Making garlic & herb cream cheese spread from homemade cream cheese is a piece of cake! The best part? It’s free of harmful additives, nutritious, tasty and super quick to make. Your family and friends will love you for it!
If you prefer to use commercial cream cheese, skip to step #2 for further instructions. If you prefer to make your own, then you’ll need to separate the milk solids from the liquid whey to make the cream cheese at home.
If you're using cheese cloth instead of a tea towel, you can use the following two methods: 1, simply transfer the yogurt or kefir into the cloth. Tigh the cloth onto a hook (cupboard handle) so it remains elevated. Place a bowl underneath the cloth to allow the liquid whey to drip into it. 2, Using a tall jar will work also. Just tigh the cloth onto a wooden spoon and lay the spoon on the jar's rim. The cloth will be inside the jar but elevated and hanging off the wooden spoon so the whey will easily drip off.
After 12 hours, the milk solids should be free of liquid whey, which fully dripped into the bowl.
The liquid whey can be used in many ways. First, you can swap water or milk for liquid whey to boost the nourishing power of your shakes. Second, liquid whey can be used as a starter culture for lacto-fermented foods like sauerkraut or kimchi. Finally, you can add one tablespoon of liquid whey to a glass of room temperature water to help and settle the stomach.
Simply transfer the liquid whey into a closable jar and keep in the fridge tightly sealed. It will last for up to 6 months and you can use the extra whey as per the examples above.
It will take you less than 5 minutes to make the garlic and herb cream spread.
Have the liquid whey handy in case the spread is too thick and you want to make it "runnier". I find that thinner texture is great for dips and thicker consistency works for sandwiches.