Labneh, Traditional Lebanese White Spread Cheese
Preparation: 5 minutes + 1 overnight
Difficulty: Easy
Labneh: a soft white cheese used across the Levant. It is used spread over pita bread or as a dip and for many other things that include cream cheese. Labneh is found in almost all Arabic households and is very easy to make.
Ingredients:
1 kg of Plain Low fat Yogurt
1 tablespoon Olive oil
Salt
Cheesecloth
Oregano, Thyme (optional)
Form a large square with your cheesecloth and pour all the yogurt into the cloth.
Close the four corners of the cheesecloth with a string or elastic and attach over the handle of a wooden spoon or any long rod you may find in the kitchen. Let the yogurt rest and drip above a container over night. You do not need to refrigerate this, the room temperature actually helps the yogurt ferment into this light cream cheese.
The next morning, you will see all the water that escaped from the yogurt, you can discard of this.
Collect the Labneh in the cheesecloth and place into a plastic container, add the olive oil and salt. You can also add Oregano or Thyme to flavour the cheese.
Labneh is delicious served with pita bread and is a very common mezze in the Arab world. You can even use this instead of cream cheese on toasted bagels, with smoked salmon or other recipes.
