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What are your favourite things to mix with natural yogurt?
I'm in need of inspiration for tasty and fun food combinations to make myself eat more natural yogurts instead of the preflavoured ones (which I found out are definitely not as healthy!). What are your preferences and recommendations, oh fellow yogurt eaters? Which natural yogurt is superior for such a snack? What do you mix with it and how much? I must know!
Diced/grated cucumbers, lemon juice, olive oil, salt, assorted spices. If you’re feeling a little Greek.
Idk I’ve never found trying to emulate sweetness to work all that well. Savory seems the better way to go - salt doesn’t have any calories.
Wow never thought to go savory, I like this idea.
Add Pine nuts, Parsley or Chives idk!
You're verging into Greek dips and spreads territory now!
Not sure what you consider "healthy," but a lot of flavored yogurts are pretty similar to the plain ones.
Speaking of which, what is your native language? I'm recalling "natur" yogurt in Germany, which was unflavored, whereas in the US "natural" would not necessarily mean unflavored.
Plenty of flavored yogurts don't have any added sugar and a lot of them don't have "way more." Plus that's not necessarily less healthy I eat both sugary and zero sugar yogurts in order to meet my nutritional needs all the time. The variety of yogurts is something I'm expecting to miss when I move overseas later this month. I know it was last time.
They are generally more processed however and have a less complex microbiome for those interested in that aspect of yoghurt.
By "natural" I mean plain, with no extra additives such as sugar or artificial flavouring. We say "jogurt naturalny" in Polish when we mean that, which literally translates to "natural yogurt"!
Then in English we'd call that "plain yogurt."
In the UK this would be called natural yogurt.
Are you positive? I saw a reddit post where a Brit mentioned that but then other Brits were saying they had no idea what he was talking about.
I only did a rudimentary search of the Sainsbury's website. There were a lot of products.
The confusion might come from it being referred to mainly as Greek yogurt when I was a nipper in the eighties...
Well, I guess that answers that. The exact same product that's called "Plain" in the US is called "Natural" there.
My go to is a sweet jam, like apricot, or granola - this recipe in particular, I love Cookie and Kate and she is quite healthy.
I'd never tried moving in a savory direction, but I'll definitely be trying out @stu2b50 's recommendation.
I LOVE Cookie and Kate - between C&K and LoveandLemons I think I get 80% of my starter recipes. It's funny - I have a Greek pizza recipe open from C&K right now.
I rarely follow the recipes exactly but they are absolutely great for getting an idea of what kinds of things go well together and they also tend to be very accurate on temperatures and cook times, appliance depending.
I've been making yogurt at home for years as it's pretty easy, significantly cheaper, and healthier. There's so many ways to serve it up! Making it yourself isn't always feasible, but the following should work for any unflavored yogurt.
Some toppings I enjoy are basically any dried fruit as I'm not a big fan of most fresh fruits. However, I do enjoy berries so I love picking raspberries/strawberries from the garden in the summer for my yogurt :)
Hemp seeds are a great protein boost! I also like mixing in a little cooked buckwheat too for a slightly more savory yogurt. Don't be afraid to add a little salt! Never been a big fan of granola or oats in my yogurt. You can also mix hemp seeds with other seeds, nuts, and dried fruits. I like them all so no real combinations to recommend, just whatever I have on hand.
Of course time is often of the essence, so I sometimes find myself just doing a scoop of protein powder, a little extra whey liquid that I keep when making the yogurt, and some maple syrup to make a quick meal.
For a dessert yogurt, I find I just like a very small amount of vanilla tincture (also homemade but any extract will probably work) with some maple syrup for a hint of sweetness without being too overpowering.
Bonus that since I make my yogurt with whole milk, it's a fantastic sour cream replacement! I use it in burritos, chilis, etc.
Berries, nuts, diced fruit, toasted oats, toasted shredded coconut, jam, etc. I generally view yogurt as a carrier for whatever goodness I put into it, so oftentimes I have just enough yogurt to lubricate the fruits, nuts, or oats I've put it onto. I prefer unsweetened Greek yogurt. My favorite combination is probably yogurt mixed in with toasted oats, toasted coconut, and a little bit of fruit or preserves.
