Lben substitute

Best substitute

Plain kefir

Use the same amount as the lben you are replacing

Best for drinking cold with couscous

Close match

Lben's job is acid and thin, cold, live-cultured liquid, not richness, and that thinness is the part people get wrong. It is sharper and much more watery than the cultured buttermilk sold in cartons. The best fix is buttermilk let down with water, three parts buttermilk to one part water, which fixes the body as well as the flavour. Plain kefir is arguably even closer at a straight one to one, because it is naturally thin, properly sour and faintly effervescent the way good lben is. Plain yoghurt whisked half and half with cold water and a pinch of salt also works well. What does not work is milk soured with lemon juice: that is fine for baking, where you only need acid, and it tastes like slightly off milk if you try to drink it.

Other lben substitutes

Ranked, with the exact amount to use

2Cultured buttermilk thinned with water
Close match
3 parts buttermilk to 1 part cold water
Carton buttermilk let down to lben's thinner consistency.
What changes
Best for
drinking with couscous, baking, marinades, cold soups
The most available answer, and the thinning genuinely matters rather than being a nicety. Undiluted cultured buttermilk is thickened, sometimes with added stabilisers, and it coats the mouth in a way that makes it feel heavy next to a rich couscous, where lben is meant to be refreshing. Even diluted it is slightly sweeter and less sharply fermented than lben; a small squeeze of lemon closes that gap. For baking, skip the water and use it straight.
3Plain yoghurt whisked with cold water
Different taste
1 part yoghurt to 1 part cold water, plus a pinch of salt
The most universally available option, thinned into a drinkable liquid.
What changes
Best for
drinking cold, marinades, dough and batters, cooling a spicy dish
Reliable and cheap, and the pinch of salt is what turns it from thinned yoghurt into something that tastes deliberate. Compared with lben it is milder, rounder and lacks the faint fizz, and even at one to one it stays a touch thicker, so add more water if it clings to the glass. Use plain full-fat or low-fat yoghurt, not Greek, which is strained and needs closer to two parts water. A squeeze of lemon sharpens it toward lben's sourness.
4Whey strained from yoghurt or labneh, lightly salted
Close match
Use the same amount with a pinch of salt
The thin sour liquid that drains out when you make labneh, which is close to lben in kind.
What changes
Best for
drinking cold, bread dough, cooking grains, marinades
Genuinely close and effectively free if you have been straining yoghurt anyway, because it is what lben is: the watery, cultured, low-fat fraction of soured milk with the solids removed. It is thinner and less creamy even than lben, and paler in colour, so a glass looks slightly translucent. Salt improves it noticeably. It also makes excellent bread dough, where its acidity softens the crumb, and it is what Moroccan cooks do with their own whey.
5Ayran or doogh
Different taste
Use the same amount
Turkish and Persian salted yoghurt drinks, built on the same idea as lben.
What changes
Best for
drinking with a rich main course, cooling spicy food, serving alongside grilled meat
Essentially the same category of drink from a neighbouring cuisine, so it does the palate-cleansing job well. The differences are seasoning and carbonation: ayran is salted, sometimes noticeably, and doogh is often minted and occasionally carbonated, so the drink tastes savoury and herby rather than plainly sour. That is a pleasant change beside couscous rather than a problem. For cooking or baking, choose an unminted one or the herb will show up where you did not want it.
6Milk soured with lemon juice or vinegar
Taste and texture differ
1 cup milk plus 1 tbsp lemon juice or white vinegar, left 10 minutes
The classic buttermilk hack, which covers the chemistry but not the drink.
What changes
Best for
baking with baking soda, pancake and msemen batters, quick breads
Worth being blunt about: this works only where lben's role is to supply acid to react with baking soda, which is real and common in Moroccan breads and pancakes. As a drink it is not lben and not pleasant, because you get curdled flecks in sweet milk with a sharp citrus edge rather than a smooth cultured sourness. There are no live cultures and none of the fermented depth. Use it for baking and use something else for the glass beside the couscous.

What is Lben?

Lben is Lben, also spelled leben and related to the Levantine laban, is the thin, tart, cultured liquid left after churning butter from soured milk, drunk cold across Morocco and Algeria and served alongside couscous.

Cooking tips

Lben's job beside a couscous is to be thin, very cold and sharp, cutting the richness of the dish. If your substitute is thick, thin it with water; that single change does more to make it feel right than adjusting the flavour does, because body is the main difference between lben and carton buttermilk.
Do not boil it. Like all cultured dairy, lben curdles and splits above a gentle simmer, breaking into grainy solids and watery whey. If it is going into a hot sauce or stew, take the pot off the heat first, or temper it by stirring a ladleful of the hot liquid into the lben before adding it back.
It keeps souring in the fridge because the cultures stay active. A carton a week old is noticeably sharper, which makes it worse for drinking and better for baking, since more acid means a stronger reaction with baking soda and a lighter crumb.
In msemen, harcha and Moroccan breads, the acid in lben weakens gluten slightly and gives a softer, more tender result. Thinned yoghurt or kefir reproduces this well; water with a splash of vinegar does not, because it lacks the milk proteins and sugars that also contribute to browning and softness.
The names cause real confusion. In much of the Levant, laban means plain yoghurt and the drink is ayran or laban ayran; in Morocco and Algeria, lben is always the thin cultured drink and raib is the thick set unchurned version. If a recipe from the Maghreb says lben, it means the thin liquid, not yoghurt.

Frequently asked questions

What does lben taste like?

Clean, sour and faintly salty, with a thin watery body and sometimes a slight prickle from active fermentation, rather like a much lighter and sharper version of buttermilk. Because most of the fat went into the butter during churning, it is low in fat and does not coat the mouth. Drunk very cold, it reads as refreshing and slightly savoury rather than creamy or rich.

Is lben the same as buttermilk?

They are relatives rather than twins. Traditional buttermilk and lben both come from churning cultured cream or milk, so the idea is identical. The problem is that cultured buttermilk sold in Western cartons is a different product: it is cultured milk rather than churn residue, deliberately thickened, and often stabilised, which makes it heavier and sweeter than lben. Diluting it with about a quarter water bridges most of the difference.

Can I just leave lben out?

As a drink alongside couscous, yes, it is an accompaniment, and water or mint tea will do. In cooking you usually cannot, because it is supplying acid: in a bread or pancake batter that acid is reacting with baking soda for lift, and in a marinade it is tenderising and seasoning the meat. Replace it with thinned yoghurt or soured milk rather than plain milk, or the recipe will not rise or tenderise as intended.

What is the difference between lben and raib?

Raib is soured milk that has set into a soft thick curd, eaten with a spoon and often sweetened, closer to a plain set yoghurt. Lben is the thin liquid, drunk from a glass. In traditional practice they come from the same process at different stages: milk is left to sour and set as raib, then churned to make butter, and what drains off is lben. If a recipe wants something you can pour, it means lben.

Where can I buy lben?

North African grocers and some halal shops stock it, usually in a plastic bottle in the chilled section, sometimes labelled leben or lben beldi. Turkish and Middle Eastern shops sell ayran, which is close enough for drinking. Otherwise the practical route is thinned buttermilk or kefir from any supermarket, both of which are cheaper and easier to find than tracking down the real thing.

Related substitutes

More dairy substitutes

Lben substitute

Other lben substitutes

2Cultured buttermilk thinned with water

3Plain yoghurt whisked with cold water

4Whey strained from yoghurt or labneh, lightly salted

5Ayran or doogh

6Milk soured with lemon juice or vinegar