A breakfast, a dessert, a dressing, a dip, cake and bread: yoghurt is one of the true food heroes. It’s a milk product fermented with the help of live bacteria cultures and the word, from Turkish, meaning 'curdled', conveys that. Yoghurt can be made from the milk of cows, sheep or goats and you can buy it plain, flavoured, low fat or Greek – strained and thicker, though not necessarily made in Greece.
High in protein, relatively low in calories depending on the type, yoghurt is also a good source of calcium, potassium and vitamin B. Even people with lactose intolerance are sometimes fine eating yoghurt because fermentation breaks the lactose down and improves its digestion.
And it’s a star ingredient: just take a look at the collection of breakfasts, desserts, savoury dips and dressings, cakes and breads that you can make with it.
Starting with breakfast, and with the basics: how to make yoghurt at home, even without a yoghurt maker. It’s so easy! Silky smooth yoghurt is ready in 24 hours. Soak the oats in it overnight and have with fresh fruit, for the healthiest breakfast high in fibre.
Overnight oats with yoghurt
RECIPE
A parfait can be custard, it can be soft serve, but the best and simplest type is yoghurt layered with fruit. It’s a recipe for a dessert or breakfast, delicious at any time of day. This blueberry parfait is made with roasted blueberries and strained yoghurt.
Blueberry yoghurt parfait
RECIPE
My favourite ice cream is fro-yo! Frozen yogurt, here blueberry flavour with frozen or fresh blueberries, can be made without an ice cream maker. No-churn fro-yo with perfectly smooth texture is made in a mini chopper or blender that will fit into your freezer.
Blueberry frozen yoghurt
RECIPE
The next step from Greek yoghurt is labneh, thick and creamy strained Greek yoghurt. It is as delicious as cream but leaner in fat and calories. Strawberries and whipped labneh is a healthy version of the beloved Wimbledon dessert, strawberries and cream.
Strawberries with whipped labneh
RECIPE
We’re switching to savoury dishes now, and tahini yoghurt is an utterly delicious topping, dressing, dip – and I can just eat it with a spoon. Here it features on a roasted beetroot salad with preserved lemons. All the hallmarks of an Ottolenghi recipe and rightly so: it comes from the 'Simple' cookbook.
Roasted beetroot with tahini yoghurt
RECIPE
Coleslaw with gloopy mayo – begone! This homemade coleslaw with lightly fermented vegetables is dressed with a light and healthy yoghurt and lemon dressing. This is Tom Kerridge's recipe and highly versatile in the choice of ingredients.
Labneh, strained Greek yoghurt again, but you can use it without straining to make this savoury Persian dip with cucumbers, fresh herbs, walnuts and raisins. It’s Samin Nosrat’s recipe and it’s a complete winner.
Yoghurt cakes are so delicious! This is an Italian yoghurt cake also known as torta 7 vasetti – seven pots cake. Simple but genius: use the yoghurt pot to measure all the other ingredients.
Yoghurt also goes well with chocolate in a cake, and this one is as easy as it is tasty. With no butter, not much added sugar and no need to melt chocolate, it’s a skinny chocolate cake ready to bake in 5 minutes. Almost healthy.
And finally a flatbread made with yoghurt dough, better than pitta. Bazlama, Turkish flatbread enriched with yoghurt is not only tasty: it’s absolutely spectacular when it cooks on a hot griddle, inflating like a balloon!