Galotyri substitute

Best substitute

Labneh with a little feta

1 cup labneh : 1 oz (30 g) crumbled feta, mashed smooth

Best for mezze and bread plates

Close match

Strained yogurt cheese plus brined sheep cheese, blended.

Other galotyri substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Thick Greek yogurt, strained, with feta and salt
Close match
1 ½ cups full-fat Greek yogurt strained 4 hours to about 1 cup, plus 1 oz (30 g) feta and a pinch of salt
Making labneh yourself from what is already in the fridge.
What changes
Best for
dips, pie fillings, bread and rusks, sauces served cold
Functionally the same as the labneh route, since labneh is simply strained yogurt. The straining is not optional: unstrained yogurt is too loose, and it will water out of a pie filling or slide off a piece of bread. Use full-fat, because low-fat versions taste thin and chalky once strained.
3Fresh goat cheese loosened with yogurt
Different taste
3 oz (85 g) chevre : 2 Tbsp yogurt, plus a squeeze of lemon
Soft young goat cheese thinned to a spoonable consistency.
What changes
Best for
bread and crostini, salads, pie fillings, stuffed vegetables
Goatier and more chalky-mineral than galotyri, and noticeably less sour, which is why the lemon matters. Very good spread on bread and slightly assertive folded into a pie filling, where its flavor can dominate the herbs. It also holds a shape better, so it will not spread as freely on a plate.
4Quark or well-drained fromage blanc, seasoned
Different taste
1 cup, plus ¼ tsp salt and 1 tsp lemon juice
Mild fresh cow's-milk cheese brought up to tang and salt.
What changes
Best for
pie fillings, dips, spreads, cooking for people who dislike strong cheese
Cow's milk means it tastes clean and mild rather than sharp and faintly animal, so this is the least interesting of the substitutes and also the most crowd-pleasing. The texture is genuinely close. Season it in stages and taste, because unsalted fresh cheese needs more salt than you expect.
5Ricotta whisked with yogurt and salt
Different taste
¾ cup ricotta : ¼ cup yogurt : ¼ tsp salt
A soft, mild filling cheese loosened and sharpened.
What changes
Best for
baked savory pies, stuffed pastry, gratins
The furthest from galotyri in flavor, because ricotta is sweet and slightly grainy rather than sour. Use it where galotyri was providing softness and moisture inside a baked pie rather than tang on a plate, and increase the yogurt if the filling tastes flat. Drain wet ricotta first.
6Cream cheese thinned with yogurt or milk
Different taste
3 oz (85 g) cream cheese : 2 Tbsp yogurt, plus lemon juice and salt to taste
The convenience option, and an honest account of its limits.
What changes
Best for
cooked fillings, spreads, when nothing else is available
Right texture, wrong flavor. Cream cheese is sweet, dense and stabilised with gums, so it reads as a dairy dessert rather than a fermented cheese, and no amount of lemon fully fixes that. Use it in cooked applications where other flavors cover for it, and not as a spoonful on a plate.

What is Galotyri?

Galotyri is a soft, spoonable Greek cheese from Epirus and Thessaly, made from lightly soured sheep's or goat's milk and matured only briefly, so it tastes sharply tangy, salty and clean and does two jobs at once: it is both the sourness and the creamy body of a filling or a spread.

Cooking tips

Galotyri is barely cooked and never melted. Serve it cold, or stir it in at the very end with the pan off the heat, because direct heat splits it into curds and watery whey within a minute.
If you are building a substitute, strain first and season second. Any yogurt-based swap needs to be thick enough to hold on a spoon, and judging the salt is far easier once the excess water is gone rather than before.
It is the traditional filling cheese for savory pies and for tiganopsomo, the fried cheese bread of Epirus, usually mixed with a little feta. If your substitute is wetter than galotyri, add a tablespoon of breadcrumbs or a beaten egg to the filling so the pastry does not go soggy underneath.
Serve it the Epirus way and let the tang do the work: a spoonful on a plate, a pour of olive oil, a pinch of dried oregano or dried mint, and bread. It needs nothing else, and adding garlic or herbs to the cheese itself tends to bury what makes it distinctive.
You will see it spelled galotyri and galotiri, and it sits in the same family as katiki Domokou and xynotyro. If a recipe calls for any of those soft tangy Greek cheeses, everything on this page applies.

Frequently asked questions

Can I just use Greek yogurt?

Yes, if you strain it first. Plain full-fat Greek yogurt is sour and creamy in roughly the right way, but it has no salt and none of the savory cheese depth. Stir in a pinch of salt and a spoonful of crumbled feta and it becomes a genuinely respectable stand-in rather than a compromise.

Can I just leave it out?

In a pie or a dip, no, because it is the body of the filling and there is nothing to bake without it; substitute the same volume of something soft and tangy. If it is a spoonful served alongside a meal, you can skip it and put out thick yogurt with olive oil and oregano instead.

What is the difference between galotyri and feta?

Both are Greek and both are salted, but feta is firm enough to slice and cube, while galotyri is soft and spoonable and distinctly more sour. In texture galotyri is closer to labneh or a very thick sour cream than to feta, which is why yogurt-based substitutes work so well.

Is galotyri the same as katiki?

Very close. Katiki Domokou is another soft, tangy, spreadable Greek cheese, generally a little creamier and less sharp than galotyri. The two swap for one another freely, and Greek recipes often name whichever is local to the cook.

Does it freeze?

Not well. Like other fresh high-moisture cheeses it separates and turns grainy on thawing, and stirring will not bring it back. It keeps about a week refrigerated in a sealed container, and its flavor sharpens the whole time, so use it earlier if you prefer it mild.

Related substitutes

More cheese substitutes

Galotyri substitute

Other galotyri substitutes

2Thick Greek yogurt, strained, with feta and salt

3Fresh goat cheese loosened with yogurt

4Quark or well-drained fromage blanc, seasoned

5Ricotta whisked with yogurt and salt

6Cream cheese thinned with yogurt or milk