while, and will post one by one soon. 

For the past three weeks, the temperature here has dropped drastically, hardly it goes above 0C, fall back daylight time change, earlier sunset around 4.30, all makes me lethargic. 

After the colorful autumn foliage, the whole city now turned into white and grey because of one heavy snow storm. It seems like the colorful screen in front of you changes into black and white screen all of sudden. Really fascinating !!!

Ok, now back to today's recipe, here i have shared my tips to set the curd properly, this post will be useful for beginners or those who try to make curd for the first time at home and the experts, please excuse !!!

How to make curd at home in cold place

Preparation Time : 6 hrs | Cooking Time : 15 mins | Makes : 2 cups 
Recipe Category: Curd | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Homemade Curd, Yogurt, Basic, How to make Curd Home made Curd is very easy to make and taste so creamy and delicious.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Milk - 2 cups
Curd - 2 tsp

Procedure

Pour the milk into sauce pan, let it bring into boil.

Once the milk started to boil, switch off the flame and let it cool a bit.  Take the curd in bowl and whisk it well without any lumps and keep it ready. 

Pour the curd into bowl which you're gonna set the curd, check the milk temperature by placing your finger in the milk. It should be bearable but still it's warm, that's correct temperature. Pour the milk into the curd culture. 

Mix it all well together and partly cover the bowl with lid and place it in the warm place. I kept it in oven with lights on. 

After 6-8 hrs, the curd would be set beautifully, immediately keep it in the refrigerator to avoid further souring of curd.Tasty home made curd is ready. 

Related : How to make Indian Cottage Cheese / Malai Paneer

Notes:

• Make sure that the curd culture is at room temperature before using it.
• Don't cover the bowl with lid completely when the milk is warm to avoid the milk sweating.
• Make sure to mix the curd culture with the milk well.
• Keep the milk in warm temperature to set the curd.
• Use good quality of curd culture, if the curd culture is slimy, then the end product will also be the same.
• You can use the store bought curd as curd culture.
  

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Beetroot Raita | Raita Recipe

Beetroot raita, a delicious and quick to make raita with the grated beetroot and curd.  Other than onion raita I haven't tried or tasted much raita recipe until i started to pack lunchboxes for ST. 

He doesn't like to take onion raita for his lunch box because of its pungent smell, so whenever i made biryani or pulao for his lunch box, i was scratching my head for some raita recipe. 

Then one day, i made this beetroot raita as side dish for vegetable birynai,the combo was instant hit at our home, the mildly sweet beetroot raita goes really well with the spicy biryani. 

Later ST told me that even his colleague liked it so much and few asked him whether he knew how i had prepared it. And also in my instagram account(where i share daily lunch box pictures of ST, if you're interested to know what i cook on day to day basics, follow here.), whenever i had shared the picture of his lunch box with beetroot raita, i got a few request for the recipe.

 Actually this beetroot raita is an easier version of beetroot pachadi recipe which i learnt from my friend a long time ago. Now let's checkout on how to make this delicious aso here goes the recipe.

Beetroot Raita

Preparation Time : 5 mins | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Serves : 2 
Recipe Category: Accompaniment | Recipe Cuisine: Indian
Beetroot Raita, Easy Raita Recipe, Pink Raita Beetroot raita, a delicious and quick to make raita with the grated beetroot and curd.

Sandhiya https://www.facebook.com/SandhiyasCookbook https://www.instagram.com/sandhiyascookbook/

Ingredients
Beetroot(grated) - 1/2 cup
Curd - 1/2 cup
Green Chili - 1
Oil - 1/2 tsp
Mustard & urad dal - 1/4 tsp
Curry leaves - few
Salt - to taste

Procedure

First grate the beetroot and chop the green chili finely. Heat a pan with oil, add mustard, urad dal and curry leaves, let the mustard crackle.

Then add the grated beetroot, green chili and salt. Saute them till beetroot becomes soft and the raw smell leaves. Switch off the flame and let it cool.

Take the curd in a bowl and add salt, beat it well (remember we already added salt in the beetroot, so add just enough for curd also here), then add the cooked beetroot and mix it well.

Tada, Tasty and healthy Beetroot raita is ready. Serve it with your favorite biryani or pulao. We had it with Mushroom Biryani.

Related : How to make Beetroot Chutney 

Notes:

• Give it a 10- 15 mins standing time before serving the raita.
• The color of the raita intensify as time goes by.
  

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