I lost about 50 pounds from this time last year and am back at a “normal” weight, and I ate cılbır for breakfast nearly every morning (like 5/7) for about 6 months of that weight loss journey. (And I still eat it). The stuff is absolutely delicious. I make it with Turkish labneh; sometimes I poach the eggs, sometimes I just do them in the pan and “steam baste” them, garlic-aleppo pepper (or any other chili pepper) butter drizzled over at the end (in addition to adding raw garlic to the labneh), finished with finely chopped parsley or even cilantro. I just can’t get sick of it.
Find some Turkish labneh. It’s more like a yogurty cream cheese than a yogurt. It is positively “buttery” and it doesn’t have that strong bite, at least not the brands I use. I sometimes make it with the homemade labneh the local Middle Eastern delis make, and those are way, way more acidic. (The dish is normally made with labneh, from all I understand. Greek yogurt is just a more commonly found substitute. And Greek yogurt does taste more like the other types of Middle Eastern labneh I’ve found; Turkish labneh seems to overall be significantly milder, and I’ve tried three different brands.)
You’re looking for this:
There’s several brands, but they all seem to come in that green-and-white packaging. Just look to see that it’s from Turkey.
As for what to add to it: I don’t think it needs anything personally. Garlic + chili butter + salt is more than enough to keep me happy. But you can always decorate it with some chopped scallions in addition to parsley and/or cilantro, if you’d like. Za’atar would not be traditional with it, but you can always sprinkle some of that on top if you like. And it does go great with kale – I had some leftover from dinner one morning, and the two paired well.
In a 1990 episode of Cheers, Woody gets hypnotized into loving a new health drink despite its obnoxious taste. Kale is prominently mentioned as one of the most offensive ingredients.
Returning to this. Collard greens are very comparable to kale nutritionally. Not quite as high for some vitamins but higher fiber and protein and even calcium.
Kale’s role as a staple in Black American cooking though was less appreciated in American culture than collard greens. Heck even many Black Americans think kale is white food now.
Ethiopian kale grows well in our region - it’s a non-spicy variety of the mustard plant (still part of the cabbage/broccoli/kale family but more distantly related to those) - so I’m growing and harvesting that, at home.
I wasn’t considering that it might be a culturally confused plant, I just thought it would grow well!