Recipes with natural yogurt and tricks to get delicious dishes with it

It is digestive, regenerates the intestinal flora and strengthens the defenses. The kitchen takes advantage of it in tasty recipes like these.

• Delicious and easy recipes with natural yogurt
• Spicy vegetable ragout with yogurt
• Couscous pilaf with yogurt
• Chickpea and eggplant salad with yogurt
• Cold yogurt cacik
• Yogurt flan with honey caramel and walnuts

Slightly acidic, soft, rich in ferments that favor the intestinal flora, easy to digest and low in calories, yogurt is today one of the most popular and consumed foods. Although it is usually taken as is or mixed with fruits or cereals, this product can also be used to prepare dishes and in this article, we propose some delicious recipes with natural yogurt.

Yogurt is usually made from cow’s or goat’s milk, but also from sheep and buffalo. However, people who are vegetarian, vegan or with cow protein intolerance can opt for vegetable yogurt. The only thing we must take into account when using vegetable yogurt is that we must opt for yogurts without sugar or without flavors and that it is better to opt for Greek type vegetable yogurts, which are creamier.

COOKING WITH YOGURT: THE CHEF’S TRICKS

It is easy to eat and use as an ingredient in all kinds of recipes, but yogurt also has secrets that should be known.

• Serum. Yogurt improves its flavor if stirred well with a spoon. It is not advisable to discard your serum unless the recipe requires it to be eliminated to achieve greater thickness. This whey has some proteins.
• How to sweeten it. In desserts, it can be consumed without sugar but also sweetened with honey, cereal molasses, concentrated apple juice, cane sugar, jam, raisins, dates … or mix with cubes of natural fruit such as strawberries or peach.
• Greek. Greek yogurt, thicker because cream is added to fermented milk, is ideal for preparing sauces because it is more consistent.
• Sauces and creams. It can replace cream in many recipes for sauces or creams, which considerably reduces the caloric intake of the dish. It is added at the end of cooking and, in the case of cold creams, when cold crushed. It can also replace cream.
• Stews. To make stews, yogurt is added at the end and, if it is convenient to give it a little thickness, it is bound with corn grits. Delicious stews and vegetable ragus are obtained. Anyway, yogurt loses part of its benefits when heated: the temperature deactivates its microorganisms.

DELICIOUS AND EASY RECIPES WITH NATURAL YOGURT

Yogurt is suitable for all types of people and adapts to very varied preparations, such as the following.

SPICY VEGETABLE RAGOUT WITH YOGURT

INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4):

• 1 plain yogurt
• 1 leek
• 1 zucchini
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 green pepper
• 400 g mushrooms
• 3 dried chillies
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon curry
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 4 coriander sprigs
• 40 ml olive oil
• black pepper and salt

PREPARATION (15′ + 20′ COOKING):

1. Wash and cut vegetables: peppers, into strips; leek, sliced: zucchini, in half-moons, and mushrooms, in quarters, without their stem.
2. In a casserole heat the oil, add the dried chillies, cumin and chopped garlic and immediately the leek, peppers, zucchini and mushrooms, in this order, leaving a minute between each vegetable. Let everything cook for about 5 more minutes and season with curry, salt and pepper.
3. Add the yogurt with its whey and stir carefully. Cover and continue cooking for 8 more minutes over low heat. After this time add the chopped cilantro and decorate with a sprig of this herb.

VARIANT:

You can also add fresh chilli or any hot pepper.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Calories: 145
• Carbohydrates: 5 g
• Protein: 5 g
• Fat: 11 g
• Cholesterol: 3 mg

COUSCOUS PILAF WITH YOGURT

INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4):

• 1 cup whole-grain couscous (250 g)
• 30 g pine nuts
• 30 g raisins
• 150 g de calabaza
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 plain yogurt
• a few mints leaves
• 30 ml olive oil
• salt

PREPARATION (10′ + 6′ COOKING):

1. Heat the oil over low heat in a thick-bottomed casserole. Add the sliced garlic, pine nuts and raisins. Brown everything, taking care that they do not burn.
2. Peel the pumpkin, dice it and add it to the casserole. If it starts to burn or dry add a little water.
3. While preparing the pumpkin put a cup and a half of water to boil with a little salt. When it reaches the boil add the yogurt.
4. Once the pumpkin has been lightly cooked, add the couscous and stir well. When the water with yogurt has boiled again, also pour into the casserole, over the couscous. Turn off the heat and leave covered for about 5 minutes.
5. After this time uncover, stir with two forks to peel off the grain and serve decorated with mint.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Calories: 370
• Carbohydrates: 53 g
• Protein: 9 g
• Fat: 13 g
• Cholesterol: 3 mg.

