'Yogurt Cheese'

Today's recipe is entirely an experiment, I repeat, an experiment. I need this "yogurt cheese" for a dip that I want to make tomorrow, but I was curious to see if it worked as well with soy yogurt as it does with cow's milk yogurt. My hunch was yes; let's find out the results...

The night before needed, line a colander with 4 layers of cheesecloth (a fine mesh cloth available at food stores - Whole Foods carries it right by the baking section). Place the colander in a medium bowl. Spoon 1 quart (4 cups) plain soy yogurt into the colander, refrigerate and let stand 8 hours or overnight.

The result is... well the result is so perplexing I don't quite know how to blog about it! Measurement-wise, this worked exactly as it was supposed to. After eight hours in the fridge, the soy yogurt had reduced from 4 cups to 2. However, the next step of the recipe said to "discard the liquid" which would have drained out. Only I had almost no liquid! So where did it go? How did it reduce? Did it evaporate away? This is two cups of soy yogurt we're talking about here!

Some things, I suppose, should not be questioned, since, heck, I got the result I wanted. Wow.

So now you have two cups of a thicker, cream-cheese-y consistency, at 150 calories per cup. Save one cup for the recipe I'm going to post tomorrow! But here are some fun suggestions for ways to use the other cup:

- spread thinly on whole wheat crackers and top with parsley
- serve on toasted bread with tomato slices
- spice with any mixture you like - such as cumin, pepper, and mint - and serve as a dip
- make a spread with herbs like dill and oregano
- use as the base of a dressing for fruit salad

Cost:
plain soy yogurt $2.69

Here's a finished cup: