Labneh Golden Beet Tart

Yogurt cheese is simple. It’s also delicious. And versatile. And once more, it’s simple. Yogurt cheese is made by straining plain yogurt for three to eight hours. Use muslin, use triple layered cheesecloth. Make a muslin drawstring bag and use it every time you make the stuff. Hang it from a dowel or the shelf’s grate in your refrigerator. Use a colander. Any way you do it, you’ll end up with thick, creamy, tangy fresh cheese. Strain it for three hours and it’ll be soft, strain it for eight hours and it’ll be firm.

Yogurt cheese begs to be flavored. Before or after straining, you choose. Here are some ideas: fresh herbs, salt, pepper, saffron, sugar, rose water, shallots, paprika, cumin, coriander (ooh), a paste made of peppers, sun dried tomatoes or lemon. That’s right, lemon.

I began experimenting with yogurt cheese recently when I happened upon Dianne’s post about making labneh. I was hit by the obsession bug and here I am, a good number of tubs of yogurt later, with a fabulous tart. I made Dianne’s cheese using her directions, the only change being that I use whole milk yogurt. It’s intense, it’s good, it was to be a killer partner of the beet.

I picked up some lovely little golden beets at my farmers market last week and I couldn’t even think about not eating them with this cheese. The beets are sweet and beety, the cheese is tangy and lemony, and dang me if they don’t belong together. No kidding the tart was incredible. I dare you to try it. I dare you.

Labneh Golden Beet Tart

For the crust
1 stick butter, cut up and chilled
200 grams (1 ½ cups) all purpose flour
5 Tbs ice water
½ tsp salt

For the filling
450 grams labneh (use Dianne’s recipe with the lemon and salt, use all of it)
1 large egg
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 small or 1 large golden beet, roasted and peeled
10 sprigs worth of thyme leaves
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
a pinch of saffron (of course this can be left out)
salt
pepper

Make the crust
Cut the butter into the flour, roughly. Add salt and ice water and blend until cohesive. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least a half an hour. Roll out and line a 9” tart pan, preferably with a removable bottom. Or use a pie pan or some such. Line with foil and freeze for 10 minutes. Weigh down the crust and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. When done, set aside to await filling.

Make the filling
At least a day ahead make the labneh and refrigerate until ready to use. Sauté the onions in olive oil on low heat until soft and caramelized, about 10 minutes, salting them along the way. Meanwhile prepare the already roasted beets. If you have one big beet, cut it in half. Slice one beet (or one half) fairly thinly, about 1/8” thick. Mash or finely chop the other beet. Set them aside. In a bowl, combine the labneh, egg, thyme, saffron and rosemary. Once the onions are done, let them cool for just a couple of minutes and add them, along with the mashed (or chopped) beet to the filling mixture. Salt and pepper to taste. I recommend a heavy hand on the pepper here.

Assemble and Bake
Scrape your thick filling mixture into the partially baked tart crust and spread a little to even it out. Top with the sliced beets. Bake in a 425 degree oven for 25-30 minutes, until the top has slightly darkened and the beets have curled around the edges. Let the tart rest for a few minutes before removing it from the pan. Slice and serve with more fresh thyme.

Please do try this recipe with Dianne’s lemon yogurt cheese, the flavors are just incredible. After that, though, I highly recommend making the cheese (and the tart) with different additions, see suggestions above. Eat it on fruit or drizzled with olive oil alongside flatbread or make it into frozen yogurt. Or check out some other sources for more ideas:

Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert has an awesome recipe for a Lebni Tart
Most of Madhur Jaffrey’s books have like five pages dedicated to yogurt cheese
There’s a great post at Herbivoratious, includes a recipe
A few neat recipes at Grand Times
A nice sweet recipe at Epicurious
Try it with potatoes at myrecipes
A bunch of great looking recipes at yochee.com