Yogurt

Everyone is eating greek yogurt these days, because of the high amount of protein it contains. The biggest complaint, though, is it feels like you are eating sour cream. You get used to it, but still long for Yoplait Boston Cream Pie. Consider making your own yogurt. You can control the tanginess with how long you let it process. I like mine right in the middle. To make greek yogurt, just strain your yogurt in a cheesecloth lined fine meshed strainer suspended over a bowl for several hours in the refrigerator. The whey will drain out leaving you with the protein. Strain overnight and you will have yogurt cheese. There is a million things you can do with this. It has the consistency of cream cheese, so use it as a substitute in your favorite recipes. I have used it in the recipe below in a spread packed with finely minced vegetables. You can use it as a dip with the crackers above, spread it on a bagel, or anything else you can imagine. This could easily transform into a fruit dip by using vanilla extract (or vanilla bean), any fruits (peaches would be especially nice), lemon, lime, or orange zest, or fresh grated ginger just to give you a few ideas.


Yogurt Cheese Vegetable Spread
Chop your vegetables fairly small before putting into the food processer. They will end up finely minced when finished so it can spread easily onto a bagel or crackers. To make more of a ranch flavored dip, add mashed garlic, parsley, and dill. Add the fresh herbs after most of the processing is finished. You just want to pulse it a few times to mix them in, not pulverize them.

16 ounces yogurt cheese*

2 tablespoons minced scallions, white and green parts
2 tablespoons finely chopped carrot
2 tablespoons finely chopped celery
2 tablespoons finely chopped radish (2 radishes)
2 to 3 pinches kosher salt
1 pinch finely ground black pepper

Place the yogurt cheese, scallions, carrot, celery, radish, salt, and pepper in a food processor and process until the vegetables are minced very fine.

*Note:  To make yogurt cheese, line a fine meshed strainer with cheese cloth and suspend the strainer over a large bowl.  Place 32 ounces of yogurt into the strainer and cover with plastic wrap.  Refrigerate overnight.  The whey will separate and drain into the bowl leaving in the strainer a thick cheese.