I’m not sure why I haven’t made this Middle Eastern yogurt/cream cheese before – it’s very easy and tastes wonderful. When we were in London last week we bought some labneh and ate it with felafel from a Palestinian market stall. I came home determined to try making it and surprised at how simple it was.
I used two small pots of Greek-style yogurt (300 grams in all) and mixed in two teaspoons of sea salt. Then I drained it for 24 hours. Now, I know you’re supposed to use a muslin cloth, and that’s what I used to use when I made cream cheese years ago, but I didn’t have one handy so I used an unworn, sterilised, leg of a pair of tights – the perfect size and shape for this! I hung it in the kitchen with a bowl underneath to catch the whey. In warmer weather I might have to find a way to hang it in the fridge, but at this time of year it isn’t too warm in our kitchen. Once it had stopped dripping, a lovely creamy ball of cheese was ready to use:
This made 10 walnut-sized balls, some of which I rolled in Baharat five-spice mix. Other mixes of spices and/or herbs would work well too, or you could mix herbs or spices into the labneh. There seem to be so many ways of using it, I’ll be making it again and again, with sweet and savoury flavourings.
I think at this stage the balls of labneh could be put into a jar, covered with olive oil and stored for a few days in the fridge. These ones didn’t last long enough – we ate them for supper with toasted whole-grain bread, fried aubergine, grated carrot and tahini mixed with date syrup.
olivesandartichokes 
You make it sound so easy. You go on and do it. I’ll just keep on imagining it and reading about it. I like Dotty’s idea of putting rose water, pistachios, and pomegranate seeds on it. And mint, I think. I love to imagine foods. But not to actually make them. This is probably some kind of disorder. Food fantasy disorder, they might call it.
I like the idea of Food fantasy disorder – not too bad a disorder to have!
as an inveterate procrastinator, i understand the lag between intention and action..the transparent wall between the recipe and your mouth is all in your hand..this blog makes it so easy, i am sure that i will soon be sampling labneh rolled in pecan bits and cinnamon, or lemon zest and rosemary powder.. rooling away in my litchen dreams..ns
Thank you for the very easy recipe! I have made labneh quite often from home-made yogurt and had been advised the method did not necessarily work with commercial yogurt! Obviously untrue 🙂 ! Love the stocking idea as have been known to be without muslin cloth!! Methinks one can flavour labneh in a lot of ways: I have a tendency to put homegrown herbs into the oil in the jar – that works well also . .
Oh, yes, I’ll definitely put some herbs from the garden with the next batch I make.
Although I first made labneh years ago, I wasn’t nearly so creative with its flavoring. Thanks to you, I will do better next time. 🙂
With your cheese-making experience, I thought you must have made it before8 It doesn’t really need much flavouring as it’s so tasty on its own but a few herbs or spices are always good.
Perfect light supper – or, just perfect supper. The tahini and date syrup caught my attention. Nice idea.
Yes, it’s a nice mix of flavours. We made it with grape syrup the other day too – also very tasty. A nice mix of sweet and savoury.
Lovely – and tights are so handy for many things! Tying up plants, stuffing cushions, draining cheese 😉
Yes, they are – I must remember to take some old ones to the garden when it’s time to tie the tomato plants.
Delicious 😉
Yes!
you know, you can get away with just whipping the yogurt, pouring on some half-decent olive oil and sprinkling with za’atar . . .
Yes, yogurt goes well with spices – I often do this with home-grown paprika – but I think it’s worth draining it to get the thick texture of labneh.