Areesh Cheese substitute

Best substitute

Cottage cheese, drained and mashed

Use the same amount by weight, drained 20 to 30 minutes then mashed with a fork as the areesh cheese you are replacing

Best for Egyptian breakfast with tomato and cucumber

Close match

Areesh does a specific job: it brings a soft crumbly protein body with a mild yoghurt-like sourness and almost no fat, which is why it is the cheese in every Egyptian diet breakfast. Drained cottage cheese, mashed with a fork, is the closest and easiest swap at a straight one to one, and low-fat or dry-curd cottage cheese is the closest of all. Quark or dry-curd farmer cheese is even better if your shop has it. Labneh works if you are spreading it on bread, though it is smooth and creamy rather than crumbly and considerably tangier. Whatever you use, salt it lightly at the table rather than in the bowl, because areesh is only just seasoned and the tomato, cucumber and olive oil around it are doing the rest.

Other areesh cheese substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Quark or dry-curd farmer cheese
Close match
Use the same amount by weight, broken up with a fork and 1 tsp milk per ½ cup
Low-fat European fresh cheeses with a mild lactic sourness.
What changes
Best for
breakfast plates, spreading, baking and savoury fillings, mixing with herbs
Genuinely very close, and if your shop stocks either, this is the swap to make. Both are lean, mildly sour drained curd cheeses, which is exactly what areesh is. Quark is smoother and denser than areesh, more like a thick paste than a crumble, so breaking it up with a fork and a teaspoon of milk restores some looseness. Farmer cheese sold dry-curd is drier and crumblier, closer to areesh straight out of the packet. Both are usually unsalted, so season lightly.
3Homemade areesh
Close match
½ gallon (2 litres) milk + ¼ cup lemon juice, drained 2 hours, salted very lightly
The real cheese, made with two ingredients and a piece of muslin.
What changes
Best for
authentic texture and salt level, breakfast plates, controlling the fat content, large quantities cheaply
Heat the milk to about 180F, stir in the lemon juice, rest ten minutes, then drain through cheesecloth for two hours until it is firm enough to crumble. Use skimmed or semi-skimmed milk to match areesh's leanness, or whole milk for a richer version. Traditional areesh comes from milk that has soured naturally rather than been acidified with lemon, which gives a slightly more complex tang, but the acid-set version is close and much more predictable.
4Labneh
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight
Strained yoghurt, thick and spreadable with a strong cultured tang.
What changes
Best for
spreading on bread, breakfast plates with olive oil and zaatar, dips, dolloping onto cooked dishes
Excellent for spreading and wrong wherever crumbles are wanted. Labneh is completely smooth with no curd structure, so a breakfast plate becomes silky instead of textured, and the yoghurt sourness is noticeably stronger and more assertive than areesh's gentle tang. It is also creamier and higher in fat unless you use a low-fat yoghurt to make it. Where the recipe says to crumble the cheese over something, choose cottage cheese or quark instead.
5Whole-milk ricotta, drained and sharpened
Different taste
Use the same amount by weight, plus 1 to 2 tsp lemon juice and ¼ tsp salt per cup
Soft fresh curd cheese with the right texture and none of the sourness.
What changes
Best for
savoury fillings, baked dishes, spreading, sweet dishes with honey
The texture is right, soft and slightly granular, but two things need fixing. Ricotta is sweet rather than sour, so lemon juice is not optional if you want it to read as areesh, and it is unsalted. It is also considerably richer, which matters if the reason a recipe calls for areesh is that it is a low-fat cheese. Drain it in a sieve for an hour first, because ricotta holds much more free liquid than areesh does.
6Feta, rinsed, soaked and mashed
Taste and texture differ
Use the same amount by weight, rinsed then soaked 30 minutes, mashed with 1 tbsp yoghurt per 4 oz
Brined cheese pushed as far toward mild as it will go.
What changes
Best for
when nothing else is available, salads, cooked fillings
Honest assessment: this is the least-good option here and it still works in a pinch. Feta is several times saltier than areesh and sharply tangy, so an Egyptian breakfast plate made with it tastes like a Greek salad, and the firmness is wrong for a soft spread. Rinsing and a thirty-minute soak, then mashing with a spoonful of yoghurt, brings it into the right neighbourhood. Do not add any salt, and expect the plate to taste stronger than intended.

