Labneh

Labneh is a strained yogurt or yogurt cheese… yogurt that has been strained so that the whey is removed & what is left has a thick consistency.

I tasted Labneh in Israel many years ago & loved it but it was difficult to find where I live so I forgot about it! Then I found it at a store..it was very expensive & I didn’t like the taste really, it was very sour tasting…which I suppose is how it is suppose to taste but I did not like this one.

Fast forward, that’s how it seems the years go by, & I recently saw a post on The Nosher about Labneh & how to make it at home!! I had to try & I am glad I did!

It is incredibly easy to make! Just takes a day of letting the yogurt strain in the fridge so if you want it for a specific reason… remember to make it at least a day before!

There are many methods on the internet … I like the one form The Nosher Making Your Own Labneh…

The recipe is basic & simple, I used their method but I used Greek Yogurt because I like the taste of it & I use any fat content yogurt I happen to have in the fridge at the time I want to make Labneh!

Plain Greek Yogurt, some salt… sometimes I forget the salt… cheesecloth, a colander if you have… you mix the yogurt with some salt, put it in the cheesecloth, tie the cheesecloth up, hang it over a bowl or put this package into a colander over a bowl… I find this the easiest… i did tie the cheesecloth package up & used a chop stick to hang it over a bowl…

I love this … I eat it instead of cream cheese…on toast… on a bagel… as a dip … & I used it as a base for a cheesecake!!! It tasted the same really as a regular cheesecake with cream cheese… & I tried to work out the calorie difference & it was substantial.. but I won’t put those results here since they aren’t necessarily accurate enough to post!

Here is the recipe slightly adapted from The Nosher

Ingredients

3 cups of plain Greek Yogurt… any fat content you want to use *** note that you can make any amount you want! Sometimes I just want a small amount of Labneh & I make 1 cup or 2 cups… adjust the amount of salt depending on the amount of yogurt you use

1 tsp salt

Method

cheesecloth & a bowl *** you can use cheesecloth stuffing bags which tie up nicely or regular cheesecloth…you need enough so that you can make about 3 layers of cheesecloth for this

1. Add the salt to the yogurt & mix
2. Put the yogurt/salt onto 3 layers of cheesecloth
3. Gather up the edges & tie it up into a package…
4. Hang this over a deep bowl … I use a 4 cup measuring cup.. I use a chopstick to hang it over this.. tie or wrap the cheesecloth around the chopstick.. put the chopstick across the bowl… don’t let the cheesecloth package touch the bottom of the bowl… you want the yogurt to drain & not sit in the liquid that comes out of it Or.. put the yogurt package into a colander that can sit in a bowl without touching the bottom
5. Put this in the fridge..& let sit for 12 -24 hours
6. Remove from the cheesecloth & store your Labneh in a sealed container..
7. It keeps in the fridge …I have read for a week..I like to use a real food safety site for this sort of thing… so check it out yourself but yogurt stays in the fridge for awhile so I assume this Labneh will as well.. I personally don’t keep it for more than a week… I eat it up!

Hope you like this!