I think it's a pretty well established that veggies become more popular when there's dip around. We may never know why the heck kids love dipping so much, but we can exploit it to get extra nutrients into them.
One really easy base for all kinds of dip is yogurt cheese. The idea here is just to drain off some of the whey to create a thicker yogurt.
1. Line a strainer or colander with clean cheese cloth, a thin dish cloth, or a coffee filter. Place it over a bowl.
2. Place about 2 cups of plain yogurt into the center of the cloth. You can use any type of plain yogurt- low fat, no fat, homemade, organic- whatever you like.
3. Place the whole set-up in the fridge and let drain about 12 hours. Truthfully, I usually do this on the countertop overnight. But if it's warm in your kitchen or you're at all concerned about leaving the yogurt out, put it in the fridge.
4. After draining, you'll see several tablespoons of whey in the bowl (how much there is depends on how liquidy the yogurt was to begin with). The whey is packed with calcium and protein; you can use it in place of the liquid in your baking, but that's another post. In the towel, you'll see the yogurt cheese; you should have between 2/3 and 1 cup of yogurt cheese. If the cheese is thinner than you'd like, let it drain for another 8 hours and if it's too thick, just stir a bit of the whey back in.
To make dip, just mix in a bit of salt and the ingredients of your choice, but don't use a food processor or blender because it can liquefy the "cheese". Try fresh or dried herbs (dill, cilantro, thyme, etc), raw or roasted garlic, finely chopped onions, carrots, cucumber or roasted red peppers.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Wonderful to see you writing about yogurt cheese but I would use a inexpensive reusable yogurt strainer - cleaner and more likly you will make the wonderful foo continuosly. We like it so much we wrote a cookbook and guide to expand its uses. I hope you will allow us to share our enthusiasm: Yogurt cheese (or YoChee as we call it) is a wonderful versatile ingredient you can make at home to improve your own yogurt. Simply by draining it. It has substantial health, taste and cooking benefits (a creamy food which is low or no fat plus high protein and calcium). I hope you will take a look at,” Eat Well the YoChee Way” our guide and cookbook to this important food. We even paid ($1,000) to have yogurt cheese analyzed in a lab for nutritional content. The book really increases the use of yogurt cheese to main courses, soups, sauces, desserts, and much more. (Nutritional content included). Inexpensive durable drainers (starting at $9.) make it easy and clean. Our website YoChee.com contains a free yogurt cheese how - to slide show, nutrition information and free recipes. Thanks.
Post a Comment