Strained Yogurt with Citrus and Spiced Oil

Meals

24 May

I came up with this recipe a few weeks ago when I was making flatbread to go with some fish and wanted something to marry the two. This recipe is perfect if you can’t find labneh in the store or wanna have a crack at making it yourself cause it’s honestly super easy. The strained yogurt acts as a creamy but light and cooling base for a fragrant spiced oil to be layered on top of. Citrus like orange and grapefruit are scattered on top with a few sprigs of dill, also herbs like mint or coriander work great too.

It’s perfect when the weather gets warmer and you want something light but satisfying. Serve it with flatbread (I have a recipe for that), or dunk it up with crackers, chips, breadsticks, or toasted bread.

If you’re like me and almost always have no fridge space, you can twist the yogurt into a ball with the cheesecloth and put in a tall deli container, leaving the excess cloth over the side and seal as best you can with the lid to keep it from touching the bottom.

If you can’t find labneh, you can use full fat greek yogurt and a cheese cloth to strain out the whey, which I’ll have instructions for below.

Strained Yogurt with citrus and spiced oil

Prep Time: 30 mins · Cook Time: 5 mins · Serves: 2-3
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Ingredients:

250 g full fat greek yogurt
1 tsp fennel seeds
1tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
50 ml olive oil ( about 5-6 tbsp)
dill
half a grapefruit
half an orange
honey

Directions:

If you are using store bought labneh you can skip this step. Start by weighing out 250g of greek yogurt and mix in a pinch of salt. I like to place a large bowl on a scale with a cheese cloth lined sieve on top and add the yogurt until you get 250g. Once weighed out, gather the cloth corners and squeeze until it forms a ball. Liquid will start dripping out which is what we want. Let it sit in the cheese cloth in a strainer on top of a bowl to collect whey and place in fridge. Strain for ideally a few hours but at least 30min to an hour.
Meanwhile make your spiced oil. Heat a small pot on medium-low and add olive oil and all the spices. Keep an eye on it as this will only take a minute - we basically just want to bloom and gently toast the spices to release their flavours without burning them. Turn off the heat after a minute and leave it to cool in the pot.
For the citrus, cut the orange and grapefruit in half and cut off the peel with a knife starting from the top and following the curve down the sides. Slice into thumbnail size cubes or whatever shape you like!
For the yogurt, you’ll know it’s ready when you open up the cloth that the yogurt separates from the cloth and a good amount of liquid has drained off in the bottom of the bowl. It should look like a denser ball of yogurt. Spoon onto a plate followed by pouring the spiced oil over, dotting around the orange and grapefruit chunks, placing dill sprigs around the plate and finish with a drizzle of honey and a generous pinch of salt and done!