Typically just bran buds (psyllium fiber cereal) blueberries/raspberries/strawberries etc. and a touch of honey or agave. It's really good, and feels healthy!
I'm the same, minus the bran. I just do frozen blueberries or raspberries (Still frozen!) with a tiny drizzle of orange blossom honey (my favorite type, and easy to find locally).
As for what kind of yogurt, I always like plain full-fat Greek yogurt. I find it's more satiating to have at least some fat in it, which keeps you from finding yourself from going back to the kitchen too soon.
I like topping various things with pepitas (the hull-less pumpkin seeds). It adds a nice texture variation and they're great for you. This includes yogurt, but also breakfast cereal, soups, etc.
Or you could go for the full classic yogurt/granola combo, which I'm fond of. You have to be careful with the calories/carbs here, if you're watching those, but I think a small amount goes a long way (again, very satiating). Get the good granolas without too much sugar, or make your own.
I've done the frozen berries someone else mentioned, and agree that they're really good on yogurt.
I haven't tried this with yogurt, but I like putting half-and-half cottage cheese and unsweetened applesauce in a bowl (which I then top with the pepitas). Sometimes I'll put some black pepper on top of the cottage cheese too.
Someone else mentioned you can use yogurt as sour cream, which reminded me you can also use it in a recipe that calls for mayonnaise (replace maybe half the mayo with yogurt, or you might find your own ratio you prefer). For instance, I've done this with tuna pasta salad, or just straight tuna salad. You could also try Waldorf salad with it.
This might not be what you're looking for, but this two-ingredient bread dough uses Greek yogurt and is fun and easy to make. My favorite things to use it for are "naan", biscuits, and as a pizza base. I didn't much care for the sweeter attempts like cinnamon rolls; the resulting bread is a little too savory for that.
My go-to is freshly sliced mango and pecan nuts. I'm on low carb / keto and mango has surprisingly little carbs!
For Greek yogurt, this dip you can make in about a half hour is absolutely delicious. Have made many times, goes great with pita (toasted or not), carrots, fennel, etc.
Around my area, Fage Total 5% milkfat is the best plain Greek yogurt for this recipe
I really enjoy natural yoghurt without anything in it. I can get Bulgarian yoghurt in Berlin, but there are also very tasty Greek yoghurts out there where I just enjoy the texture and taste of the yoghurt itself. Sheep yoghurt is also great. Goat yoghurt is not my thing.
Whatever fruit you like (bananas, pears, strawberries, ...) plus whatever nut you like (wallnuts, almonds, cashews, ...). I usually add some kind of sugar-free cereal too. I have this for breakfast and is fairly filling. A small serving of this is also a nice snack / dessert.
Greek yoghurt with 10% fat.
Peanut butter without additives (only ingredient being peanuts).
Some ground cinnamon.
Chocolate sprinkles to taste.
Maybe the chocolate sprinkles could be swapped for cocoa nibs to be slightly healthier. Haven’t tried that.
Frozen berries. My family uses big ol bags from Costco and we keep a mixed berry and a frozen cherry around.
I really like Mountain High which is more of a "Greek style" yogurt, rather than full Greek. Still probiotic, but a little thinner and closer to "conventional" yogurt after you mix it up a few times, but slightly mild so it doesn't need any sweetener.
For a sweetener I actually like maple syrup, the real stuff, or honey. Mix it all up with the frozen berries and you have something like a yogurt/froyo combination as it freezes to the berries. I measure a serving of berries and yogurt out which is more than you'd think.
I love frozen raspberries in yogurt. I will usually microwave them for a short time (around 30–45 seconds) to soften them up, and then I mix the yogurt in. If that's not sweet enough for my palate, I will add a small amount of light agave nectar, but I find I don't usually need much, if any, because the raspberries themselves are usually pretty sweet.