CHICKPEA AND EGGPLANT SALAD WITH YOGURT

INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4):

• 350 g cooked chickpeas
• 2 eggplants
• 2 natural yogurts
• 15 cherry tomatoes
• 30 g sunflower seeds
• 1 tablespoon cumin powder
• 1 orange
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley
• chilli powder or paprika
• olive oil
• pepper and salt

PREPARATION (15′ + 6′ COOKING):

1. Cut the eggplants into cubes, unpeeled, and salt lightly. Let stand in a drainer for about 15 minutes so that they do not sting.
2. Meanwhile, roast the sunflower seeds in a flat pan for a minute, while stirring so they don’t burn. Once the heat is off, continue stirring for another minute before removing them from the pan.
3. Crush the half bunch of cilantros with about 40 ml of oil and set aside. Wash the orange and cut its skin into very thin strips. Extract and strain the juice. On the other hand, wash and cut the cherry tomatoes in half.
4. In a bowl mix half of the orange juice with cumin powder, chopped parsley, a pinch of salt and another pinch of pepper. Add a tablespoon of the previously prepared coriander oil. Then add the natural yogurts little by little, beating them to emulsify them a little. Once the yogurt sauce is made, let it cool in the fridge.
5. Prepare a saucepan with 150 ml of water, the rest of the orange juice, a little salt and the eggplant cubes. Bring everything to a boil for about 5 minutes. Then pour the orange peels, let it boil for another minute and let cool without straining until the moment of preparing the salad.
6. Mix the chickpeas with the strained eggplants and orange peel strips. Add the cherry tomatoes cut in half, the sunflower seeds, a little cumin powder, a tablespoon of the coriander oil and the yogurt sauce. Mix well, let cool and garnish with a thread of coriander oil and a little chilli powder or paprika.

VARIANT:

To the salad you can add minced garlic, mint, onion … Other appropriate ingredients are avocado, black beans or mask beans.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Calories: 336
• Carbohydrates: 32 g
• Protein: 13 g
• Fat: 18 g
• Cholesterol: 6 mg

COLD YOGURT CACIK

INGREDIENTS (SERVES 4):

• 4 medium cucumbers or 2 Dutch cucumbers
• 150 g fennel bulb
• 1 hard red tomato (or 2 small ones)
• 3 natural yogurts
• 1 garlic clove
• 3 fresh mint sprigs
• 3 sprigs fresh fennel
• 1 teaspoon dried mint
• 40 ml olive oil
• salt

PREPARATION (15′):

1. Wash the cucumbers, open them in half lengthwise and remove the seeds, which are what make the cucumber repeat. Then cut into small cubes, sprinkle with salt and let drain about 15 minutes in a colander.
2. Peel and dice the tomato. Let it drain for a few minutes so that it loses some of its water.
3. Cut the fennel bulb into cubes. Chop the garlic clove, mix with the dried mint, yogurts, a pinch of salt and a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. If it is too thick you can rinse with a splash of water.
4. Finely chop the fresh herbs and mix with cucumber, fennel, tomato and yogurt sauce. Let the cacik cool in the fridge and then serve in glasses decorated with some fresh mint leaf or fennel.

VARIANT:

To this recipe you can also add tender onion or even fresh chilli.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Calories: 164
• Carbohydrates: 8 g
• Protein: 4 g
• Fat: 13 g
• Cholesterol: 8 mg.

YOGURT FLAN WITH HONEY CARAMEL AND WALNUTS

INGREDIENTS (SERVES 6):

• 1 liter of natural yogurt or 8 yogurts
• 8 tablespoons honey
• 14 sheets of gelatin
• 3 lemons (their skin and juice)
• 80 g walnuts

PREPARATION (15′ + 4′ COOKING + 2 H. REST IN REFRIGERATOR):

1. Let the gelatin soak in cold water until it softens. Meanwhile peel the three lemons, grate their skin and mix with yogurts. Beat everything until you get a fine and homogeneous texture. Reserve the lemons without skin and then extract the juice.
2. Take to the fire 100 ml of water with about six tablespoons of honey. When it boils add the gelatin. Turn off the heat and stir well until undone. Let stand for a couple of minutes and stir, while stirring, over the yogurt.
3. Distribute the yogurt with lemon and gelatin in molds or flaneras and let cool in the fridge until it sets, for about two hours.
4. Meanwhile, heat the rest of the honey with the juice of the lemons and when it thickens a little add the chopped nuts. Stir well, remove from heat and let cool. Serve the curdled yogurt flan with honey caramel and nuts on top.

VARIANT:

Instead of lemons, you can use oranges.

You can also substitute honey for any type of sugar, concentrated apple juice or cereal molasses.

NUTRITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Calories: 271
• Carbohydrates: 27 g
• Protein: 8 g
• Fat: 14 g
• Cholesterol: 18 mg.