Vegan Dairy-Free Yogurt Parfait Cups Recipe - Healthier Snack + Dessert Alternative

This delicious alternative to ice cream or other sweets wound up tasting delicious! Get the recipe for these Dairy-Free Frozen Yogurt Parfaits, created in partnership with Ripple Yogurt and Kroger. 

Could you ever imagine eating dairy-free yogurt? That may seem sort of the norm these days, but can you imagine eating yogurt created from peas? I had a great time experimenting with a fun recipe idea that's been on my mind for some time now - frozen yogurt parfait cups with graham cracker + oat crusts! 

INGREDIENTS:

1-3 flavors of Ripple yogurt (I used strawberry, vanilla, and blueberry)

10 Graham Crackers (choose honey free for true vegan), crushed into an even consistency

5 Tbsp melted Vegan Butter, such as Earth Balance Organic 

3 Tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla

pinch salt

Blackberries, kiwi, and any other fruit for toppings

Other items: silicone muffin cups, muffin tin, spoon for mixing

These Dairy-Free Frozen Yogurt Parfaits are inspired by Ripple yogurts, available at Kroger!

INSTRUCTIONS:

1.) For the crust: melt butter in a medium bowl, and add crushed graham crackers, oats, brown sugar, vanilla, and salt. 

2.) Fill prepared silicone or paper cupcake liners with crust mixture 1/3-1/2 and bake for 5-7 minutes at 350* F.

3.) One cooled, fill cupcake liners the rest of the way with yogurt. Freeze for 30 minutes, and then top with chopped fruits. Freeze at least 1 more hour, until cups are completely frozen. Remove them from the cupcake tin, and remove the wrappers, and reveal your beautiful layers of dairy-free, vegan ingredients!What a tasty snack!


In 2015, Ripple founder set out to separate the fats from peas and create a milk-lie substitute that is great for people who want an alternative to dairy (source: Food&Wine). "Dubbed Ripptein, the additive strips away plant flavors and leaves behind only protein, according to Fast Company. (That's one reason Ripple's pea milk doesn't taste like liquefied legumes.).

Now, I will admit, this yogurt does have less of a smooth texture than I was used to, but once I froze this yogurt into these delicious fro yo cups, everything was divine! Feel free to try this recipe out with any mixture of yogurt, fruit, and other ingredients that you would like!

"From a biochemical standpoint, milk is protein, and fat, and sugar," Neil Renninger, Ripple cofounder and co-CEO, told Fast Company. "There are plenty of plant sugars you can use, and plenty of plant fats. There are also plenty of plant proteins you can use, but the problem is that they all taste like the plant they derive from. We had to figure out how to make a plant protein that didn't taste like a plant protein."

The company's new pea half-and-half, which Fast Company says dissolves into coffee "like the real thing, without the calories," launches in July, while customers may have to wait until the end of this year—or possibly early next year—for its yogurt.

Renninger admitted neither the half-and-half nor the yogurt were easy to create. For example, "with half-and-half, the challenge was getting something that worked well in coffee, but also would work well in a culinary situation," he said. "It's a bit of a balance providing that creaminess and a clean taste. Protein is an important part of the creaminess in half-and-half, but if you don't have clean protein, you can't get that creaminess without adding off flavors."