Labneh
Yoghurt salted and hung until it turns into something between cream cheese and clotted cream. One ingredient, one day, no cooking.
- Prep
- 10m
- Cook
- —
- Waiting
- 24h
- Total
- 24h 10m
- Serves
- 6
- Effort
- Easy
Method
Tap a step number to mark it done. Tap an ingredient once for got it, twice for need it.
| 1 kg | Stir the salt through until completely dissolved 5m Salt has to be even. A pocket of unsalted yoghurt drains more slowly and stays slack. | Tie in muslin and hang over a bowl in the fridge for 24 hours 24h Expect to pour off 300 to 400 ml of whey. Longer gives you something firm enough to roll into balls. | Spread on a plate, swipe a hollow through it and flood with olive oil 5m The hollow is not decoration — it holds the oil so every scoop gets some. | |
| 1 1/2 tsp | ||||
| 1/2 lemon | ||||
| 4 tbsp | ||||
| 2 tsp | ||||
| a pinch | ||||
-
Stir the salt through until completely dissolved
5m- full-fat natural yoghurt 1 kg
- fine salt 1 1/2 tsp
- lemon zest (optional) 1/2 lemon
Salt has to be even. A pocket of unsalted yoghurt drains more slowly and stays slack.
-
Tie in muslin and hang over a bowl in the fridge for 24 hours
24h- from 1 Stir the salt through until completely dissolved
Expect to pour off 300 to 400 ml of whey. Longer gives you something firm enough to roll into balls.
-
Spread on a plate, swipe a hollow through it and flood with olive oil
5m- from 2 Tie in muslin and hang over a bowl in the fridge for 24 hours
- extra virgin olive oil 4 tbsp
- za'atar 2 tsp
- Aleppo pepper (optional) a pinch
The hollow is not decoration — it holds the oil so every scoop gets some.
What draining actually removes
Yoghurt is a loose gel of casein proteins with whey trapped in the mesh. Salt disrupts the electrostatic repulsion holding that mesh open, the network contracts, and the whey is squeezed out — the same syneresis you see as a watery layer on top of an old pot. Hanging just gives gravity somewhere to send it.
Fat content decides the texture. Below about 5 percent the proteins have nothing to sit in and you get something chalky; full-fat yoghurt drains to something glossy that spreads.
Notes
- Keep the whey. It is pleasantly sour and makes good flatbread or a brine for quick pickles.
- Rolled into balls and covered in oil, labneh keeps a month in the fridge.
- Stabilised supermarket yoghurt will not drain properly. Read the label.