A tangy, creamy, vegetarian Middle Eastern treat: Labneh Sandwiches

Sourdough toast topped with labneh, olives, a mix of pickled vegetables and a drizzle of olive oil makes a tangy, delicious, satisfying vegetarian sandwich. Recipe below.

PEOPLE HAVE BEEN STREAMING FROM MUSLIM AND ARAB COUNTRIES to the Detroit area since the1880s—from Syria and Lebanon and Iraq and Egypt and Yemen and India and Bangladesh and Pakistan and many more places, creating the oldest, largest and most diverse Muslim American and Arab American community in the United States. That’s well known. Far less known is one marvelous annual occurrence that our Detroit daughter always speaks of with enormous enthusiasm. I am not talking, yet, about the Hamtramck Yacht Races, but about something far more delicious. I can sum it up in three wonderful words: RAMADAN. FOOD. TRUCKS.

Ramadan food trucks, my people! Some are year-round businesses that shift their focus at this time of year, and others are temporary setups, just selling food for this sacred time. There’s a guy who has a pizza oven in his garage—you call him to place your order early in the day, and pick it up that night. There are trucks that specialize in crepes, waffles, burgers, kafta dogs, fresh fruit juice served in a watermelon, cupcakes. All of them open around 10 PM and close around 2 – 3am or when they run out, selling great food for suhoor, the meal eaten before dawn, when the next day’s fast begins.

The other night, our daughter Claire sent us a link to the Instagram account of one of her top favorite trucks, Corn on the Corner, a year-round business that, for Ramadan, pulls out all the stops, with incredible specials created just for the holiday.  This year’s special: the incredible Lebanese labneh sandwich—labneh, a Middle Eastern yogurt cheese, on toasted sourdough, topped with olives, pickles, fresh tomato, chopped mint, za’atar, crushed pistachios, a drizzle of pomegranate-infused olive oil, and a garnish of pickled turnip. Claire said that after she watched the video, she could not stop thinking about it, and ended up driving to Dearborn and buying it, and, she said, it was incredible.

I couldn’t stop thinking about that sandwich either. Since we cannot be in Detroit right now, here is our take. Make this once and after you finish saying what a great sandwich, you will immediately start having your own ideas about taking the sourdough toast and labneh foundation and making it your own. We intend to try a version that offsets the tangy, sharp labneh with a thin layer of apricot jam, or very ripe pear sliced thin and a scattering of pistachios.

Corn on the Corner also offers other amazing dishes, such as an ever-changing array of banana puddings for dessert, and during Ramadan may be found parked at the gas station at 25351 Ford Road in Dearborn Heights. They are open from 10pm – 3am (yes overnight) Monday – Saturday during Ramadan, which is also the only time they have the labneh toast.

For information on other great Ramadan food trucks and Ramadan specials in the Detroit area, check out the Instagram feed of HalalFoodJunkie. His recommendations are aces.

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Labneh Sandwich

Sourdough toast topped with labneh, olives, a mix of pickled vegetables and a drizzle of olive oil makes a tangy, delicious, satisfying vegetarian sandwich.

Course Sandwich

Cuisine Middle Eastern

Servings 1 open-faced sandwich

Ingredients

• 1 slice sourdough bread
• labneh (see Kitchen Notes)
• olives (see Kitchen Notes)
• pickled things (see Kitchen Notes)
• fresh cherry tomatoes cut in half, or diced fresh tomato
• za’atar (see Kitchen Notes)
• 1/2 teaspoon or more chopped fresh mint

For the dressing

• olive oil
• pomegranate molasses (see Kitchen Notes)

Instructions

• Make the olive oil pomegranate dressing. In a small bowl, whisk together 2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses. Whisk whisk whisk until it is relatively smooth. It is going to separate pretty quickly, so do this just before you want to deploy it. The Corn on the Corner guys use their own “48-hour pomegranate infused olive oil,” but if I had waited 48 hours, I would have lost my mind. You can also just use olive oil.
• Make the sandwich. Toast a slice of bread, then put it on a plate. Spread generously with labneh, 2 – 4 tablespoons labneh (depending on the size of the bread). Then top with olives, various pickles, fresh tomato, za'atar and fresh mint. Finally, drizzle with the pomegranate-olive oil dressing. That’s it. Serve at room temperature.

Kitchen Notes

What’s labneh? It’s a light fresh spreadable cheese made from yogurt—not as dense as cream cheese and way more tangy. The Corn on the Corner guys recommend Uncle Sam’s Labneh, a brand I believe is primarily available in Michigan. Use your favorite brand—if you don’t have a favorite brand, I recommend asking someone in the shop or just picking one at random. When I have no idea which of a thing I should choose, I ask myself which has the label that most appeals to me, and I go with that. Never fails.

Which olives? We used a mix of grilled Greek olives and green olives stuffed with sun-dried tomatoes (which were huge, so I sliced them)—we got these at a grocery store olive bar. Use the olives you like best (jalapeño stuffed would be wonderful and are widely available in jars). I recommend avoiding the bland black olives packed in cans as well as the very salty, wrinkly, super intense kind, unless you were to dice them into bits and use them sparingly.

Which pickled things? As you see, we used pickled okra, sliced crosswise into small pieces. Giardiniera, little pickled cucumbers or pickled cauliflower or bits of kimchee would be great too.

What about the za’atar? Za'atar is a Middle Eastern mix of savory dried herbs. If you really cannot find it, you may substitute dried thyme, which is one of the main ingredients of za'atar.

What? No pistachios? We didn't have any on hand but definitely , if you've got 'em, use 'em.  Scatter them on top at the end.

Liz’s Crockery Corner. Here in Liz’s Crockery Corner, we are usually not about modernism, but we make an exception for Russell Wright’s American Modern. Launched in 1939 and manufactured by Steubenville Pottery in Ohio, this dinnerware summed up Wright’s design philosophy: an industrial product that was intentionally affordable and mass-produced to stimulate the economy (still struggling in the Great Depression) while being well made, durable and a pleasing addition to any home. Indeed, American Modern became the best-selling dinnerware line of all time.

I love everything about American Modern, with its nods to Quaker simplicity and 20th century streamlining, its beautiful colors, its clean, straightforward, yet somehow soft and organic esthetic. We only have a few pieces of American Modern—this wonderful platter, a couple of creamers and a sugar bowl in an icy gray. Vintage American Modern is still very affordable. And, in fact, this line is still being made, at maybe a not so modest price point, by the Bauer Pottery Company in Los Angeles.