Did you know you can also experience the benefits of consuming kefir as a cheese? This cheese can be flavoured in any way that you would normally flavour cream cheese. That is the texture it resembles if you follow this method. If you don’t already know how to make milk kefir, please refer back to my post on that. Once you have strained your kefir after the first ferment, this is the stage at which you can turn it into cheese.
The process involves using a nutmilk bag or a piece of cloth to strain the milk kefir. It will separate out the curds and whey. I have detailed this process in the recipe below. This is what your strained kefir will look like after it has sat for 8 hours.
Herb and garlic Kefir Cheese
This is a delicious spread on bread or crackers. It has loads of flavour and tastes like slightly sour cream cheese. Store in the refrigerator.
Ingredients
- 800-900ml milk kefir
- 1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp finely chopped fresh herbs of choice - eg basil, dill, oregano, mother of herb, parsley.
Instructions
- Use a deep saucepan or bowl and pour your kefir into a nut milk bag or into a funnelled piece of cloth over the deep dish.
- Secure the top of the cloth or milk bag into a tight knot and suspend over the vessel. I wrap the cord of my nut milk bag round a wooden spoon to do this. Be creative. If possible, place a weight on top to squeeze the liquid out.
- You can leave the cheese out for 6-12 hrs depending on the weather. In hotter weather it will sour faster. You can store it in the fridge while it is draining in order to get a firm texture with minimal sourness.
- Once your kefir is strained, place it into a bowl and mix with remaining ingredients.
- Place into a jar and store in the fridge.
- Eat on bread or crackers.
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