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This is your foolproof guide to making healthy homemade Greek yogurt. With just two simple ingredients and basic kitchen tools, you can enjoy homemade Greek yogurt that is healthier and more flavorful than store-bought versions.
save this recipe!Milk is made up of casein and whey. While whey is the watery substance left when the milk curdles, casein is what curdles and is used to make cheese and yogurt! And the best part? This process is incredibly easy to do at home!
Hundreds of people have used this recipe to successfully make yogurt in their kitchens—yours next?
- Control the ingredients: No thickeners or added sugars—just milk and live cultures (aka yogurt).
- Budget-friendly: A quart of homemade yogurt costs a fraction of the store-bought stuff.
- Double-duty: You also get whey (the leftover liquid), which you can use in smoothies, bread, or cooking grains.
Reader rating
“I just gave it my first go and it turned out perfect! Never dreamed making yogurt was so easy!” —Nicole
Just 2 Ingredients
Yogurt is a fermentation (just like kefir, kombucha, and kimchi), meaning it’s created by adding some bacteria (yogurt) to a sugar-containing substance (milk) and letting the bacteria eat up the sugar. So to make yogurt at home, you’ll just need 2 ingredients:
- Yogurt: Use a good-quality yogurt with live or active cultures listed on the label. (After this first batch, all future batches can use what you made as the yogurt starter. You’ll never need to buy it again!)
- Milk: Whole-fat milk produces the best texture for homemade yogurt.
This is just an overview; jump to the recipe card for measurements!
The process is simple
This is just an overview; jump to the recipe card for full printable instructions and step-by-step photos!
- Heat the milk: Warm milk to 185–200°F. This changes its proteins so the yogurt thickens properly.
- Cool it down: Quickly cool to 100–110°F. This is the ideal temp for activating the yogurt cultures.
- Add the starter: Whisk in live culture yogurt to introduce the bacteria that make yogurt.
- Ferment: Cover and let sit in a warm spot (like the oven with the light on) for 4–8 hours to thicken and develop tang.
- Strain (optional): For Greek yogurt, strain in the fridge until it reaches your preferred consistency.
- Store and enjoy: Chill and use as you would store-bought yogurt—sweet or savory!
Tips For Success
Keep it warm: The oven light should be enough, but if your kitchen’s cold, turn the oven on for one minute every few hours to gently rewarm.
Tanginess depends on time: A 4-hour ferment makes mild yogurt. Closer to 8 hours = tangier.
Save some as a starter: You can use a few tablespoons of your homemade batch as a starter for the next one.
More than just for breakfast
Use your freshly made Greek yogurt to whip up Spinach Artichoke Dip or Healthy French Onion Dip. And my favorite way to use Greek yogurt? In this quick and easy tzatziki sauce!
How to Make Greek Yogurt (No Special Equipment)
Equipment
- Medium pot with lid, aim for the heaviest/thickest pot you have
- Kitchen thermometer
- Quart-sized jar or bowl
- Mesh sieve
- Cheesecloth or thin dishcloth, coffee filters, paper towels etc. placed inside a mesh strainer
Ingredients
- 4 cups whole milk, 960 mL
- ¼ cup plain store-bought yogurt, ensure the container says “live” or “active” cultures, 60 g
Instructions
- Heat Milk: Place 4 cups whole milk in a medium pot and heat to 185-200°F (85-93°C), stirring frequently to preventing a skin from forming.
- Cool Bath: Transfer the pot with milk to an ice bath (I filled my sink with ice and water), to cool milk to 100-110°F (37-43°C).
- Mix: Add ¼ cup plain store-bought yogurt to the cooled milk and whisk well to combine.
- Ferment: Cover jar or bowl with a lid, wrap in a moist, warm towel to keep in heat, and place in oven. Turn on oven light to keep warm, and let the bacteria do its yogurt making magic for 4 to 8 hours (or overnight).*
- Strain: You can eat the yogurt like this, or strain it to make Greek yogurt. To strain, line a mesh sieve with cheesecloth (or paper towels, coffee filters etc), and pour yogurt in. Place over a large bowl and let strain in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight), until it’s reach a consistency you like.
