How to prepare lactose free feta cheese
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Prepare the best healthy recipe for homemade feta cheese with less hassle. Just follow some easy steps & add some vitamins, minerals & proteins.
Feta cheese is one of the tastiest cheeses of all time. It is qualified as well as one of the healthy options when it comes to cheese. Unfortunately, as much as I love feta cheese and Greek cuisine in general, as hard it was for me to tolerate it as I am lactose intolerant. That was the main reason why I decided to develop this recipe for lactose-free feta cheese.
I like to add feta cheese to my salads, spanakopita aka Greek spinach pie, cheese manakeesh, and even pizza. It is rich in vitamins, and minerals, and is considered a great source of proteins. Moreover, preparing it at home is not a hassle. It may take a couple of days to be ready, but the preparation time required is very limited. And above all, it takes much less time to be ready compared to other types of cheese.
Though feta cheese is usually made with goat milk or even cow milk, I never found lactose-free feta cheese in shops. Hence, I decided to look for the best healthy recipes that can help me prepare it at home with lactose-free milk.
Frankly, the first two trials were a fail. That is because the presence of lactose in milk contributes usually to a successful cheese-making process.
However, I decided not to give up. Do you admire my perseverance? A quick trick helped me succeed on the third attempt. Pasteurizing the milk. As per the Dairy Council in Northern Ireland (https://www.dairycouncil.co.uk/consumers/industry/what-is-pasteurisation), pasteurization makes sure milk is safe to drink by killing any bacteria. The process of pasteurization involves heating milk to 71.7°C for at least 15 seconds (and no more than 25 seconds).
So if you have not yet tried making your dairy products at home, then you are missing out on that satisfaction that none of the store-bought products would give you!
Here are some links to prepare quick easy recipes like yogurt (Laban) and Labne at home!
Meals that go with feta cheese
- Spanakopita, the Greek spinach pie
- Greek salad
- Baked feta pasta
- Spinach and feta stuffed chicken
- Cheese and herbs quiche
Equipment:
- A large stainless-steel pot (or any other non-reactive pot)
- A large pan
- A spatula
- A strainer
- Long bladed knife
- Butter muslin cloth
- Thermometer
Interested in making this feta cheese recipe? Try making as well ricotta cheese at home.
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Feta cheese is one of the tastiest cheeses of all time. It is qualified as well as one of the healthy options when it comes to cheese. Unfortunately, as much as I love feta cheese and Greek cuisine in general, as hard it was for me to tolerate it as I am lactose intolerant.
Ingredients
For the cheese:
- 2 Liters of milk
- Rennet: 1/4 rennet tablet diluted in 2 tbsp cold water
- Mesophilic culture, or 2 Tbsp yogurt, or 1 tbsp yogurt and 1 tbsp labneh
For the brine:
- 2 tsp salt
- 1-liter water room temperature
Instructions
- Pour the milk into a large pan and boil it.
- Transfer it to a non-reactive pot and let it cool until 30°C.
- Add the mesophilic culture. Stir with an up and down motion to make sure the culture is dissolved.
- Cover the pot and let it rest for 1 hour.
- Bear in mind that you need to maintain the temperature at 30°C. Therefore, you can use a bain-marie to do so.
- Stir to combine using a spatula.
- Cover the pot with the lid and with a towel and keep it overnight.
- The second day, cut the curd using a long-bladed knife vertically, horizontally, and diagonally.
- Let the curd rest for 10 minutes then start stirring gently.
- Try maintaining the curd at 30°C for an hour. Stirring occasionally. The curds will become stiffer and smaller.
- Over a strainer, place the muslin butter cloth, then pour in the curd and let the whey drain.
- You can hang the cloth over the sink or place it in the strainer over a bowl.
- Let the whey drain for up to 24 hours. Flip the curd in-between times to ensure all the whey is drained.
- After 24 hours, place the cheese over a cutting board and cut it into cubes or shape it the way you want.
- Sprinkle 1 tsp salt over the cheese and place it in an air-tight container in a room temperature environment for 2 to 3 days.
- Once the three days pass, prepare the brine by dissolving the second tsp of salt in water.
To Prepare the Brine:
- Pour a few tbsp of whey over the brine then start placing the cheese cubes.
- Close the container tightly and place it in the refrigerator.
Notes
- The process needs time. But do not be afraid and do not hesitate. It is long but not complicated.
- You can start with non-pasteurized milk. My recipe calls for boiling the milk. Hence, it will be pasteurized.
- May recipes call for the use of calcium chloride. Mine does not. But do not worry, after 3 attempts, I have already found the tricks needed to avoid using calcium chloride.
- In this recipe, I am using lactose-free milk. But this does not mean that it does not apply to other kinds of milk.
- You may have a cheesecloth at home. However, bear in mind that a regular cheesecloth does not work. Try to find a very thin cheesecloth, something like a muslin butter cloth.
- Avoid starting this recipe in the evening. The process on the first day requires some time. Therefore, better to initiate the process in the morning or before noon.
- Finally, as I mentioned, with this recipe, you will not need to use calcium chloride. However, you still have to sort out the rennet and the mesophilic culture. Need support, you can find the rennet in some pharmacies or online. As for the mesophilic culture, you do not need to buy it if you have sitting in your fridge some yogurt or labneh.
Nutrition
Calories: 1005 kcal per serving | Serving size: 250g | Number of servings: 1
Total Fat 36 g | Saturated Fat 22 g | Cholesterol 93 mg | Sodium 0 mg | Potassium 0 mg | Total Carbohydrate 97 g | Dietary Fiber 0 g | Sugars 96 g | Protein 72 g | Vitamin A: 0% | Vitamin C: 0% | Calcium: 0% | Iron: 0%
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet
