Make low(er) fat Balsalmic Vinaigrette - from Yogurt whey

HonestOmnivore

For those of us who are yogurt freaks, and love Greek yogurt even more - I have a FABULOUS way to get more bang for your grocery dollar, and save a few calories at the same time! If you make your own Greek yogurt (see bottom of post for how to make regular yogurt) you can use the left over whey to make a lower calorie Balsalmic Vinaigrette!

Greek Yogurt - if you want Greek style yogurt you only need a couple heavy duty paper towels and a way to suspend a paper towel full of yogurt over a tub that will catch the liquid (whey) that drains out through the paper towel. Instead of paper towel, I use a "gold screen" permanent coffee filter I picked up in the coffee isle at the local dollar store. My coffee filter fits perfectly into the top of a large (reused) tub from store bought ricotta or the large tubs of yogurt. If I'm not making yogurt, I just take the least expensive plain yogurt I can buy (for me it's always got to be organic to avoid those hormone laden dairy cows) and fill the coffee filter with the yogurt. When the yogurt is lower than the top of the filter you can just lay the tub lid on top to protect it from random stuff in the air. I put the whole thing into my refrigerator and over the next 12 or so hours, check it and fold it over, or lift the thicker yogurt off the filter and turn it so the center yogurt that's thinner is against the screen. As soon as you have the thickness you want dump it into another smaller container and there you have your Greek yogurt! If you let it stay in the filter for a day or so, you'll have "yogurt cheese" which is like cream cheese!

The liquid you have left is yogurt whey. It's not high in protein (that's why Greek yogurt is so wonderful - it keeps that healthy protein content!) but it does have a lot of great nutrients in it as well as some of the probiotics from the yogurt cultures. Whey is very stable, if you put it in a clean jar with a tight lid it will last in your refrigerator a very long time. But what to do with it? If you Google "How to use left-over whey" you'll find tons of ideas from using in on your hair, to mixing it with water and feeding it to your tomato plants! But here is my favorite thing to use it for -

I make up a basic Balsalmic Vinaigrette, such as the following -

In a Quart Jar add:
2 crushed (garlic pressed) large cloves of fresh garlic,
1/2 cup decent Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/2 cup Balsalmic vinegar (I use more balsalmic than oil but it's a personal taste thing)
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp prepared mustard (any kind - we just need it to help hold the oil in suspension)
Fresh herbs if you have them - I mince up some thyme leaves, you can add dried too if you like
1/2 cup yogurt or cheese whey

Shake this up well, you might need to use a little whisk to break up the mustard. Taste it - if it's still pretty strong keep adding some whey. You want to include as much whey as you can without losing the wonderful flavors for the dressing. Adding more crushed garlic is ALWAYS the right choice! :bigsmile:

The whey adds more calories than water - but it also adds in a ton of GOOD things, and it helps act as additional preservative (as if the EVOO and Balsalmic isn't enough but still...) - When refrigerated the olive oil will clump up - this is a GOOD thing, just leave it on the counter a little bit before you use it or if you're in a rush, shake it up well, and let the olive oil melt on your salad.

This Balsalmic Vinaigrette has been :huh: Grumpy Old Man:grumble: tested and approved! It was also served to a food snob who wanted to know the recipe, and I even think it's nicer than adding wine - and that's saying a lot!


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So - do you want to save even more money and make your own organic yogurt? it's ridiculously easy!

What you need!
1 quart of milk (at least 1% fat please! a culture's gotta live!)
Ideally the milk is in a quart glass jar but heat proof plastic will work
1 TBSP of left over yogurt from the store or your last batch - Plain so that you aren't adding other chemicals into the yogurt besides yogurt culture.*
Microwave or a pan with water in it that you can use to heat the milk
Digital thermometer or good instincts on "scalding vs hot"

Heat the milk - if you want to make sure NOTHING but yogurt will grow in it you can flash pasteurize it by taking it up in the 165F range then putting it a cool water bath to reduce the temp back to the 115F range. I usually put mine in our monster microwave for four minutes and it's up around 150F ish. Set the quart jar on your counter, loosely covered and keep an eye on the temp, we're waiting for it to get to around 110-115 F.

When the milk has cooled (as long as it's over 95F it will work - I have forgotten it so often it's almost my 'normal' method) when the milk is under 115F stir in the TBSP of yogurt. I stir in less for a quart jar of milk, my husband adds 3 or 4 TBSPs of it - mine results in slightly thinner yogurt than his but not THAT much thinner - 1 TBSP should be about perfect.

Lightly cover the jar (I twist a lid on leaving it a little loose), wrap it up in a nice cozy towel or even sit it on a warm surface like a heating pad on low or some place where you would leave bread to rise. A "yogurt maker" is nothing more than a container that keeps the yogurt toasty warm, around 100F to encourage the culture to chow through all that milk. My house is too cool in the winter to make it on the counter but if your house is 70F or warmer, the towel blanky will likely work fine.

After 8-12 hours gently remove the lid and sniff - if you smell mother's love, comfort, or other scents that says "OMG this aroma wakens the memories of my ancestors!" you've DONE IT! Try not to jiggle it as you replace the lid (now you can tighten it down) and put it in the refrigerator to chill. Once it's chilled it's good to go! You can use it to make Greek yogurt, you can mix in honey and fruit, or you can leave it plain and doctor up just the amount you want for a serving.

*If you're using a fresh jug of store bought milk - you don't even need to scald it - your milk is pasteurized. If your yogurt is too thin, try adding a couple spoon fulls of dried milk at the beginning. If the dried milk doesn't help add more starter yogurt... quality milk will feed yogurt cultures and make lovely yogurt!:flowerforyou: