Hummus is so 2017. Try labneh, the luscious Middle Eastern yogurty spread, instead
- Used as a dip or spread, this umami-rich dish requires only two ingredients, and a little bit of patience
Oh, labneh, you cheese-ish yogurt sequel, beloved art thou by Middle Eastern peeps from Aqaba to Zarqa, from Ta to Ur. If you’ve never had this traditional dish, one of two things is probably true: either, you’re not of Middle Eastern stock, or, you are of Middle Eastern stock but there’s something definitely up, like, you’re lactose-intolerant or you’re a vegan or you’re a werewolf and you only eat meat.
While its dip cousin hummus is amazing, it’s a bit ubiquitous. Labneh serves the same function as the chick pea puree,
but with a distinctive mouthfeel – rich, tart, full of umami – and adaptable to a planet-load of flavour profiles.
So what’s up with the yogurt thing?
A little background never hurt anyone. So, we’re mammals, right? Mammals are a class of animals so named because their young are kept alive with milk produced by the mammary glands of the females. Our species, homo sapiens, differs from the other 5,000-some-odd species of mammals in that we regularly drink the milk of other species. Of course, that particular development didn’t arise until we’d been traipsing about for 200,000 years or so.
Anyway, because the invention of the electric fridge didn’t occur until many thousands more years, sometimes that extra-species milk would spoil. Fortunately, over time, we learned how to control that spoilage – like training bacteria with teeny whips and tiny chairs – et voila, behold the yogurt.