Garlic labneh, or labneh with freshly mashed garlic paste, is an easy way to dress up your labneh into something special. Use store-bought labneh, or make your own labneh from milk, then add some freshly mashed garlic and drizzle a bit of olive oil on top.
It's an excellent dip for your za'atar pita chips or sea salt pita chips. Or, smear this labneh on a bagel, sourdough toast, or a slice of fresh pita bread.
This labneh with mashed garlic is an awesome substitute for regular labneh in this labneh pita sandwich!
What I Love About This Recipe
I love how simple this recipe is, which makes me even contemplate if this should be called a recipe! It takes just a couple of minutes to mash some garlic and it completely changes the taste of labneh. This recipe is perfect as a snack or appetizer, and it stores well in the fridge.
Ingredient Notes
- Labneh: Any type of labneh is suitable. Use store-bought labneh or make your own labneh. Labneh is essentially strained cow's yogurt, so it's easy to make labneh using store-bought yogurt. If you are really up for it, you can make traditional Lebanese labneh from scratch (starting from milk).
- Crushed fresh garlic: Fresh garlic is a critical ingredient for this recipe. You don't need a lot of garlic, just 1 garlic clove for every ½ cup of labneh. The key to this ingredient is making sure it's crushed into a paste so it can disperse evenly into the labneh and not taste too over-powering.
How To Make Garlic Labneh
Peel the garlic and chop off the end. Add the garlic to a bowl (or mortar). Sprinkle some salt.
Mash the garlic using a pestle until it forms a paste. Alternatively, crush the garlic using a garlic press.
The most important thing is that the fresh garlic forms a paste, so it can disperse evenly throughout the labneh.
Add the freshly mashed garlic paste to some labneh.
Mix the garlic paste and labneh well together.
Drizzle some olive oil on top of the labneh. Eat it with some sea salt pita chips, za'atar pita chips, or some fresh pita bread.
Tips and Tricks
- Mash the garlic. Preferably use a mortar and pestle to mash the garlic into a paste. Alternatively, you can use a garlic press, however, not all garlic presses are created equal. You don't want any chunks, you want the garlic pulverized so it can easily disperse into the labneh dip.
- Add olive oil prior to serving. Olive oil will solidify in the fridge, so drizzle some olive oil only on the amount you expect to eat.
- Salt to taste. Add a little bit of salt to the garlic as you mash. You can also add a little more salt to taste.
Variations and Substitutions
- Use any type of labneh: store-bought labneh or homemade labneh.
- Omit the olive oil if desired.
- Add some dried chili flakes to make the mashed garlic labneh spicy.
📋 Recipe
Garlic Labneh
Ingredients
- ½ cup of labneh
- 1 garlic clove
- salt to taste
- drizzle of olive oil optional
Instructions
- Peel and chop the end off of the garlic. Mash the garlic with some salt using a mortar and pestle. Pulverize the garlic into a paste.
- Mix the mashed garlic paste into the labneh dip. Salt to taste.
- Drizzle some olive oil and serve with pita chips or pita bread.
Notes
- Store the labneh without olive oil in the fridge for up to a week.
- Add some dried chili flakes to make this dip spicy.
Nutrition
FAQs
Labneh is strained cow's yogurt. It has a thicker consistency than yogurt, close to Greek yogurt.
Depending on how the labneh is prepared, it can taste differently. If labneh is made from milk, it has a slightly sour taste. If labneh is prepared from store-bought yogurt, it is not sour. Labneh is generally creamy and tastes like a mix between cream cheese and Greek yogurt.
Garlic labneh can be eaten as a dip, smeared onto pita bread, a bagel, or toast. There are many ways to eat this delicious labneh dip!
Sherine Abdallah says
I love making labneh this way! Especially with some fresh mint, tomatoes, and cucumbers.
Lily says
Thanks for the comment!