Swap Mayo Out For This Protein-Packed Creamy Ingredient In Your Next Potato Salad

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Potato salad is a classic comfort dish in culinary cultures across the globe, and for good reason. Whether you make it Greek-style or give it a Cajun twist, it's hearty, budget-friendly, and endlessly customizable. For example, if you're looking for a protein-packed, tangy alternative to mayo-based potato salad, swap the condiment for a creamy Middle Eastern ingredient: labneh.

Also known as labne, labaneh, or lebne, labneh (which is not the same as Greek yogurt) is a strained and salted Middle Eastern dairy product often used as a dip or spread. People have likened it to cream cheese, sour cream, Greek yogurt, or some combination of all of the above. However, labneh is its own distinct dairy delight. Thanks to an extra-long straining time (as much as 12 to 24 hours, compared to just a couple of hours for Greek yogurt), it has an uber-thick, spreadable texture and supremely tart flavor. Those qualities make it an ideal mayo substitute in potato salad.

The rich tang balances with the mild, tender potatoes for a flavor- and protein-packed delight. Making the salad is as simple as replacing some of the mayo in your favorite recipe with labneh, as you might with Greek yogurt. Labneh is tarter and thicker than mayonnaise, so you may want to start with a half-and-half blend and then add more of the former if desired.

Labneh contains about 80 calories and 5 grams of protein per ounce, compared to roughly 180 calories and zero grams of protein for a similar amount of mayonnaise. So it's a great way to make your potato salad simultaneously lighter and more filling. An ounce of labneh also packs nearly 15% of your daily value of calcium and a hearty dose of probiotics, which you should probably be eating if you don't already. However, this spread is relatively high in sodium, clocking in at over 500 miligrams per ounce, compared to less than 200 milligrams for some varieties of mayonnaise.

Labneh would go well mixed into almost any creamy, crowd-pleasing potato salad recipe, but if you want to take things to the next level, you can give it a flavorful Middle Eastern twist with a generous handful of chopped herbs, a sprinkling of za'atar, or toasted pine nuts. You could also amp up the protein content of your spud salad even more with chopped hard-boiled eggs.

Labneh is available at many major American supermarkets. Some of the brands you might come across include Yaza, Karoun, and Pinar. If you can't find it, you can make your own by straining Greek yogurt with a pinch of salt in a cheesecloth for a day or two (this also allows you to adjust it to your taste — just strain longer for a thicker consistency). If you've got any leftover labneh, it can easily upgrade your tuna salad.