Make way for vegetable yogurts

There's a new take on yogurt that might find its way into your online culinary academy's list of ingredients. Blue Hill Farms, a company of self-described hippies, own a restaurant in Greenwich Village, New York that offers organic, locally produced food served in unique ways. A few years ago, the company began offering vegetable flavored yogurts and found itself with a surprising success. You can now find these yogurts in select stores and online if you're interested in giving them a try.

Vegetable yogurts
Blue Hill Farms currently has half a dozen different varieties of vegetable yogurt available for purchase. Flavors include carrot, sweet potato, parsnip, squash, beet and tomato. These options offer much less sugar than traditional yogurt snacks. The flavors have been described as savory but still sweet and less tangy than Greek style. Most of the yogurt contain about 30 percent vegetable puree, except for the tomato which has much higher acidity so it had to be scaled back as to not be overpowering. Blue Hill uses locally grown produce and dairy from grass fed cows to make its product.

Spreading popularity
Blue Hill began serving these unique creations in its Greenwich restaurant but has since made them available in select Whole Food's stores and on its website. Blue Hill might be the company that was most successful in bringing vegetable yogurt to the public's attention, but it is not the only culinary creator to take a spin at more savory options. There are other yogurt bars in New York that offer vegetable flavors including one owned by popular brand Chobani. The Chobani Soho yogurt shop offers olive oil, chickpeas, garlic and spinach as possible toppings. The Big Apple may have started the vegetable flavor fade but thanks to the internet, this trend seems to be gathering an audience. 

In the kitchen
Customers who have purchased these vegetable-flavored dairy products have already reported finding interesting ways to use them for home meals. Consumers have been using them as dips, baked potato toppings and to make healthy shakes and smoothies. The Blue Hill website offers recipe suggestions that you can try. You can use the yogurt to make beet and yogurt soup or bake carrot oatmeal muffins. The company reports that this line lends itself to culinary crafting because of the rich flavors and smooth consistency which makes them perfect for mixing. Don't be surprised if they soon became a fixture in online chef courses.