- Serve chilled with your favorite yogurt toppings, or use it in a recipe as you would store-bought yogurt!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!
Hi! I made this with store bought yogurt the first time and it turned out great! I used a water bath in my crockpot on “warm” to ferment. I’m making it we second time and wondered if I could use the yogurt I made instead of store bought again? When I’ve made Greek yogurt at home in the past, the first batch is good, but it gets consistently weirder as I use the homemade for the yogurt source. Do you have any thoughts/ suggestions on this?
Yep you should be able to use the batch you made as starter for future batches! Sometimes the balance of bacteria and yeast can get thrown off, then you can just add a bit of store bought to bring it back into balance 🙂
hey there – going to make this for the first time today. Question though: it’s only good for one week? Curious as to why the Greek yogurt I buy is good for 2-3 weeks. (Asking b/c I’d love to make a larger batch, but less often). Thanks!
I tend to err on the side of caution with shelf-life recommendations. Realistically it could last much longer if stored properly 🙂
I’m looking forward to trying this recipe. My husband and I prefer vanilla yogurt. At what point do I add it and how much?
At the very end right before serving (or before storing!). I’d start with about 1/2 tsp of extract for every 2 cups, and you can always add more to taste. It’ll also need a sweetener to make the vanilla flavor stand out, so 1 Tbsp of honey or sugar would also be a good starting point!
I made strawberry yogurt the first time using pulverized freeze dried strawberries and no sugar. It was delicious though a bit grainy/lumpy. The small lumps were soft so it wasn’t clumps of strawberry powder. Tonight I’m making it again (vanilla this time) and I used my milk frother to see if that would whisk and combine better. Can’t wait to taste it tomorrow! @liveeatlearn
This turned out so good! Thank you. I did it in the middle of the day and almost left it in the oven overnight. I popped it all in some jars and forgot to stain it. The consistency is creamy but not yogurt like. I have it in the fridge straining overnight tonight I hope it will be better in the morning. Thanks again!
hi! i added my 1/4 of yogurt to my milk at 185 as i took it off the heat and then did my ice bath, will it be okay?
That temp may have been a little too hot for the bacteria in the yogurt to survive! If the yogurt doesn’t thicken and become tart, that’s a sign that the bacteria were impacted by the high heat.
I’m wondering about nutritional information.
The yogurt starter is only 160 cal/ serving (170g) whole milk is only 130 cal per serving. How did the cal/ serving show so high?
The fermentation changes the nutritional makeup! The bacteria and yeast that ferment the yogurt “eat” the sugars in the milk and create a more protein-rich end result (and a lot of the water is drained out, which leads to higher calories by weight/volume).
Hi!
I’ve been making this for a while now and my yogurt is really a nice creamy texture. I bought the right store yogurt to try again and the first batch was perfect, but never after that. My yogurt is kind of detached, a bit like if milk started to go bad. It tastes good but it doesn’t have that togetherness and creaminess of yogurt. I’m trying to figure out why. I leave it overnight in my oven with the light on.
Hi Josee! It sounds like you’re doing most things right, but that separated texture could be from a few things. Most likely, your starter culture has weakened over time, which can happen if you keep reusing old batches. Try starting fresh with a new yogurt that has live active cultures, and make sure the milk isn’t getting too hot during heating or too cool during incubation—110°F (43°C) is the sweet spot. Also, letting it ferment too long can sometimes cause that curdled look, even if it still tastes fine!
Thanks! I’ll check my oven’s heat, I suspect that might be the problem since my pot is usually hot the next morning. I’ve tried with a new yogourt and it turned out perfect the first time but not the times and once in a while, the yogourt isn’t any good and I need to start from scratch again…
I found what works fine for me! 6h in the oven with the light on and a fee hours in the oven without the light. I forgot my yogurt in my oven without the light off for a lot longer (thank you kids that didn’t want to sleep 😂). Its been in the oven for at least 23h (6h with the light). It should stil’ be good? Thanks!
Hi Love this and I have made it great.
Ok Can I use 0% milk for a fat free greek yogurt?
Fat-free milk doesn’t work well with this recipe (you would need to supplement it with milk powder) 🙂
Can you use Almond milk for this?
I haven’t tested this one with dairy-free milk–sorry about that!