This Garlic Cilantro Cream Cheese is super easy to make and is a great alternate to regular cream cheese. All it takes is 3 steps. Just strain the yogurt overnight, fry some garlic and Thai chili peppers. Chop-up some cilantro, mix and enjoy! Serious this saves so many calories and is full of protein. Perfect for snacking with toast, bagels, crisps or pair it with your cheese board.
Whenever I eat regular cream cheese it feels heavy and I want to stop. But this hung yogurt cream cheese is absolutely lite on the palette and stomach. Plus, it comes loaded with 14g protein for 150g minus the calories and fat from the regular cream cheese. A win win in my book!
Steps for Hung Yogurt:
Take 2 cups (300g) of low fat (2%) Greek Yogurt, mix it with 1/2 tsp. of salt. Place it in a thick muslin cloth. Tie it with a band. Not too tight it starts to strain the yogurt. It should be tight enough to just strain the water out. Take a colander and place it in a deep bowl to collect the excess water. Place in the fridge overnight (12 hours).
Step 2:
Next morning, take out the yogurt. Slightly squeeze the cloth to check if there is still any extra water. If you see that it feels slightly waterish, gently squeeze to remove the water. The drained water should look like clear white liquid not milky white. Open and place in a bowl.
Step 3:
Chop up 4 pods of garlic (if you don’t like heavy garlic flavor reduce to 2), half bunch of cilantro (1/2 Cup after finely chopped) and 2 chili peppers. If you like it spicy keep the seeds in the chilies, else remove the seeds. Add 2 Tbsp. of EVOO to a pan, add the garlic and chilies and fry them for 1-2 mins until browned. Lastly, add the fried garlic & chilies along with the cilantro to the hung yogurt and mix well. That’s it, spicy garlic cilantro cream cheese is ready to serve.
I used this cream cheese to make Bagel Sandwiches and they were a big hit. I also added a 1 tbsp. of honey to the spicy cream cheese, jam and plums to make Sweet Bagel Sandwiches.
Spicy Garlic Cilantro Cream Cheese With Hung Yogurt
Equipment
- Colander or a strainer
- A bowl to collect the liquid from the strainer
- Muslin Cloth or any slightly thick cotton towel.
Ingredients
- 300 grams Low fat greek yogurt (2% yogurt)
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 4 large Garlic pods minced
- 2 small Red chilies without seeds if you want less spicy
- 1/2 Cup Cilantro finely chopped
Instructions
- Place the yogurt in a muslin cloth, add 1/2 tsp salt and mix. Close the muslin cloth tightly enough to drain the excess water and tie it with a thread or a band.
- Place the colander in a bowl and place the muslin cloth inside the colander. Place in the fridge overnight or 12 hours.
- Next morning, check to see if there is any excess water by slightly squeezing the muslin cloth. If there is, gently squeeze it out.
- Place the yogurt in a bowl. Chop up the garlic, chilies and cilantro. Remove the seeds from the chilies if you want less spicy.
- Take a pan and add 2 Tbsp. EVOO. Heat it up for 30 seconds and add the garlic and chilies. Fry them for 2-3 mins.
- Add the fried garlic & chilies along with cilantro to the hung yogurt and mix. Spicy Cilantro Cream Cheese is ready to server.
- Enjoy!
