Name: Labne
Prep time: 5 min
Total time: 5 min
Ingredients: 1 cup (280g) greek-style yoghurt or homemade yoghurt; 1 25cm piece cheesecloth or muslin (see notes)

Labne is yoghurt that has been drained of some of the whey. Use it as a base for dips, to temper spicy curries or sweetened for desserts. To make a larger quantity of labne, double or triple the amount of yoghurt at the start. As a general rule, you will lose about half of the yoghurt as whey (the drained watery mixture).

Ingredients

1 cup (280g) greek-style yoghurt or homemade yoghurt

1 25cm piece cheesecloth or muslin (see notes)

Method

Labne

1.Place a sieve over a small bowl. Line with muslin; spoon yoghurt into muslin, gather into a ball, secure with string or an elastic band. Refrigerate for 24 hours or until thickened. Transfer labne to a small airtight container; label and date. The leftover whey has many uses.

Smoky harissa

2.Stir ½ teaspoon sea salt flakes, ¼ teaspoon smoked paprika and 1½ tablespoons mild harissa into ½ cup labne.

Lemon & mint

3.Stir 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind, a pinch of salt, ½ teaspoon honey and 2 teaspoons coarsely chopped fresh mint into ½ cup labne.

Tzatziki

4.Coarsely grate 1 lebanese cucumber; squeeze the excess juice from the grated flesh. Combine flesh with ½ cup labne, ¼ teaspoon salt, ½ small crushed garlic clove and 1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh dill. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

Marrakesh cream

5.Stir 1½ tablespoons honey, ½ teaspoon orange blossom water, ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon and ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom into ½ cup labne.

Strawberry rose cream

6.Mash 125g (4 ounces) ripe strawberries with ½ teaspoon rosewater, 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 2 teaspoons caster (superfine) sugar. Fold through ½ cup labne.

Passionfruit, mandarin & honey cream

7.Sieve juice from 2 passionfruit, reserve 1 teaspoon seeds. Stir juice and reserved seeds into ½ cup labne with 1 teaspoon finely grated mandarin rind and 1 tablespoon honey.

You need a 25cm piece of cheesecloth for this recipe; it is available from fabric stores and some kitchenware shops. Labne can be drained for longer than 24 hours, in fact, 48 hours is better; the longer it is drained the firmer it will become.

Keeps for up to 10 days.
Note

Women's Weekly Food

Trusted by home cooks for 90 years, The Australian Women’s Weekly’s Test Kitchen and cookbooks hold a singular place in shaping home cooking within the Australian culinary landscape. Today, the AWW Test Kitchen in Sydney is a thriving hub for food content, connected to two bustling photographic studios where a talented team of Australia’s best recipe developers, art directors, editors and photographers create our world class food content. Our recipes are thoroughly tested and tasted and given the Test Kitchen tick of approval, guaranteeing you’ll get great results in your home kitchen.

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