Co Yo vegan yoghurt

I have recently heard a lot of hype about the product Co Yo, a coconut milk vegan yoghurt. Vegan yoghurt is a delicate thing and can be either a hit or a huge huge miss. I have tasted a soy yoghurt that was not very pleasant, and I've tried the Soy Life yoghurt which is amazing! Co Yo is an American product that isn't readily available in the big chain grocery stores here in Perth. I was curious to taste the yoghurt, but was content with never knowing because I had the Soy Life yoghurt to tide me over. 

I was buying myself some nutritional yeast (which is kept in the fridge) the other week from Weigh 'N' Pay in Woodvale, when I saw that they also sold Co Yo. I just had to know what all the fuss was about so I went back today and bought the mango flavoured Co Yo. Be warned, this yoghurt is super expensive. I paid $14.50 for a mere 400g. It better be made from coconuts from some extremely rare tropical island grown on soil which has been blessed by God himself in order for it to be that expensive. But anyways, some things need to be tried at least once. 

I decided to also whip up some vegan gronola to accompany my yoghurt, and bought some hemp seeds to sprinkle on top too. I used the recipe from here to make the granola, but I halved the recipe and make a few changes which I will include below. 

I decided to have a super small serving of the Co Yo since it was so expensive, but it actually turned out to be better that way because the yoghurt is quite rich. It tastes a little like what I remember yoghurt tasting like, but it had a slight bitter coconut after taste. I guess the bitterness is because of the fact that the yoghurt is sugar-free. None the less, I'm glad I served it up with the granola because that added some more sweetness to the yoghurt. 

The yoghurt was quite nice, but I find it tastes better with other accompaniments. I also sprinkled some chia seeds on top which was nice. 

Even though Co Yo is quite good, I think I'll stick to my much more affordable Soy Life yohgurt :)

Vegan granola

Ingredients

• 2 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
• 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
• 1 cup roughly chopped nuts
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 1/2 tablespoons maple syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 

**You can add in raisins or dried cranberries too, but I didn't have any so I omitted it from the recipe. 

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 300F for 15 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the oats, coconut, nuts, brown sugar, salt and cinnamon.
3. Heat the oil and maple syrup in the microwave oven for 20 seconds. Pour it over the oat mixture.
4. Add the vanilla extract and stir until all the ingredients are combined.
5. Spread the granola onto a half sheet baking pan, bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.
6. Place the pan on a wire rack, stir in the dried fruits, and push the granola to one side of the pan while cooling. This ensures that the granola will cool with some clusters.
7. Keeps well for a month if stored in an airtight container.