Savory Uses for Greek Yogurt

There are so many great conversations on the Hotline -- it's hard to choose a favorite. But we'll be doing it, once a week, to spread the wealth of our community's knowledge -- and to keep the conversation going.

Today: You probably have Greek yogurt in your fridge -- discover some savory ways to put it to work.

Greek yogurt is a wonderful, versatile ingredient that's great to have in your kitchen arsenal. But once you’ve moved past the fun of subbing it into baking recipes and enjoying it with large amounts of granola and honey for breakfast, you can sometimes hit a lull in your Greek yogurt consumption. Yet you still have tubs of the stuff in the fridge, waiting to return to the table.

That’s how lizabeth felt, and she turned to the Hotline in search of savory Greek yogurt recipes. Luckily, the community served up some dairy good solutions:

Get Saucy

• Greek yogurt does really well as part of a sauce. One of QueenSashy's favorites is Lamb Meatballs with a Broken Yogurt Saffron Sauce: "The sauce is amazing and quite versatile -- you could use it with potatoes or grilled cauliflower, for example."
• Dinner at ten loves yogurt mixed with "a little tahini and salt as a sauce for roasted or grilled vegetables."
• A nice Greek yogurt sauce pairs well with pasta, too. Jilhil enjoys Diane Kochilas' Pasta with Yogurt and Caramelized Onions, which is a great way to use utilize a lot of the stuff.

Add A Dollop

• The next time you make a soup, throw a dollop of Greek yogurt in. "I like to make cold soups with yogurt and vegetables (peas, beets, asparagus, cucumber, tomatoes, scallion, everything works)," says QueenSashy.
• Greek yogurt is a great substitute for a sour cream dollop, too. Brady Klopfer shares: "I love it as a sour cream substitute on top of a quesadilla or burrito!" You can also subsitute Greek yogurt for mayonnaise in coleslaw, as Susan W suggests, or add some into mashed potatoes, as Aliwaks does.

More Options

• You can even use Greek yogurt to make pizza dough -- Amy Molony explains: "Mix 1 cup of plain yogurt with 1 1/2 cups of self-rising flour for a basic, delicious pizza base."
• Summer of Eggplant likes to keep things simple with a Greek yogurt dip. "I mix it with a variety of herbs -- lemon zest and chives or green onion -- and use it as a dip for artichokes instead of butter."
• Amysarah suggests turning Greek yogurt into labneh. "Labneh -- creamy yogurt cheese -- is easy to make. It's delicious spread on toast, pita, bagels -- anyplace you'd use cream cheese."

More: If you're not familiar with labneh, learn more about it before making your own.

Do you have a favorite savory way to use Greek yogurt? Tell us in the comments or join in the conversation over on the Hotline!

Photos by James Ransom, Ryan Dausch, and Rivka