Yogurt Cheese: A creamy and healthy substitute

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I love low fat and fat free plain yogurt. It is versatile, healthy, inexpensive and many many other things. Yogurt is such a great addition or accompaniment to several dishes. Yogurt with a little dill is a great veggie dip or topper to things like stuffed peppers, salmon, or gyros. Yogurt can be used in place of mayonaise, it can be used in smoothies, seriously the possibilites are pretty much endless. Yogurt is rich in protein, live cultures, calcium other nutrients. After a run with antibiotics you should eat a ton of yogurt to replace the good bacteria and get the digestive track healthy again. One of my new favorite ways to use yogurt is by making "yogurt cheese". Yogurt is already good at thickening and adding a degree of creaminess to dishes, but taking the step to drain some of the liquid can make your dishes even creamier. Yogurt cheese is a bit of a misnomer, because it isn't really cheese at all, it is just yogurt thickened to the consistency of cream cheese

1. Place yogurt in a fine mesh sieve or colander lined with four layers of cheesecloth. Place the sieve over a large bowl to catch the liquid that drips out of the yogurt. Place this set-up in the refrigerator and let stand 2-24 hrs. If you have all night, let it sit. The thicker the better. If you need the yogurt cheese soon, a few hours of sitting should give you a thicker consistency.
2. Discard the liquid in the bowl below and you are left with rich, creamy yogurt cheese in the cheesecloth.
3. Use to add creaminess to soups, sauces, dips... really anywhere you see fit. This is a great substitute for heavy cream, cream cheese and sour cream.