*AD – Unpaid review

One thing we get through a lot of in our house is yogurt. The kids love it – from those mini fromage frais things (which I think are bloody minging but there you go) to Greek yogurt with honey and fruit, we always have plenty in the fridge. The problem is, the amount we eat of it soon adds up in terms of money and the amount of plastic it produces. As a family, we are constantly looking at ways to reduce both, so the EasiYo yogurt maker seemed to be a great idea.

It’s a very basic principle. It’s like a flask, which, to be honest, is (apparently – I’ve never tried!) is all you need to make yogurt. However, when you use a flask, I believe you need a small amount of live yogurt to create a new batch. The EasiYo yogurt maker allows you to make your own by simply adding a sachet of powder to water and leaving for 8-12 hours. Literally, that’s all you do.

One sachet creates 1kg of yogurt, which lasted us a good few days, and at around £2ish for a sachet works out relatively inexpensive. There are SO many different flavours available – we tried the black cherry, Greek style and strawberry, which are our favourite flavours anyway. Once they were made, they were thick and creamy and keep up to seven days in the fridge. It’s also nice knowing it’s free from any nasties.

We had a go at experimenting with a couple of recipes that we were sent. Click here for the EasiYo Breakfast Bowl recipe and here for the creamy pasta We particularly loved the second one! However, our favourite was one we have had before, but instead of buying the Greek yogurt for it, we used the yogurt we made in our Easiyo Yogurt Maker. It was simple and delicious!

Moroccan Bean Stew With Easiyo Greek Style Yogurt

Ingredients

• 1 Red onion
• 1 carton of chickpeas
• 1/2 small bunch of coriander
• 2 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp ras-el-hanout
• 2 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tin chopped tomatoes
• 1 good squeeze of tomato puree
• 400 ml of water
• 1 vegetable stock cube or pot
• 100g red lentils
• 2 tbsp EasiYo Greek Style Natural Yogurt

Method

• Peel and finely chop the red onion. Draina dn rinse the chickpeas and roughly chop half of the coriander.

• Heat a splash of oil in a pan on medium-low heat and add the cumin, ras-el-hanout and paprika. After a minute, add the onion and cook until soft. Add half of the coriander and cook for a minute. Season with salt.
• Add the tomatoes, tomato puree and water, together with the stock cube. Dissolve and bring the mixture to the boil.
• Tip the red lentils and chickpeas into the stew. Simmer for 20 minutes or until the lentils are soft.
• Toast the ciabatta under the grill and drizzle with a little olive oil and a pinch of salt.
• Serve the Moroccan spiced stew in bowls with the remaining coriander sprinkled over. Dollop on some EasiYo Greek-style yogurt and serve with ciabatta on the side.

The EasiYo Yogurt Maker and sachets are available online and in retailers including Morrisons. For a full list of stockists, information and recipes, visit www.easiyo.com.

*We were sent this product free of charge for the purpose of this review. We were also given vouchers to purchase the ingredients for the recipes. We were not paid for this post, and all words and opinions are our own.