Labneh
Yogurt, a pinch of salt, one action and a day of waiting. Labneh is yogurt with the whey removed — no cooking, no rennet, no culturing, only gravity. The whole difference is how long you leave it: after 12 hours it is thick yogurt, after 24 a spreadable cheese, after 48 a paste firm enough to roll into balls.
Your own work in that: 0 min.
- Salting 10 min
- Straining 1430 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneStir salt into the yogurt
Mix the salt into the yogurt and leave for 10 minutes to dissolve. The salt does more than season: it helps the cheese keep fresh for longer, and added at the start it spreads evenly through the whole mass.
Ingredients: 1000 g natural yogurt · 1½ tsp salt
Salt added at the start spreads evenly.Tie it in muslin
Line a sieve with two layers of muslin, tip in the yogurt and tie the corners into a bag. Muslin or a thin cotton cloth lets the whey through and holds back the protein; a sieve alone would let the yogurt through.
Ingredients: 1000 g natural yogurt · 1½ tsp salt
Hang it, do not stand it in a sieve
Hang the bag over a deep bowl, hooked onto a wooden spoon laid across it. Yogurt sitting in a sieve strains more slowly and less evenly. Hung, it drips from the whole surface of the bag.
Ingredients: 1000 g natural yogurt · 1½ tsp salt
Hung, not stood — it strains evenly.Refrigerate for a day
Put the whole thing in the fridge for 24 hours. About 400 ml of whey will run out — nearly half the volume. Check at twelve hours: if you want the consistency of thick dipping yogurt, that is the moment.
Ingredients: 1000 g natural yogurt · 1½ tsp salt
Spread it and make a channel for oil
Spread the labneh on a flat plate and run a spoon around the edge to make a channel. Pour the oil into it and scatter sumac and thyme. The channel is not decoration: it holds the oil, which would otherwise run to the rim of the plate. Serve with olives and warm pita.
Ingredients: 80 ml olive oil · 1 tsp sumac · 1 tsp dried thyme · 80 g olives · 4 pcs pita bread
Before you start
Do not pour away the whey
Strained whey is slightly acidic and contains a little protein. Use it in place of water in bread or pancakes, or to soak oats. It keeps up to a week in the fridge.
Balls in oil
Strain for 48 hours, then roll the paste into walnut-sized balls, pack them into a jar and cover with olive oil with dried thyme and chilli. They keep a month in the fridge — a traditional Levantine way of storing labneh.
The yogurt matters
Yogurt thickened with starch, gelatine or pectin strains poorly — thickeners hold the water in. Check the label: milk and cultures, nothing else. Greek yogurt is already partly strained and needs noticeably less time.