Buttermilk – It’s Just Like Yogurt!

A few weeks ago my daughter found a recipe for some muffins. One of the ingredients was buttermilk. I must admit that whenever I’ve come across this particular ingredient in the past, I’ve just substituted milk, imagining buttermilk must be something similar.

This time I decided to follow the recipe properly and buy the exact ingredients. Having never bought buttermilk before I had to hunt around for a bit. 

I eventually found this buttermilk in the cream section of Sainsbury’s. Thinking it would be high in fat and calories, I was surprised to see that buttermilk is really quite healthy. In fact, it’s on a par with natural, low fat yogurt. 

Buttermilk (this brand) has just 66 calories per 100ml, with fat, saturated fat and salt all at healthy levels. The same amount of single cream has 195 calories and 19g of fat.

Once I got it home and opened it up, I was in for another surprise. It even looks like yogurt and has the same creamy texture. It doesn’t taste quite the same so I’m not sure I will use it instead of yogurt. However, it can be used in cooking in a variety ways including smoothies and pancakes, and can replace cream in many cases for a lower fat recipe.

A 300ml tub costs a similar amount to the same sized pot of natural yogurt, in this case 72 pence in Sainsbury's.

Nutrition Information: Per 100ml: 66 calories, 6.3g protein, 9.7g carbohydrate, 0.2g fat, 0.1g saturated fat, 0g fibre, 0.22g salt.