GREEK YOGURT

GREEK YOGURT IS AS ESSENTIAL TO THE MEDITERRANEAN KITCHEN AS OLIVES and feta cheese. It is always on hand, in the way that every refrigerator in America is never without mayonnaise and butter. The thick Greek yogurt I snacked on as a kid, it turns out, opened culinary doors for me when I began to incorporate it into the dishes I made in fine restaurants. Its intensely piquant flavor—it can be funky (cow’s milk) or grassy (sheep or goat’s milk)—makes a wonderful, bright substitution for ingredients from a chef’s standard dairy larder: cream cheese, heavy cream, mayonnaise, butter, sour cream, and crème fraîche. Other chefs took note and began using this “new” ingredient to lighten and brighten their dishes.

Back then, I was more taken with the flavor and texture of Greek yogurt than with its health benefits. I was cooking the way I’d eaten my whole life. But with Mediterranean cooking, flavor and healthy eating are entwined.

In this chapter, you’ll come to understand the beauty, versatility, and inherently healthful benefits of Greek yogurt; my hope is that you will keep it in your refrigerator at all times—right next to the butter, ketchup, and mayo so that replacing those fatty, sugary staples becomes reflexive. The recipes that follow are recognizable, approachable, and inherently good for you because I’ve used a Mediterranean approach. Skip the mayonnaise to bind your egg salad and use Greek yogurt instead. Do the same on a tuna melt. Spread it onto a turkey burger and skip the ketchup altogether.

More than in any other chapter in this book, this one beautifully demonstrates the Live to Eat method of building on one ingredient to make several others. Greek yogurt is the base upon which several dips, sauces, and spreads are created simply by adding a little garlic and a spice, or flavorful liquid, or chopped vegetables.

For example, the chapter begins with recipes calling for straight Greek yogurt simply combined with smoked salmon, or berries and granola, or berries and seeds. Or you can add a little garlic and vinegar to yogurt to make the briny Garlic Yogurt Sauce (here) for drizzling over beets or binding egg salad. When you add cucumbers, garlic, vinegar, and dill to the same Greek yogurt, you make the multi-tasking Cucumber Yogurt Dip (here), also known as tzatziki, that is great for spreading on sandwiches, dipping vegetables into, or spooning onto meats and poultry. And finally, add a little heat with chipotle peppers to create a Chipotle Yogurt Sauce (here) that stands up to grilled fish and meat.

The homemade yogurt I grew up with tasted like no other, but these days, there’s no need to make your own. My preferred brands are full-fat Fage and Skotidakis, which both come close to the creamy texture and rich flavor of homemade. I highly recommend seeking out either of these in their full-fat form (reduced fat versions won’t satisfy the same way), but whatever brand you choose (and there are dozens now), be sure it has the consistency of cream cheese. If a spoon won’t stand straight up by itself then it’s not real Greek yogurt. The next best thing to good Greek yogurt is to strain regular, plain full-fat yogurt: Line a colander with cheesecloth and set it over a bowl. Spoon the yogurt into it, tie the cheesecloth tight, and refrigerate overnight. The next morning, the yogurt should be thick enough to stand a spoon up in.