What is Areesh Cheese?

Areesh Cheese is Areesh cheese, also transliterated karish or qarish, is the Egyptian fresh cheese made by draining naturally soured skimmed milk, giving a soft, crumbly, very low-fat curd that is mildly sour and barely salted.

Cooking tips

Areesh is deliberately very low in fat, which is a large part of why Egyptian recipes and eating plans specify it. Swapping in full-fat ricotta, cream cheese or labneh changes the nutrition substantially, not just the taste. Dry-curd cottage cheese and quark keep it in the right range if that is the point of the recipe.
It is barely salted, so salt your substitute at the table rather than in the bowl. On a classic Egyptian breakfast plate the olives, the bread and sometimes a sprinkle of dukkah bring plenty of salt, and pre-salting a cottage cheese swap makes the whole plate taste heavy.
Areesh does not melt. Baked on its own it dries out and turns chalky, so in any oven dish mix it with an egg, a spoon of yoghurt or a little milk to keep it soft and cohesive. This is true of every low-fat fresh cheese and is the most common way people are disappointed by baking with it.
Draining is the entire technique. Line a sieve with muslin or a coffee filter, set it over a bowl in the fridge, and give it thirty minutes for cottage cheese or up to two hours if you want something firm enough to crumble into pieces. Pressing gently with the back of a spoon speeds it up without turning it to paste.
Areesh is very often eaten mixed with things rather than plain: chopped tomato, cucumber, spring onion, a slick of olive oil, sometimes dried mint or a little shatta. If your substitute tastes flatter than expected, the fix is usually more of those additions rather than more cheese.

Frequently asked questions

What does areesh cheese taste like?

Mild and slightly sour, like a gentle plain yoghurt in solid form, with a soft crumbly texture and very little richness because most of the fat is gone. It is not a cheese with much personality on its own, which is the point: it is a fresh, clean, high-protein base that the tomato, cucumber, olive oil and herbs around it give character to. If yours tastes strongly sour or ammoniated, it is old.

Can I just leave areesh out?

On a breakfast plate you can, though it is usually the protein and the centre of the meal, so you would want something in its place. In a recipe where it is mixed into a salad or a dip, cottage cheese drained and mashed is a straight swap and nobody will notice. In a baked or stuffed dish it is providing body, so leaving it out gives you a filling that collapses. Where it appears as a diet-conscious swap for a richer cheese, omitting it defeats the purpose.

Are areesh, karish and qarish the same cheese?

Yes, all three are transliterations of the same Arabic name for the same Egyptian fresh cheese, and you will also see it written kareesh or gibna areesh. Recipes translated from Arabic use the spellings inconsistently, which is why searches for one spelling turn up so little. If a recipe calls for any of these, or for Egyptian cottage cheese, it means this cheese.

Is areesh the same as cottage cheese?

Very close in spirit, different in detail. Both are fresh drained curd cheeses that are low in fat and mildly sour. The differences are that cottage cheese is made in discrete rinsed curds, usually with cream added back, and is sold wet, whereas areesh is drained into a cohesive crumbly mass with nothing added. Drain cottage cheese and mash it, and you have something very hard to tell apart, which is why it is the standard substitute.

How long does areesh keep?

Only a few days refrigerated, because it is a fresh unsalted cheese with no preservative barrier at all. Salt and brine are what let feta or domiati last for weeks, and areesh has neither. Homemade versions are best within three or four days. It sours noticeably as it ages, which some people like in cooking, but if it develops any sharp ammonia smell or a pink or grey surface, throw it out rather than trimming it.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Areesh Cheese substitute

Other areesh cheese substitutes

2Quark or dry-curd farmer cheese

3Homemade areesh

4Labneh

5Whole-milk ricotta, drained and sharpened

6Feta, rinsed, soaked and mashed