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With just three ingredients and a short read, you can learn how to flavor kefir at home to get your daily probiotics! The taste of it plain can be pretty sour, so I learned fast that the way to enjoy it is to add fresh fruit and honey or maple syrup.
save this recipe!I’m sure you are already familiar with Greek yogurt and all the amazing health benefits. However, some people just aren’t fans of the texture or even the amazing tanginess. Getting your nutrition from whole foods is where it’s at though, so I’m happy to say there’s another way to get healthy little probiotics into your system – milk kefir!
Now, you can obviously grab some at the store, but I much prefer to make homemade kefir. It’s much cheaper to grab some kefir grains and plain milk and let them do their thing, adding fruit to hide the tang. This way, you can easily control the ingredients and avoid the excess sugar so common in flavored kefir from the store. And if you want to hide that tang with fruit, flavored kefir at the store almost always has lots of added sugar.
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grab these ingredients
Two or three ingredients are all you need to enjoy a cold fruit-flavored glass of kefir! Jump to the recipe card for the quantities.
- Kefir: Grab some kefir at the store if you need to – just make sure it is plain and unsweetened. You can also always make your own kefir.
- Fruit: The sky is really the limit here. Cherries, bananas, apples, mangoes—pretty much any fruit you can throw in the blender can be used here.
- Optional: You can also add a natural sweetener like honey, agave, or maple syrup if desired.
Why I love kefir
During nutrition school, we learned the importance of eating probiotics, but it’s not very affordable on a student budget. So, I learned long ago how to make it at home. At its core, it’s a fermented food that is often easy to digest. Kefir grains feed on the lactose in milk, meaning they are usually gut-friendly, even for those with lactose intolerance. And once you purchase kefir grains, you can keep them working for you practically forever, churning out batch after batch of easy homemade kefir!
How to flavor kefir
This is just an overview of the 3 flavor combinations. Jump to the recipe card for the full instructions.
- Blend in the fresh or frozen berries.
- Add sweetener as desired.
Strawberry Kefir
If you have a powerful blender, you probably don’t need to slice up the strawberries first.
Blueberry Kefir
I like to use frozen wild blueberries because they have less liquid in them! The liquid can cause the kefir to be very runny.
Peach Kefir
Nothing says summer like fresh, juicy peaches! You could even use canned slices here; just drain them first. If they are canned in fruit juice, you can likely skip the extra sweetener.
frozen fruit is best
Use frozen berries or fruit to have a dose of summer all year round. No need to thaw – you aren’t using as much fruit as you would in a smoothie, so there’s no worry about it being too thick.
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How To Flavor Kefir (+ Flavor Options!)
Ingredients
- 4 cups kefir, 950 mL
- 1 cup fruit, like chopped strawberries, blueberries, or chopped peaches
- 2 Tbsp sweetener, like sugar, honey, or maple syrup
Instructions
- Flavor: Choose your desired flavor and sweetener, then add them to a blender along with kefir.
- Blend: Blend until smooth. Serve chilled!
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!
I had a bunch of extra kefir grains which I usually give to the chickens. Today the Dog got them. He loved them!
I’ll have to try giving my Rhubarb the grains! Great idea.
Could I add frozen fruit like strawberry or mangoes to the kefir? How long would it last in the fridge? Or is it something you would have to use straight away? Thank you!
Yes! You can store it for 3 to 5 days 😀
Can you use non sugar sweetener?
Yes, non sugar sweeteners work well for flavoring kefir 😀
I made kefir for the first time, thank you for your VERY helpful and informative post on how to do that! Then, I blended it to make blueberry kefir. It’s delicious, but now very thin (even thinner than whole milk). I put it in the fridge. Will it thicken back up? Or did I do something wrong? It was nice and thick before I blended.
Blueberries can be pretty high in water so I’m guessing they’re causing that issue. Next time, try blending the blueberries and straining out some of their juices before mixing it with the kefir! 😀
I bought some Kefir Yogurt at a farmers market and it was delicious. There were so many different flavors.
Do you have a recipe for Kefir flavored Yogurt? It was pretty pricey at the market ($6 for 6 ounces!)
Hi Mindy! Are you wanting kefir or yogurt? Or a combination of the two? Here’s our guide to making kefir, and here’s how to make yogurt. You could combine the two maybe?
We went with the blueberry option. Fantastic and easy.
Hi! When you puree and refrigerate, is there a second fermentation? Should you let it rest for any time after adding the puree?
Thanks!
You can do a second fermentation I believe, but I usually just flavor and refrigerate!