Stephanie Tourles knows smoothies, and interest in smoothies is booming.
In February, The Wall Street Journal reported that frozen fruit sales have risen 67 percent since 2010. The reason? America’s growing thirst for smoothies, the story said. Blender sales are up, too, it noted.
Unflavored Vegan Almond Yogurt Drink
According to “Raw Energy in a Glass” writer Stephanie Tourles, “This recipe tastes quite similar to plain yogurt, but has a much thinner consistency.” You will need a nut milk bag (a fine-mesh bag) to make the recipe. Do not follow the instructions on the package of the Yolife Yogurt Starter.
Makes about 4 cups, 2 to 4 servings
4 cups purified water
2 cups raw, whole almonds
¼ teaspoon Yolife Yogurt Starter – Extra Super Concentrated Formula
2-quart saucepan
Yogurt or candy thermometer
Quart canning jar
Plastic wrap
1. Soak the nuts in a medium bowl covered by at least 1 inch of purified water for 8 hours or overnight. Drain and rinse.
2. Place the nuts in a blender along with the water. Blend on high for a full 2 minutes.
3. Strain the milk through a nut milk bag into a medium bowl. (Tourles does this in the kitchen sink.) Using 2 hands, wring out the bag so that you extract every last drop of precious milk. This procedure may take a minute or 2 depending upon how thoroughly your blender pulverized the nuts.
4. Transfer the nut milk to a 2-quart saucepan and warm over low heat until it reaches a temperature between 104 and 113 degrees F. Use a thermometer while heating the liquid so that you don’t overheat it and destroy the vital nutrients and live enzymes.
5. Remove pan from heat and sprinkle the yogurt starter atop the warmed nut milk. Gently stir for 15 seconds to thoroughly incorporate it.
6. Pour the warm milk into the canning jar, top with the plastic wrap, then screw on the lid. The plastic wrap prevents the liquid contents from coming into contact with the metal lid, which may introduce an unpleasant metallic taste.
7. Wrap the jar with a kitchen towel secured with a large rubber band, then place in a warm location such as in a sunny window, on a sunny deck, or, if your kitchen is particularly warm, on the kitchen counter. If it’s wintertime, Tourles places her jar atop a metal heat grate on the floor. If you have a woodstove, you can set the jar several feet away, or at a distance that will ensure that the milk won’t get warmer than 113 degrees F.
8. Check on your yogurt every few hours. You may notice that the nut milk has separated, with a white, thick, curdled portion near the top, and a thin, clear-ish “almond whey” portion closer to the middle or bottom of the jar. Just give the jar a few shakes to blend, then rewrap, and set it back in its warm location.
Allow 12 to 24 hours for the nut milk to ferment and form a rather thin yogurt. You will know that it is ready when it has thickened a bit and tastes pleasantly sour.
9. You can store the yogurt drink in the same canning jar or transfer it to another clean glass or plastic container. It will keep refrigerated for up to 3 days.
Tourles, who lives in Orland, probably knew these things intuitively. Her first cookbook, “Raw Energy,” which came out six years ago, included a section of smoothie recipes. After the book was published, “I started getting hundreds and hundreds of emails about the one chapter I had about making juices and smoothies,” Tourles said.
So last November, she responded with a new book devoted to the subject: “Raw Energy in a Glass: 126 Nutrition-Packed Smoothies, Green Drinks, and Other Satisfying Raw Beverages to Boost Your Well-Being.”
“There has been a huge push for people wanting to get healthy,” Tourles said. “But because we’re a busy modern society, people don’t want to cook all the time. Smoothie, frappe and shake books are exactly what people are looking for right now.”
“Raw Energy in a Glass” has already gone into its second print run, according to Margaret Lennon, sales director for Storey Publishing, which published both books. It was just one of 10 books on smoothies that came out last fall, an article in Publishers Weekly noted.
“Raw Energy in a Glass” covers a lot of territory. It begins with information about the health benefits of raw food and an extensive guide to ingredients. Then come dairy-free recipes in categories such as “Blended Salads,” “Longevity Elixirs,” “Thick and Frosty Shakes” and “Mocktails.” She also has a chapter devoted to making nut and seed milks.
Her recipes pack in nutrient-dense whole foods, and many have enticing names, such as My Straight-from-the-Garden Summer Breakfast Smoothie (which includes beet greens) and the Mellow Yellow Protein Shake (which includes hemp seeds).
DAIRY-FREE YOGURT DRINKS
The book’s chapter on vegan yogurt drinks makes “Raw Energy in a Glass” stand out from other recent smoothie books. Tourles stumbled on a yogurt starter while leafing through a Tribest Life catalog, which is filled with raw tools of the trade such as dehydrators and high-powered blenders.
“It said you also could use it with almond milk and nut milk,” Tourles said. So she purchased some starter and began experimenting with her homemade raw almond milk. To keep it raw, Tourles ignored the yogurt starter directions. Instead she warmed the almond milk to no higher than 113 degrees F before adding the starter, and then allowed it to ferment for 12 to 24 hours, depending on the season and temperature. (See the recipe on page C4.)
“I tried it out in the summer in the sun, and then in a sunny window and over a heat grate in the floor and by a woodstove,” Tourles said of her distinctly Maine testing style.
No matter how long you leave it, the almond milk will never thicken like dairy-based yogurts or supermarket vegan yogurts. It has the consistency of a creamy smoothie, she said. “It’s really good, and it’s unbelievably filling,” Tourles said.
The chapter goes on to offer intriguing ways to flavor the basic yogurt drink. She recommends the Chai-Chi to calm stress, the Vanilla-Date as a late day soother and the Raspberry Fool as a pick-me-up.
“It’s not super thick or sour, so it’s really kid-friendly,” Tourles said. “And it’s great for elderly people who need deep nutrition and have a hard time eating much.”
Since the vegan yogurt drinks are filled with probiotics, just like dairy-based yogurts, they offer the same digestive benefits.
The drink can be refrigerated after it ferments. However, Tourles recommends that people who live in chilly climates like Maine or who tend to feel cold should drink the yogurt and the other smoothies in her book at room temperature.
Tourles, who usually writes about natural skincare, said that the recipes in her “Raw Energy” books offer the food necessary for glowing skin.
“To feel good and to look good, you need to eat well,” she said. “A diet that is high in raw foods makes you very healthy and resistant to disease.”
Tourles’ next book is due out in January and will offer about 80 recipes for chemical-free bug repellents for use on people, pets and in the home.
“When I write a book, I try to stay ahead of the trends,” Tourles said.
Avery Yale Kamila is a freelance food writer who lives in Portland. She can be reached at:
avery.kamila@gmail.com
Twitter: AveryYaleKamila
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