Aromatic Yogurt

This is quite a lovely idea for people who make their own yogurt at home–a herbal infused yogurt. It is VERY simple, yet exotic–using only milk, yogurt culture and your choice of aromatic herb(s) or spice(s). Some delightful herbs I have used are keffir lime leaves, lemon verbena, rosemary, mint, jasmine, lavender, rose, but I am sure there are many others that are fantastic as well. It is good to think about what you will be using the yogurt for, and what herbs go well with a sour flavor. Generally I strain it in to cream cheese and make it into a dip or use it to make cheesecake or other baked items, but it is also fantastic as yogurt. A nice rosemary yogurt added into a carrot and lamb stew is a very delicately delicious addition to a potentially heavy meal….

For anyone who needs a refresher on yogurt making please watch the video. One note is that I have found the towel method to be the best method, simply wrap the yogurt and leave it in a warm place (I leave mine on top of my fridge wrapped up quite well).

I generally infuse the milk with the herb as I heat it when preparing yogurt. More hardy herbs like the rosemary, lemon verbena can be heated in the milk and then covered and left to infuse as the milk cools to 120 degrees. If you are using more delicate flowers bring the milk to 180 degrees, remove it from the heat, add a handful or so of flowers and cover. Let stand until it has come back down to 120 degrees, strain, add yogurt and incubate for 24 hours (the 24 hour period will make it slightly more sour and also allows the friendly micro-organisms to really develop).

If you would like to make a tasty dip, rosemary and oregano are quite nice additions. You can add in carmelized onions or garlic to your herbal dip and that makes a fantastic chip dip.

I dreamed up how to do this when I got this sudden craving for a rosemary-lime cheesecake in 2006 while living in the Catskills–enjoy :).

I’m sharing this post with my favorite, the Hearth and Soul hop.

12 Comments

  1. I wanted to thank you again for sharing this fantastic idea with the Hearth and Soul hop. I’ll be featuring your post among my picks for Best of the Blog hop this week.

  2. Christy says:

    I love it when (for me anyhow) that rare stroke of genius just happens – this is certainly a fabulous idea, I can imagine tons of ways to use this! Thanks for sharing it with us at the Hearth and Soul Hop!

    • hellaD says:

      Thanks so much frugalcrunchychristy I love your website! such fantastic recipes, I am looking forward to seeing what you come up with 🙂

  3. girlichef says:

    What a fantastic post…how fun! I love the thought of infusing the milk, too. Thanks so much for sharing this post w/ the hearth and soul hop…loving your blog 🙂

  4. Waaaaa! So simple, so brilliant! Why oh why have I never thought of this? Now my mind is totally spinning. I am thinking of a million ways to infuse yogurt, for dishes both sweet and savory. Oh my, look what you’ve started. So so so happy that you shared this with the Hearth and Soul hop. I’m totally inspired by this recipe!

  5. Very interesting idea. I make yogurt all the time, just finished eating homemade yogurt with homemade applesauce right now. I have never thought to infuse herbs into the yogurt, what a great way to add nutrients.

    -Brenda

  6. Tracee says:

    I’ve put up a SCD/GAPS for the Holidays page for everyone to put links to holiday recipes. I hope this will help everyone find plenty of SCD recipes, especially those who are new to the diet. If you want to add any links of your great recipes: http://mrsedsresearchandrecipes.blogspot.com/2010/11/scd-for-holidays.html

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