Yoghurt snacks - savory or sweet?
One of my fridge staples is Greek yoghurt. It’s handy as a quick breakfast or afternoon snack, or a sauce/dressing. But somehow I’ve hardly explored using them as a full on savory dish, until I recently read You Gotta Eat: Real Life Strategies for Feeding Yourself When Cooking Feels Impossible, by Margaret Eby, and she wrote about sweet or savory toppings for yoghurt. And I gotta agree – with yoghurt, it’s all about textures, and flavor pairs.
So I made this fun little snack, for when I’m not feeling like having more granola and fruit. To make this, you’ll need some mushrooms, chilli oil, and coriander (or some kind of soft green herbs).
This dish is just a bunch of maitake mushrooms, shredded finely and sautéed over high heat till they’re brown, then spread atop cold, Greek yoghurt, over which I drizzled chilli oil, and sprinkled chopped coriander and spring onions. Black pepper, a light dusting of sweet paprika, and a squeeze of lemon juice to finish. That’s all there is to it.
The mushrooms are cooked in nothing more than olive oil and salt – just make sure to maximize surface area. That can mean a big pan, or cooking in batches, so that all the mushroom pieces are in a single layer without overlapping. The idea is to ensure the water content evaporates quickly and the shrooms brown nicely without steaming in their own moisture. There’s no short cut to this.
The chilli oil and umami mushrooms are a great counterpoint to the tart yoghurt, while the cold from the yoghurt gently mutes the fire of the chilli so it’s more of a zing. I think parsley might be a better partner to the coriander but I worked with what I had in my fridge. Chervil and/or dill might be great too if you feel coriander is too aggressive a flavor.
Too easy and too delicious not to make this on repeat.
I used only half a cup of yoghurt so the remainder went into my default sweet version: yoghurt with frozen blueberries (I prefer it for the icy bite), peanut butter.
