Homemade Labneh

Labneh is a recipe from the old-world. It is basically salted, drained yogurt. Not only is it easy to make, but also easy to preserve - you can store them for months! You can eat it as it is, or mix in chopped garlic, fresh herbs, pepper flakes, or anything you would for herbed cheese. Or simply drizzle it with olive oil, some lemon juice and cumin and serve it as dip. Either way it is so delicious I think every household should have it as staple.

It would be really unwise to throw the drained liquid away. It's a natural component of cultured yogurt called whey. Whey contains some of the most important vitamins and minerals in yogurt. I keep it for use for soup and blend it into smoothie.

I used my homemade yogurt instead of Greek. Hence, it took me up to two nights to get the consistency of cottage cheese. It's kind of like draining it into Greek for the first night, and further transforming it into labneh for the second night. Remember the portion will be reduced by half after draining; if you are expecting 1 cup labneh, you may want to start with 3 cups yogurt.

Ingredients:
6 cups Greek Yogurt or Homemade Yogurt
2 teaspoons sea salt

1. Pour yogurt over a bowl and stir in salt.
2. Spoon the salted yogurt to the center of a piece clean cheesecloth. Pull and tie the corners tightly.
3. Suspend it from a stationary object over a bowl to catch liquid. Let it hang for 12 hours (or up to 2 days if you are using homemade yogurt). When done, yogurt will become cottage cheese-like.
4. Remove from the cloth. Store covered in refrigerator until needed.