Labneh (Yogurt Cheese)

Have you ever heard of labneh? Or maybe as another name. Dahi? Uncultured me has not. I discovered it only when I was looking through my recipe bookmarks. It's a cheese made out of yogurt. I love cheese. It doesn't last very long in our house. Actually, I love all dairy products. Yogurt, milk, and cottage cheese are always in the fridge. So of course when I saw an opportunity to make cheese on my own, I jumped at it! It's the easiest cheese to make. Jump grab a container of Greek yogurt and strain it overnight.

I bought Fage Total 0% yogurt, making sure that the ingredients were just milk and bacteria. Apparently, milk solids, pectin or gelatin in your yogurt will not give you the correct consistency for labneh. Once I got home, I got my cheesecloth, rubber bands, and a bowl. Added a pinch of salt to the yogurt, dumped it onto my cheesecloth, closed it together with a rubber band and then made a sort of hook so that I could hang it from a knob on my cabinet door and placed the bowl underneath to catch the draining liquid. Err, maybe a picture will be better.



The yogurt was already thick so I didn't know what there was to strain, but alas, when I woke up this morning and opened up my cheesecloth, there was a solid chunk of yogurt cheese!



Maybe it's because I used fat free yogurt, but the texture was not creamy like cream cheese creamy as I had expected. This one was extremely thick like take-a-bite-into-it-and-it-gets-stuck-on-my-teeth thick. I'm gonna have to go for full fat next time. But either way, it was so cool seeing the result of straining overnight and I ate with joy.



Labneh (Yogurt Cheese)
From Omnomicon

- 1 container Greek yogurt
- Pinch of salt
- Cheesecloth
- Rubber bands
- Small bowl

Mix the yogurt and salt. Make a bag out of the cheesecloth with the rubber bands, then suspend it at room temperature for 8-12 hours with a bowl underneath to collect the whey as it drains off.