“What is labneh?”, you might ask! Labneh is a soft, creamy, yogurt cheese. It is a very popular ingredient in the Middle Eastern cuisine. This cheese has a really well balanced texture and taste, and it is a very similar to a combination between mascarpone cheese and salty creamy feta, but with a bit more tang to it.
I will show you how to make labneh at home using a bit of a shortcut method – it is so easy to make and you’ll mostly need one main ingredient, full-fat yogurt!
Labneh is such a great appetizer option, simply spread the creamy cheese on a plate, top it with a few ingredients like spices, olive oil, fruits or veggies, serve it with bread, crackers or fresh vegetables and call it a day!
For more ideas, here are 5 ways to top your homemade labneh:
ROSEMARY GARLIC OIL
POMEGRANATE TAHINI
DATE ORANGE CINNAMON
MARINATED OLIVES
CHERRY TOMATO BASIL
For more photos of the dips, go to the end of this post!
INGREDIENTS
FOR REFERENCE, 1 KILOGRAM OF YOGURT WILL YIELD ABOUT 300 – 350 GRAMS OF LABNEH CHEESE
- full fat yogurt
- 500 grams yogurt will yield about 150 – 180 grams labneh
- 1 kilograms yogurt will yield about 300 – 350 grams labneh
- 2 kilograms will yield about 600 – 675 grams labneh
- so choose the amount of yogurt according to how much labneh you would like to make
- a hefty pinch of salt (start with 1 1/2 teaspoons per kg and taste – add more to your liking)
INSTRUCTIONS
Step 1
Place a strainer or a colander over a large bowl. Line the strainer with cheesecloth, a thin linen kitchen towel or any kind of similar fabric. Make sure the colander/sieve is high enough so that your cheesecloth won’t swim in the drained liquid. Or if it does, come back to it every two hours and pour the liquid out of the bowl.
Step 2
Mix the salt into the yogurt and pour all the yogurt in the cheesecloth. Secure the cheesecloth containing the yogurt by tying it (the bow is optional, but cute).
Step 3
It’s time to let all the liquid out of the yogurt drain!
Here are a couple of options on how you could do that:
IN THE FRIDGE (faster)
Step 3.1
I find this method to be a bit faster than the next one.
In order to strain that liquid out of the yogurt as soon as possible, place your bowl-colander/sieve-cheesecloth system in the fridge.
Next, place a regular plate on top of the cheesecloth full of yogurt and then place a can or some sort of weight on the plate. This will make the liquid straining process a lot faster.
I noticed I’m happy with the consistency of my labneh after 4 hours of it sitting in the fridge, but feel free to check on yours from time to time, maybe you’ll want to use it after only 2 hours of it chilling in the fridge.
AT ROOM TEMPERATURE (slower)
Step 3.2
If you don’t have enough room in the fridge, the other method is to tie it onto your kitchen cabinet with a string and let it hang over the kitchen sink.
What I usually do is make the labneh at the end of the day and let it hang there overnight.
This method is a bit slower because we are not placing any additional weight onto the cheesecloth as we did earlier, but the result will still be the same.
Here’s a before and after shot, once all the water had been drained, overnight. You can obviously see the dramatic volume change
Step 4
Once the labneh reaches the desired consistency, pop it in a container and store it in the fridge up to a week. You could also preserve it for longer by forming it into smaller balls and letting them soak in olive oil, in a jar.
This is the texture once the labneh is ready to serve. Thick, creamy, fresh and clean!
Step 5
Time to serve! There are endless ways to serve labneh, it really makes such a good starter and I assure you it is a crowd pleaser.
Drizzle some olive oil on it, Za’atar, sprinkle some salt on top and serve with fresh pita, crackers or veggies, easy, peasy.
Here are some other ideas for topping your homemade labneh (click on the title of the recipe and it will send you to it):
Rosemary Garlic Oil Labneh Dip
Tahini and Pomegranate Labneh Dip
CHERRY TOMATO BASIL LABNEH DIP
MARINATED OLIVES LABNEH DIP
DATE ORANGE CINNAMON LABNEH DIP
Also, Alison Roman has a pretty cool sizzled scallion chile oil labneh topping pictured down below, that I highly recommend, recipe link available here.
