If you have Homemade Greek Yogurt, you are very lucky beacuse no recipe can go wrong with it. We even have it at breakast as a healthy alternative to cream cheese.
Who doesn’t love a thick, creamy and tangy greek yogurt? It makes everything more delicious. You can prepare amazing appetizers and side dishes with some quality homemade greek yogurt. My favorite way to use it is on Turkish Manti Dumplings. Have you tried them yet? Oh boy, they are heavenly! You can even use it to make a heartwarming yogurt soup with rice.
Also, Turkish cacik or Greek tzatziki, which are very similar sides are best with very well strained yogurt. It is amazing with black olives. Something weird again? Spread some greek yogurt over on a slice of bread and top with olives or olive paste. YUM! Try it before judging me!
You might ask why bother making Greek yogurt at home when you can easily buy it from store. I find the store bought ones over tangy and less creamy. Also they go bad very quickly, I mean they get too tangy to eat in a few days. It is easy peasy to make thick Greek yogurt at home and I highly recommend you to use Homemade Yogurt to have the perfect result. I always make my yogurt at home using this recipe and it never fails. Please check it out and don’t skip the tips of how to make yogurt I shared in that post.
How To Make Homemade Greek Yogurt
After making regular yogurt, it’s so easy to make greek yogurt from it that it’s embarrassing to write the recipe here; it’s not even a recipe at all. But I’ve received several emails asking how to make thick homemade Greek yogurt and I decided to write this post. The things you need are a bag made from cheesecloth, a large bowl and a strainer. If you are straining 4 kilos of regular yogurt like me, you need to have these in larger size. If you don’t have a cheesecloth bag, then you can use a large piece of cheesecloth and it functions as a filter. From 4 kilos of regular yogurt, I ended up with 1 kilo and 300 grams greek yogurt and it’s really thick. If you don’t want it that thick, you can stop straining earlier, but for me the thicker, the better.
Why Is It Named Greek Yogurt?
I don’t want to start a discussion but I really don’t know why it’s called Greek yogurt, but not strained yogurt. It has been a staple in Turkish kitchen for ages and we call it süzme yogurt, which means strained yogurt. Maybe Greek people introduced it to the world, and that’s why it is named after them. When thinking about the location of two countries and our common history, it’s not surprising at all that we have several common dishes with similar names.
How To Use Greek Yogurt In Recipes
No matter what the name is, this thick yogurt is one of the fantastic foods to use in recipes. For one thing, you can make mouthwatering and healthy salad dressings substituting it for mayo. Just mix little homemade greek yogurt with a little water, extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, finely minced fresh mint and coriander leaves and finely mashed minced garlic. Drizzle over your favorite green salad and see how it becomes everyone’s most favorite salad ever!
Do you think greek yogurt is just used for savory foods? You should check my yummiest and healthy Chocolate Chip Yogurt Cookies and see how it is a great substitute for butter.
Homemade Greek Yogurt
It's very easy to make your greek yogurt at home. Using homemade yogurt is highly recommended.
- Prep Time: 8 hours
- Total Time: 8 hours
- Yield: 1 1x
- Category: Side Dish
- Cuisine: Turkish
Ingredients
- 4 liter regular Homemade Yogurt
Equipments:
- A strainer
- A bowl
- A cheesecloth bag
Instructions
- Put the strainer over the bowl.
- Pour the regular homemade yogurt in the bag made from cheesecloth. If you don’t have that kind of a bag, line the top of a bowl with a double layer of cheesecloth and fix it there with an elastic band and pour yogurt on it.
- Fold the excessive top of the bag and put something heavy on it. I put a small mortar made of brass, but a large stone works fine too. This helps the straining process better. If you don’t have the bag, just skip this part.
- Wait it this way in the refrigerator overnight. I let it sit there for 8 hours and it’s super thick and creamy, just like cream cheese. If you don’t want your Greek yogurt very thick, 3-4 hours will be fine too.
- Transfer the strained yogurt into an airtight container and keep in the refrigerator. Use it in whatever recipes you like.
Keywords: greek yogurt recipe, homemade greek yogurt, strained yogurt
Fotini says
Lovely recipe. Your yogurt looks amazing. The difference between Greek yogurt though and any other type of yogurt is that it's made from sheep's milk. I am from Greece and that's how it's traditionally Made. I wanted to make that clear because everyone seems to know at as just a very thick yogurt. It's much more than that!
Leanne says
I use a nut milk bag to strain my yogurt! I bought 2 for $12 on Amazon!!
OMG homemade is the BEST. I LOVE it especially with a drizzle of REAL maple syrup, fruit and granola. DANG its easy to make!
Zerrin says
Hi Leanne,
Thanks for the nut milk bag idea. I agree, nothing can beat Homemade food. Your recipe sounds like a perfect breakfast that can be prepared in a minute. YUM!
Judith Van Dyke says
I am very limited in your recipes. I have been living in India, only use a microwave returning eliminating cooking materials and stove. Deserts, fruit, are not my diet. I have been now addicted to pasta (fattening), will use many recipes you have without meat, tomato sauce--(quite limited).
Zerrin says
Hi Judith! Hope you love the recipes you try. Please feel free to ask any question you might have.
Bonnie Smith says
Everybody east of Italy make yogurt AND strained yogurt. From Albania to the Arab countries, ladies are making kos (Albania) matsoni (Georgia) laben (Lebanon and Syria). "Greek yogurt" is like "Israeli couscous"--a marketing ploy.