A great way to make your own Greek Yogurt is to strain out the whey from regular yogurt. The result is a thick, creamy, delicious Greek style yogurt. To get started, you need a carton of all natural, plain yogurt that doesn’t contain any thickeners or gums that prevent the yogurt from separating. I like to use freshly made yogurt that I make in my crock-pot. The instructions for how to do this can be found in my post, Making Yogurt in a Crock-Pot. Take a container of yogurt, fresh made or store-bought, and pour it into colander that is lined with a coffee filter or cheesecloth. Let this sit undisturbed (this is hard, I know). If you try to stir or push it through, you’ll just end up with a mess, so be patient and let gravity do its thing. This takes about an hour or two. Just walk away…

After the yogurt has drained, pour the thick creamy yogurt into a container and refrigerate.

One quart of regular yogurt will yield about 1 pint of Greek yogurt.

Save the whey that drains off! This can be used in baking and is a great substitute for buttermilk in recipes. I like to use it for making fast and easy biscuits in particular, but anything that uses buttermilk will work – try it the next time you make pancakes. 🙂 If you can’t use it right away, you can also freeze it for later use.