Flavor of the Week: Labneh, classic Middle Eastern cuisine

Labneh is a creamy, soft cheese made from strained yogurt. Occasionally known as yogurt cheese in the United States, it is a quintessential ingredient in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Labneh is made by taking yogurt and straining it well past the point of thickened Greek yogurt until it achieves a similar consistency to cream cheese — though it can go even further than that. Texturally it’s like a soft cheese, but it has the familiar tang that yogurt offers.

You can spot labneh raw at breakfast and as a snack, in a ball or spread as a condiment, or stirred into hot dishes as a finishing dairy component.